The Online Shopping Dictionary: frequently used terms in blogshops

This is a useful list of terms usually associated with blogshops:

From: http://fashiono.my/2009/11/the-online-shopping-dictionary/

The Online Shopping Dictionary: frequently used terms in blogshops

photo credit

When I started to shop online, I saw so many unfamiliar terms which I didn’t understand. What is COD? What does pre-order means? To help you understand the terms (so not to be as clueless as I was), we compiled a list of terms in alphabetical order. Find out the most frequently used terms in blogshops and what they mean.

Available
Available means the item is still not sold. However, due to the fact that most blogshops do not stock up a lot of items of the same design, it may be sold out very quickly.

Back-out customers
Back-out buyers are buyers who had made an order and, before payment is made, cancel the order. Usually, back-out buyers would be blacklisted in the blogshop.

Blacklisted
If a buyer had been blacklisted by a seller, it means that the buyer is no longer welcomed to shop in the particular blogshop. Some blogshop do list the email of the blacklisted buyer on their blog.

Blogshop
An online shopping site which uses free blogger or wordpress service. Blogshops do not usually have their own domain or a shopping cart.

Blogshop owner
A term to refer to the person who owns a blogshop.

Buyer
Customer/consumer/shopper. Its a generic word usually used to describe consumers who buy items online.

Cash deposit machine
A cash deposit is a machine which accept actual cash and deposit them. If a seller offers this payment method, you can transfer actual cash to their account. Note that cash deposit machines do not accept notes below RM10.

Chatbox
A chatbox or c-box is a public chatroom where you can send and receive message to/from other people in the same chatbox. Sellers and buyers utilise the chatbox to communicate live with each other.

COD
An abbreviation for Cash on Delivery.
If a seller provide this type of payment method, it means that seller would pass the item(s) to buyer in exchange of cash. Usually, buyer would suggest a few location convenient to them and do the transaction face-to-face.

COD Location
Locations where COD takes place. It is the place where the buyer and the seller agree to meet up to exchange the item(s) for money. Usually, the place would be determined by the seller. However, sometimes buyer may request for a new place in which the seller will usually obliged if it is convenient.

Courier Service
Faster delivery service such as Poslaju. It requires the recipient’s signature

Delivery
The process of sending items that the buyer had ordered to their address through courier service such as Poslaju.

Deposit
A partial or initial payment of an item. Sellers usually require buyers to pay deposit for pre-order items.

Designer inspired
Designer inspired products are product which design is inspiredfrom famous designers. It is similar, but not the same as the original. Usually, to avoid getting in law suit for stealing someone’s idea, the designs are usually different in colour, material, etc.

E-shop
An online store. It is a wide description which includes blogshops and proper e-commerce site.

Enquiry
Enquiry is the act of asking the seller for more information on an item. It is gathered from from the online community that customer ethnics requires that only buyers who are genuine interested should send enquiries to the buyer.

Bank/fund transfer
Fund transfer is a form of payment method. It can be done online or over the counter.

Item code
A set of numbers and letters given to a certain item. It is usually done to enable the buyer to identify the item easily.

Limited Stock
Limited stock means not many piece of the item is left. If you do not place an quick enough, you may not be able to get the item.

Manual bank Transfer
Fund transfer that is not electronic e.g payment using cash deposit machine

Maybank2u
An electronic service provided by Maybank to enable someone to do banking anytime, anywhere on the Internet

Non-restockable
Non restockable means that the item cannot be restock even if customers request for it. It can be due to many factors such as the items are imported, the suppliers no longer have the items or other reasons.

Non-exchangeable
Items which are non-exchangeable means that if the buyer is not satisfied with the item, the buyer cannot choose another item from the blogshop in exchange of the initial purchased item.

Non-refundable
Items which are non-refundable means that if buyer is not satisfied with the item, the buyer cannot return the item and get the money back.

Online Banking
A computerized service offers by the bank to allow buyers to get online with the bank to transfer funds to the seller.

Order form
An electronic form on blogshop to enable buyer to place an order. Buyer who are interested in an item need only fill in the form and click submit to order.

Payment method
Ways in which payments can be made to sellers. Popular payment method in online shopping includes electronic transfer through Maybank2u, paypal, etc.

Pos Expres
A mailing service offered by Pos Malaysia. It usually reach destination within 2 business days. It is slower than courier but faster than ordinary mail. Unlike Pos Laju, it does not require recipient’s signature.

