Review of the Top Three Shopping Sites in Malaysia
Flood, cyclones and erratic downpours are more than enough reason for anyone to stay at home. Luckily, gone are the days where humans would have to brave Mother Nature’s wrath in order to buy a last minute birthday or Valentine’s Day present. Today’s society can now lounge at home with a cup of warm hot Milo and still enjoy getting their shopping done via the Internet.
However, potential shoppers should be wary as while it’s pretty cosy to think about how a few clicks of a mouse can empower you to have your shopping delivered to your doorstep, the other side of the coin is that you could either end up buying odd trinkets or find yourself spending five hours in virtual stores lost, confused and with nothing of great value to purchase.
The good news is that we will be reviewing the top three online shopping sites in Malaysia.
Site #1: http://www.lelong.com.my
Lelong.my is Malaysia’s most famous auction website, gloriously beating eBay.com.my at its own game. Founded in 1998, the idea behind Lelong.com.my was to build a community of sellers and buyers who could trade practically anything at a low cost while maintaining quality. Just like eBay, everything under the sun is up for sale- from land to photography services, clothing to accessories and pens.
Pros: The layout of Lelong.com.my can be pretty intimidating, but the site also comes with a search engine to help speed up your browsing and shopping process. The site also comes with a double secure and verification system called Buyer’s Protection Program, and SafeTrade.
Even the sellers are protected on Lelong.com.my as bidders would also have to conduct either hand phone or e-mail verification processes in order to bid on an item, which then deters fraud as well. The entire Lelong.com.my website can be viewed in Malaysia’s three main languages- Malay, Chinese and English which makes it easy for anyone to read the content of the site.
Cons: Realistically, any Lelong.com.my seller who offers you a ROLEX Oyster Perpetual Milgauss Bamford Limited Edition Swiss Quality watch for RM123 (plus shipment) simply cannot be selling a genuine ROLEX watch, despite what its rave reviews and positive seller feedback would have you believe.
Speaking of positive feedback, praise and high ratings from other members could simply be dupe accounts created by the seller to create positive buzz about their product and services, which may or may not live up to your expectations. If you’re looking for branded products, then Lelong.com.my is definitely not the place for you to shop at. Also, deliveries are limited to South East Asia users only.
Site #2: http://www.pasar.my
Created in 2008, Pasar.my is Malaysia’s most popular Chinese virtual mall as anyone can setup their very own store on Pasar.my for free. These online stores are divided into three types- senior outlets, intermediate shops and general stores. Senior outlets would be categorized as large virtual catalogues that offer bonus points along with their merchandise whereas the general stores would have the bare minimum amount of products up for sale.
This portal sells plenty of feminine items from clothing to fashion accessories to beauty care and home care products.
Pros: Shoppers are protected with buyer authentication certification and signing up for membership with Pasar.my is free. Just like Lelong.com.my, details of the virtual stalls all come with previous customer feedback and verification to ensure the integrity of the trader.
Cons: Seriously, this website is strictly for Chinese reading mortals. Manually translating each page via Google Translate is both time consuming and highly inaccurate. Those with photosensitive epilepsy will not appreciate the blinking advertisement banners on the front page of Pasar.my either.
The seller rating system on Pasar.my is also pretty confusing. For instance, one seller could be branded with one green diamond and another seller with two hearts. If you’re wondering what the diamond and hearts logo is for, then you are not alone. For instance, a seller rating of 250 points earns you 5 green crowns. On the other hand, a 36 seller rating earns you 4 hearts instead of 1 green crown. Also, each store is independent of Pasar.my so you will have to pay each owner separately.
Site #3: http://www.irenelim.com
Just like the site name suggests, IreneLim.com is an online business personally conducted by Ms Irene Lim who sources for women’s clothing from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The interesting thing about this site is that each article of clothing is personally handpicked and selected by the owner herself.
Pros: Unlike Lelong.com.my and Pasar.my that operates like a trading community, IreneLim.com offers shoppers the experience of personally buying items directly from the business owner. IreneLim.com also comes with an active mini discussion board and great after sales service. There is something definitively satisfying about buying merchandise from an actual person who exists, rather than a faceless entity!
Cons: For the moment, IreneLim.com only caters to the women’s wear, children’s clothing and festive hampers.
IreneLim.com and Exabytes
One interesting banner placed on the upper right corner of IreneLim.com testifies that IreneLim.com is being hosted on an Exabytes-sponsored server. Further mouse clicking has then lead us to an Exabytes promotion offering free dedicated servers for sites with high traffic (i.e. a minimum of 3,000 unique visitors daily and a minimum of 3 page view per visitors for the past 3 months). The fact that IreneLim.com is already hosted for free on Exabytes is a pretty big testament to how popular her online store is.
In a Nutshell
If you love buying random trinkets, Lelong.com.my would be a suitable shopping site. If you’re proficient in reading Chinese, then you could also try Pasar.my. However, if you are looking for high quality products that come with an affordable price and a business owner’s personal touch, then you should definitely drop by IreneLim.com.
Contributed by Jasmine from 100 Web Hosting – a reliable web hosting review and resources website.
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