Online Shopping Reviews

2013 Women’s Day Deals from Priceangels.com

While several Chinese sites are still keeping their Valentine’s Day 2013 banners on their homepages (which I personally believe are very unprofessional as the day of romance has gone for over two weeks), some early-bird online stores based in China have already posted banners about 2013 Women’s Day sales. Priceangels.com (read the detailed review of the site here) is the earliest one based on my observance. I noticed that they had launched the promotional page for Women’s Day before Feb. 9, the eve of 2013 Chinese New Year. Now the banner is still there and I also found that they had started 2013 April Fools’ Day promotion. Considering international shipping time and the fact that wholesale business is the biggest revenue earner of the site, it is nothing surprising that they always launch a holiday-based promotion so early.

As for their Women’s Day deals, I spent some time viewing one by one, trying to find some useful information that can help my readers shop smart with the Chinese site. The scale of discounts is definite one of the most concerned point for me. Based on my findings, although they claim that they are offering up to 35% off on products select for the promotion, in practice they are being completely honest. They started the sale so early that they might change the products for the page. Advertisers tend to overstate the benefits their customers can get but they seem to be quite trusthworthy in this respect.

To better explore whether their Women’s Day specials are worth getting in terms of pricing, I endeavored to compare the after-discount prices on some products to the same or similar ones for sale at other Chinese sites which also offer worldwide free shipping. Continue reading 2013 Women’s Day Deals from Priceangels.com

Dinodirect Coupon Code for 2013 Women’s Day

One of the reasons why I am often impressed by Dinodirect.com (see the detailed review of the shopping site here) is that they offer specials or coupon codes so regularly and extensively. If you shop there frequently, you should really take advantage of the deals so that you can save much money. Note that they may have different coupon codes for different order value thresholds during the same time frame. You may need to select the one that can help you save most. You know, you are generally not allowed to combined coupon codes for a single order. Currently, the best-valued coupon code available at the site is their 2013 Women’s Day discount code. Please read details below:

Coupon Code:

Discount Description: 2013 Women’s Day Sale – Extra 10% OFF Orders of $38 or More
End Date: Mar. 7, 2013

The Women’s Day promotion covers a wide range of products that are wonderful choices for gifting ladies, including jewelry & watches, apparel & accessories, cosmetics, home appliance and more. If competitive pricing is a typical attraction of Dinodiret.com, deep discounts should be another great benefit you can get from the site. As long as your order reaches $38, you can have the product you want shipped to your doorstep by paying 10% less. Plus, the order will be shipped for free.

Although they launched the exclusive page for Women’s Day sales, the coupon code can be used on any products for women sitewide in practice. That is, you don’t have to redeem it on the products listed on the promotional page. The selection of Women’s Day specials is just for your reference only and based on my experience, you can take it as a good guide to shopping amazing Women’s Day gifts, especially if you are now scratching about Women’s Day gift ideas.

I browsed their Women’s Day promotional selection and find are some hot-selling branded products with a better rating based on real customer reviews:

RULER™ Stylish Solid-Colored PU Leather Women’s Shoulder Bag

Sinvigo® 7-inch Android 4.0 Pink Pretty Mali-400MP 5-Point Capacitive HD-3D Games Wifi Tablet PC

Continue reading Dinodirect Coupon Code for 2013 Women’s Day

Review of Lightinthebox Branded Cosmetic Products

As a big name in the Chinese foreign trade arena, Lightinthebox.com is best known for selling fashion products such as wedding dresses and special occasion dresses. Meanwhile, the shopping site also carries a wide range of cool electronic gadgets, including car electronics, security systems, cell phones & accessories, tablet PCs and much more. Some Home and Garden products are among their hot-selling categories too, e.g. faucets or oil paintings. As for their Health and Beauty line, it seems that tattoo supplies are the only one that can catch customers’ eyes – I do see they frequently promote tattoo kits, tattoo machines, tattoo ink or other tattoo products in their homepage big banners.

Anyway, recently I notice that they have opened an exclusive promotional page for deals on cosmetic products from world top brands including Chanel, Jurlique, SK-II, Lancôme, Clarins, Elizabeth Arden, La Prairie, Shu Uemura and more. Most are skin care products: cleansing oil, cellular radiance cream, body lotion, eye treatment film, youth activating nigh cream and line repair, to list just a few. When I discovered that they had started selling such name brand cosmetics, I was really curious how a Chinese company could make profits from this filed. I meant: isn’t it true that many Chinese people buy cosmetic products of famous brands direct from European or American stores because of the much lower prices?

With the curiosity, I did a rough research on the prices for the cosmetic products Lightinthebox offers. Surprisingly, I found that their prices are very competitive. I compared their prices on a number of skincare products from several brands to those offered by Amazon.com and Strawberrynet.com. I guess you must be very familiar with Amazon.com so here I don’t need to introduce it in detail. Strawberrynet.com is a famous Hong Kong-based online distributor of all kinds cosmetic and skin care products. The site specializes in discounted cosmetics and offers free shipping on orders of any sizes to any destinations around the world. Hong Kong is a shopping paradise as the region has lots of tax-free products to choose from, especially in the fields of electronics and cosmetics. Every time I bought skin care and make-up products that can be used for a whole year when I visited Hong Kong. By doing that I have saved really much money and I don’t have to worry about getting fakes or inferior quality products.