Pos Laju
A courier service offered by Pos Malaysia. Parcels usually reach destination the next business day to major towns in Malaysia.

Postage
See delivery

Pending
If the item is marked as pending, it is awaiting for confirmation of purchase from the interested buyer.
If you are interested in the particular item and wish to try your luck, you can try to email the buyer to put you in the waiting list had the initial buyer decided to give up the item.

Pre-loved
Pre-loved item is a secondhand item which had previously been owned or used.

Pre-order

According to wikipedia, a pre-order is an ‘order placed for an item which has not yet been released’. It means that buyers can order item(s) in which the seller had not buy. This method allows buyers to know the demand of the item and lower the risk of unsold stocks. Usually the seller would require interested buyer to pay a deposit.

Restockable
Items marked as restockable usually means that the seller is willing to re-order from their supplier to sell to buyers. Usually, seller would only do so if there is popular request.
If the item is already sold out, you can try to email the buyer to show your interest. If the buyer receive enough request, they would probably oblige.

Refundable
It means that items sold could be returned in which buyer will get their money back/change for another item.

Reserved
An item which is reserved means that another buyer had made a confirmation to buy the item but yet to make any payment. If you’re interested in that particular item, you may inform the seller to put you on the waiting-list. If the initial buyer back-out from buying the item, the seller can release it from you.

Reserved with deposit
An item which is reserved with deposit means that the buyer who is interested in the item had reserve the item and pay a sum of money to the seller as deposit.

Return policy
Rules on returning items sold.

Seller
In the online shopping scene, seller refers to the e-shop retailer

Shipping
Look at delivery

Shopping Cart
Shopping cart keeps the list of items a buyer had chosen from the online store. When the buyer is ready to ‘check out’, the buyer could see the list of final purchase before buying the items.

Sold
The item is unavailable as it had been sold. That is unless it is stated as ‘restockable’.

Spammers
A negative term to describe person who floods chatboxes with the same messages.

Terms & conditions
A set of rules set by the sellers that form an agreement with the buyer who orders from them.

Tracking
Parcel tracking is a service offered by courier company to track the status of the parcel.

Blogshops in the middle

Blogshops have come under fire for a number of controversial issues, especially the sale of contact lenses, and especially in Singapore.

Here is another issue that could have far reaching consequences as it involves young consumers.

From: http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/tag/blogshops/

Posts Tagged ‘blogshops’

Beware of ‘bust-boosting’ cookies

Monday, January 24th, 2011
 
“Breast-enhancing” F-cup cookies, which contain plant hormones, might be harmful to consumers. (Screencap from http://www.f-cup-cookies.com)

Three 16-year-old girls fell ill after consuming made-in-Japan “breast-enhancement” cookies ordered from an online shop, reported The Straits Times.

One of the trio, Abigail Chua, first came across the shop. Soon, each of the three ordered two boxes of these “F-cup cookies”, which they ate for two weeks in place of their usual main meals, as directed by the seller, in the belief they could also gain the side benefit of weight loss.

However, all the girls got were gastric pains and diarrhoea. They have been treated and have since recovered from the ordeal.

Abigail, who recently received her O-level results and is waiting to enter a polytechnic, told ST, “I read online that the cookies would increase my bust size by at least one cup. They are not too expensive and also taste quite good, so I thought there was no harm in trying them.”

The cookies were found to contain pueraria mirifica, a plant-based oestrogen commonly found in bust-enhancement creams sold here.

A spokesman for the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said the cookies were not cleared to be sold in Singapore as too little is known about whether pueraria mirifica is safe to be used in food.

ST understands from Abigail and her friends that the cookies were ordered from a local blogshop, which also sells Japanese “slimming” pills and “bust-enhancement” chewing gum.

The paper did a check over the Internet and discovered at least 40 such blogshops selling the cookies in raspberry, chocolate and soya milk flavours at between S$56 and S$60 for a two-week supply of 30 cookies. They tout the cookies a s a “fast, effective and tasty” way to bigger breasts. Sales of the cookies are believed to be very good.

Five blogshop owners ST spoke to claimed to have sold 40 to 50 boxes a month to new customers, with another 20 boxes bought by returning patrons.

They said their biggest buyers are teenagers who discover the products from Taiwanese beauty shows and online forums.

Blogshop owner Evie Tan, 19, whose stock comes from Hong Kong, told ST, “We know it’s not cleared for sale here, but what’s the harm? It’s just a cookie.”

She has eaten them too, and said that although they did not fulfill the promise of an F-cup chest, her breasts are now fuller and firmer. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” she added.

Doctors, however, expressed their concerns over the effect these plant-hormone cookies can have on girls going through puberty.

Plastic surgeon Andrew Khoo of the Aesthetic & Reconstructive Centre said that, in theory, the cookies could work, as stimulation of the breast tissue by oestrogen would enlarge the part.

But he also warned, “It has been documented that quite a number of breast cancers are oestrogen-receptor positive, which means they are hormone-triggered tumours. It’s not worth taking the risk of continually stimulating one’s breast tissue by ingesting plant hormones.”

Child psychiatrist Brian Yeo added that teens turn to cookies so that their parents would not suspect that they are attempting to enhance their breasts.

“The perception a cookie projects is that it is painless, looks safe and is a herbal product.”

He cautioned teens against eating them, “If they contain actual hormones, they may affect a teenager’s pubertal development. There are no quick fixes to problems in a normal growing process.”

Last October, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) mounted a crackdown on illegal prescription drug and counterfeit product peddlers online.

In July last year, the HSA worked with SingPost to study the contents of suspicious parcels containing health products entering Singapore. They made an initial find that as much as one third of the products purchased online and shipped here contained dangerous adulterants.

These are usually products that cannot be bought here and could have erroneous dosage recommendations.
The most commonly-purchased products online are slimming pills and drugs used to treat sexual disorders such as erectile dysfunction.

The HSA said that consumers might have been lured into buying the products because of the social stigma associated with the problems that makes them shy to approach doctors.

Facebook Stores in Brunei

Facebook stores are increasing in popularity in Brunei.

Traditionally, Bruneians go over to Miri or even KK to do their shopping since shopping is rather lacking in the kingdom.

These days, however, e-commerce is gaining momentum with the advent of Facebook.

From: http://www.bt.com.bn/business-national/2011/01/30/have-internet-will-shop

Have Internet, will shop

Illustration: BT/Ray de Jesus

Debbie Too
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Sunday, January 30, 2011

NO THANKS to the Internet and the convenience of online shopping, Bruneian consumers still burn a sizeable hole in their wallets despite the limited shopping option in the Sultanate.

Bruneians are now expanding the scope of their Internet use to go beyond social networking, and into shopping.

"I never used to shop in Brunei, unless there was a really nice top, or if I urgently needed a dress for a wedding. Now, with quite a number of online stores delivering to Brunei, I find that it is cheaper to shop online than it is to drive to Kiulap or Gadong to buy clothes," says Christine Yang, a teacher in Tutong.

She says the convenience of shopping in the comfort of her own home, sometimes works against her, causing her to "overspend" on items that she says "are a steal".

Facebook shopping was also an important step in the transition that brought Bruneian shoppers to go from physically shopping to online shopping. The boom in local Facebook stores happened a few years ago, with enterprising Facebook users selling everything from cosmetics, clothes, paintings, electronic gadgets and even food. "Facebook was an easy way to shop, because the people selling these items are in Brunei, they deliver it straight to you, and most of the items can't be found in Brunei and are very cheap," says Khadijah Othman, an administrative secretary in the capital.

She says the downside to shopping through Facebook was the hassle involved in making payments into the seller's bank account and then fixing a time and place to collect the items. "The wait for each shopping 'trip' was also unreliable. Sometimes it was on time, sometimes it took close to a month, but it's always at least two weeks," she adds.

Men were more picky when it came to online shopping and not many of them would randomly browse through Facebook "stores".

In the case of Jimmy Yong, he says that his online purchases were mainly made up of sneakers, electronics and electronics accessories. "I don't think I have ever bought clothing online, because clothes shopping is not really something that I enjoy doing, but I do know some friends who do their online shopping and ship it to Singapore because not a lot of these stores ship to Brunei," he says.

Yang, the teacher, says that this month, most of her Chinese New Year shopping was done online, as she found it cheaper to buy her dresses and clothing online, rather than make a trip to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, just to buy a few items of clothing. "I save on the air ticket and the hotel costs, just by shopping online," she says.

There are increasingly more stores that are now shipping to Brunei, and shoppers don't mind the currency exchange of the items, as long as they get what they want.

"Of course, with clothes, and shopping online, the disadvantage is that sometimes the clothes don't fit, but after shopping online for a while, you tend to get an idea of the sizes that each country uses and the measurements, but it is of course still risky to make purchases for clothes online," she says, adding that she would never buy jeans or pants online, because those require her to try them on.

Khadijah adds that one of the best things about buying clothes online, is that Brunei does not tax clothes purchases and so when the clothing is delivered to her house or she has to pick it up from the post office, she doesn't have to present the customs officer with a receipt of how much her shipment cost.

Electronics, on the other hand, are levied a 20 per cent tax.

However, despite the great values and numerous outlets available online, does online shopping translate to savings?

"To me it depends on the shopper. For me, I do save, because the deals that you get online for electronics such as laptops and cameras is really much cheaper than buying in Singapore even, and I do not spend my money on clothes. Since I am not an impulse shopper, I do believe that online shopping helps you save money," says Yong.

Yang says although online shopping is much cheaper, it doesn't necessarily mean she saves money. "I tend to go a bit overboard, and the items are definitely cheaper, but it doesn't mean that I buy less. I keep thinking that if I save X amount, then it's fine for me to buy more items," she says.

Whether online shopping does lead to more savings, or whether it burns a hole in your wallet, one thing is definite Bruneians now won't complain about the "lack of shopping" in Brunei.

The Brunei Times

More companies are jumping on the Facebook platform to build on social shopping.


From: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-adv-teens-socialnetwork-1229-20110124,0,3943622.story

Social network for teen girls focuses on shopping

Carla Larin, 18, was among PlumWillow’s first interns. Users of the site can put together outfits and share their choices with friends in their network. (David Bergeland, The (Hackensack, N.J.)  Record / January 24, 2011)

By Joan Verdon

January 24, 2011

Reporting from Hackensack, N.J. —

Venture capital investor Charlie Federman took his daughters to a Paramus, N.J., mall one day and went home with an idea for an Internet business with the potential to deliver a coveted demographic: teenage girls who like to shop.

Federman, a managing partner of Crossbar Capital, is the founder of PlumWillow, a website that piggybacks on Facebook to create a social shopping network for girls.

Federman and Crossbar Capital provided the seed money for PlumWillow, and he put together a team of executives experienced in launching Internet and technology companies. He also formed a brain trust that guided the creation of the site — a group of high school interns from New York and Bergen County, N.J. One of his daughters came up with the PlumWillow name.

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"I have hundreds of girls volunteering to help me on a subject matter that they are truly more expert than most of the people in the company because they are that demographic," Federman said.

Carla Larin, 18, a senior at Bergen Academy in Hackensack, was among the first group of interns. She advised Federman to drop his original idea of a site where girls could dress digital avatars and encouraged him to make something closer to the kind of shopping experience that girls like. Girls, Larin said, want to talk to their friends and socialize while shopping, a reason many online shopping sites don't grab teen girls.

"If I'm going to be buying something, I'd rather try it on at the mall and go with all my friends, but with PlumWillow, all your friends are on PlumWillow," she said.

Federman's initial inspiration for the site came when he was driving his daughters to a mall and asked them why they never shopped online.

"It occurred to me that the sites we have now have been built in a time … before social networks," he said. "For girls, shopping is a social experience, like slumber parties."

The business plan for the site, which launched in October, is to focus on building an online community first and make money later. Retailers don't pay to be linked with the site, but PlumWillow earns the standard online commission of 3% to 7% if a user clicks through to buy an item. PlumWillow executives said the site is already earning some revenue from such commissions.

PlumWillow takes advantage of a decision by Facebook this year to open its social network to other websites that want to build a community of users with a common interest. PlumWillow members log into the site through their Facebook accounts and can send shopping-related messages to friends in their Facebook network. On the PlumWillow site, users can create outfits on a virtual palette — picking, for example, jeans and boots that go with a certain blouse or jacket. They then can share their choices with their network.

The members also build virtual closets of their favorite clothes. The items they choose come from the online stores of the 20 retailers linked to the PlumWillow site.

"Here's the vision," Federman said: "We know the girl; we know the type of jeans she likes because she's built closets with us. We also know the jeans her friends have bought. We also know the jeans the community has matched with that shirt. At the moment she clicks on jeans, on a real-time basis, we'll be able to offer her suggestions," he said. "Companies will pay us to reach the girl just when she exposes her intent that she's looking for jeans."

Federman enlisted Elad Baron — who co-founded Internet security company Whale Communications Ltd., which later was sold to Microsoft — as chief executive of PlumWillow. Baron, who also founded BitWine Inc., an online network of lifestyle and spiritual advisors, initially resisted Federman's recruitment efforts. "I thought, I'm not the right person for it because I've never been a teenage girl and I don't have teenage daughters," he said.

Baron's strategy is to minimize any pressure on PlumWillow members to buy, and not to bombard them with marketing messages, in hopes of building a network of shopping friends. "We want to build a community where they are actually having fun and they come back," Baron said. "I don't mind if they don't buy today. It's much more important for me to make sure that they'll come back next week and they'll talk to their friends. Once you have a very loyal community, monetizing it is very easy."

PlumWillow has almost 5,000 members, and user visits total about 1,000 a day, executives said. Federman and Baron acknowledge that those numbers are small in the vast world of the Internet, but "it's a nice beginning," Baron said.

Larin, the Bergen Academy intern, said PlumWillow has started influencing her purchases. "I created an outfit on PlumWillow and it was so cute, I bought the dress," she said.

Verdon writes for the (Hackensack, N.J.) Record/McClatchy.

By now, it is very clear that the whole blogshop scene thrives on one major product category: FASHION.

From: https://www.mycustomer.com/topic/social-crm/fashion-stores-leading-social-media-charge/119096

Fashion stores leading the social media charge

Posted by Cath Everett in Social CRM on Tue, 25/01/2011 - 01:09
 

Youth-oriented fashion retailers still continue to lead the way in terms of having the strongest social media presence, with TopShop taking the number one slot on both Facebook and Twitter.

According to market researchers eDigitalResearch, Facebook remains the most popular site for retailers to try and connect with online consumers, with TopShop now engaging actively with well more one million users via the channel. River Island came next in the rankings, followed by New Look, Next and Amazon.

TopShop also took the top slot on Twitter, while pure play etailers Asos.com and Amazon came in second and third after investing heavily in the platform. They now provide numerous branded pages dedicated to various aspects of their businesses, including customer service.

Derek Eccleston, eDigitalResearch’s research director, said: "Consumers are increasingly using the platforms to communicate issues and ideas to retailers, and with Asos set to open Europe’s first Facebook store, it is vital that brands have a strong presence on these sites."

But they also needed to come up with an effective, and constantly monitored, social media strategy to ensure that they made the most of such "loyal and dedicated" online users in order to obtain feedback and create brand advocates, he added.

Some retailers still had either no or only a limited presence on social media sites, however. The majority of fashion retailers that targeted an older demographic as well as home and leisure brands obtained a particularly low score in this regard.

The Social Media Benchmark report evaluated the presence of the UK’s top 72 retail websites, which included fashion, electrical goods and grocery stores.

Mumpreneur in the UK

Becoming an online entrepreneur is a process and experience that is common in other parts of the world.

Although the means to sell is different (blogshop vs EC site), their motivations and rationale are very much the same, as can be seen in this article.

One particular note is that it appears that many if not most of the women who sell online in the West are moms!  This contrasts the younger aged females and teens in Malaysia and Singapore.

From: http://www.openpr.com/news/159698/Why-Did-Mumpreneur-Set-up-a-Children-s-Discounted-Clothing-Boutique.html

Why Did Mumpreneur Set up a Children's Discounted Clothing Boutique

Fashion, Lifestyle, Trends

Press release from: Bambino Boo

Mumpreneur sets up childrens clothing boutique Store this image in big size (openPR) - I class myself as one of the growing communities of mumpreneurs. I am in my late 30s and am married with 2 children under five years old. I decided that I wanted to set up my own business around 6 years ago, but it has taken me a long time to decide the type of business to set up. I set up Bambino Boo, a children’s online boutique in July 2010, so I have only been trading for a few months, and so far it is going well and I am really enjoying it. Before I set up the company I was a freelance marketing analyst. I had been working in marketing for 15 years and I think that because I was already freelance it was easier for me to make the transition and set up on own business as I was used to not having a steady income. My idea for setting up a children’s online boutique started when a few people started asking me about a pair of shoes my son was wearing, I had bought from a boutique on the high street. They were different to anything that could be bought from a chain store as they were 100% leather and hand-stitched and I realised that most people were not aware of brands other than those found on the usual high street. I then came up with a few different types of company I could set up all around children’s clothing, and started to do some research to understand what people were buying and if there was anything they would like to buy that was difficult to track down. I also found that quite often when I took my son to his pre-school there were other children wearing the same clothes as my son. I then realised that most people were not likely to buy boutique clothing as it tends to be expensive and it is seen as somewhere to buy clothes for a special occassion. This is when I decided to sell gorgeous and luxurious boutique clothing at high street prices. I thought why not bring boutique clothing to the masses by selling them at Gap, Next prices. In this way, children will be almost uniquely clothed and you would be most unlikely to find other children wearing exactly the same clothing. I have funded the business myself and promote the business in various ways. These include having a facebook page, putting flyers in independent shops, and search engine optimisation, so that I get a better ranking on Google. I also sell on Amazon and through Google shopping. I think the whole marketing mix that I use is important to my business. My biggest challenge so far has been getting a good ranking on Google and this will take time but I am getting there! Google Adwords has been a great help in starting to drive traffic to the website. I have found that this style of working is perfect for me. I am able to be flexible, which allows me to take my daughter to school and collect her. I can also attend any school event without problem, and am basically able to be around a lot more than if I was employed. The buzz when a new order comes in is great as is trying to build the business up to aim towards certain goals on a month by month basis. To anybody out there who is seriously thinking of starting their own business, who thinks they have a good idea and who can motivate themselves, I’d say ‘Go for it!’ Since I have set up Bambino Boo, I have had a number of friends that have decided that they could do it to and are now in the middle of setting up their businesses. It is really useful to then meet up and discuss how our prospective businesses are doing. Bambino Boo is a family run business, operating in the UK. Our mission is to provide gorgeous and luxurious boutique clothing for girls and boys at high street prices. We specialise in clothing for toddlers and pre-school children from ages 0-5 years, although we do sell a small selection of baby clothes and clothes for children aged 6 years and over. We offer British and European brands, including Petit Bateau, Lego wear, Kenzo, Indi Jo, Pomme Framboise and Mayoral. Our clothes are discounted by up to 70% off RRP. How can our prices be so low? Bambino Boo stock is either last season, samples or liquidated stock. A lot of the stock comes from boutiques and our clothes are 100% genuine. We do not obtain our stock directly from the manufacturer. All items are tagged. We operate online only and are able to offer a large variety of brands. The vast majority of our items are washable and a large proportion of them are manufactured in Europe. Bambino Boo 3 Edith Road London SW19 8TW

My frustrations with online boutiques

http://redangeldevil.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/my-frustrations-with-online-boutiques/

Here is another rant against blogshops, by a Singaporean buyer who resides in Perth, WA.

My frustrations with online boutiquesThe
 

January 27, 2011, 3:22 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

 

I am very tempted to name. But I will not. I think I have harassed them to a point where I just gave up and paid extra postage fees to avoid anymore correspondence. Its not a bad case of bad customer service, its just a case of lack of communication. I guess that really frustrates me because everything could have been avoided had I been told and well informed of the situation.

I know I don’t make much sense at the moment. Let me summarise:

Before I went home for Christmas last year, I bought some items online and paid for local Singaporea postage because I thought the items would have arrived in time for me to bring them back to Perth. I mean local delivery times isn’t long at all right? So I got my parcel, with only 2 items (I bought 5) and so of course I sent off an email asking after my other 3 items, but they don’t quite respond because it was sent with the email that I bought the items with and it was work email. There was no response over 1 week plus, I guess yes festivities. It got down to a point where I was leaving for Perth that I still didn’t get a reply. So I came back to Perth, sent off a couple more enquiries about it. Finally, I had a response saying that the parcel was sent back unclaimed. And that if I wanted those items, I have to re-pay for postage or I could cancel my order (but wait for it, there’s a 15% charge for packing fees.)

I admit I’m griping a little, in the end I gave up arguing and just paid the extra postage to re send it. But surely, back of my mind, I’m thinking online boutiques are just as much liable to their customers as normal retail boutiques are. Its not just a matter of waiting for order, packing them and sending them out. Maybe its just unfortunate that I faced this situation. Oh wells.

This is why, shopping should be done traditionally, in the shops with the option to try them on and feel the material and see how it looks on you before the purchase is done. Conveniences in the end may just end up creating more hassles in the end.

*breathes*