Quite surprisingly, my research shows that most prices Lightinthebox offers are lowest among the three. The following you will find the pricing comparisons of some products:

Jurlique Citrus Body Care Lotion, 300ml, 10oz

Continue reading Review of Lightinthebox Branded Cosmetic Products

Exploring Limited-time Deals: Daily Sales at China Shopping Sites

When you shop with Chinese sites, you should always check out the deals they offer in various forms. Seriously, the specials can help you save a lot sometimes, no matter you are purchasing in bulk for your resell business or just for your personal needs. In addition to the plenty of holiday or event-based sales, the regular promotions featured by different online stores are also worth taking a good look. In particular, the daily deals zones available at some sites often release specials with deep discounts, which last for one day only.

I was long ago impressed by the Daily Madness zone at Milanoo.com, a popular international fashion store based in Chengdu, Sichuan. The site opened that promotional area as soon as it went live. Now after years it is still there. This, based on my experience, proves that the zone works well and has been helping a lot with boosting their revenues. At the same time, I notice that other Chinese sites start to set up the similar promotions one after another, sometimes slightly different in naming, including Today’s Special at Tmart.com, Daily Deals at Focalprice.com, Daily Deals at Dinodirect.com, Daily Deals at Priceangels.com and Today’s Sales at Lightinthebox.com.

Most daily-based deals are available for 24 hours only. But some may last for two days or longer. If you see a daily deal of your interest, you may need to take it quickly otherwise it will be gone soon and won’t come back again. Some sites may put the same product with the same good discounts into the daily sales for the second or even the third times, but it is always hard to say when the product will be offered with the one-day-only discount again. So when you see a deal you want, don’t hesitate to get it. It is never a smart idea to wait the deal to come back again. You can’t afford the time waiting it to re-appear anyway.

Generally, as the deals last for a very short time only, the discounts are very attractive, even greater than those offered for big holiday sales such as Christmas promotions. Besides, free shipping is often honored for daily sales. Comparatively, the products select for such daily sales are quite limited in terms of quantity. As a result it is not easy to find a product you are looking for from the daily specials – if you do find one, you should be really lucky then. Anyway, you are encouraged to check out the daily sales pages of the sites regularly in order to spot the deal you want.

Continue reading Exploring Limited-time Deals: Daily Sales at China Shopping Sites

Compiling Work: Coupon Codes from Chinese Stores for February 2013

As a Chinese I have been busy with the preparation work for the Chinese New Year recently and this post comes a little late. Anyway, for those who are interested in shopping with Chinese sites, you can still check out the list below to see if any coupon code can help you save more. After all, February has passed only one third and you have plenty of time to redeem the coupons if you like.

Lightinthebox.com:

Specialized in offering wedding dresses & accessories, special occasion addresses and other fashion and accessories, electronics, faucets, oil paintings, home & garden, health & beauty, cosplay & costumes and much more.

Discount Code:

VLT8OFFL

Discount Description: Get $8 OFF $80 on Any Product Sitewide
Valid through: Feb. 28, 2013

Promo Code:

VLT18OFFL

Discount Description: Get $20 OFF $190 on Any Product Sitewide
Valid through: Feb. 28, 2013

Coupon:

VLT32OFFL

Discount Description: Get $32 OFF $300 on Any Product Sitewide
Valid through: Feb. 28, 2013

Miniinthebox.com:

Specialized in offering all kinds of small electronic gadgets and accessories with free shipping; belonging to Lightinthebox.com.

Promotion Code:

VLT2OFFM

Discount Description: Get $2 OFF $20 on Any Electronic Gadgets or Accessories Sitewide
Valid through: Feb. 28, 2013

Continue reading Compiling Work: Coupon Codes from Chinese Stores for February 2013

Overseas Warehouses of Chinese Sites: About Focalprice UK Warehouse

I often see comments left at my site questioning with anxiety why the addresses the Chinese sites use to send their orders are different from their office addresses introduced at my site. They were wondering if they had encountered a scammer and asking for my help to confirm on the real facts. Actually many China-based international shopping sites have their own warehouses in the destination countries or regions – the most common places are the United States, the UK and Hong Kong.

Focalprice.com, the online electronics store whose office is in Shenzhen, China, have a warehouse based in Manchester, the United Kingdom. Their UK warehouse has a rather independent shopping system with an exclusive domain name Mixwall.co.uk. You can find the access to the UK shopping site at the left navigation area of their main site homepage. If you want to shop with their UK warehouse, you need to create an account at the Mixwall.co.uk first. It seems you can’t use your Focalprice account to place an order at the UK site. I don’t understand why. Maybe they are doing this for better management. But honestly, I personally don’t think it good for user experience, how about you?

The UK channel of Focalprice.com do not carry as many categories as the main site do. Anyway, it does have quite a wide range of products across Apple accessories, cell phones, home & outdoor, toys & hobbies and electronics. Free shipping is available sitewide so you don’t have to worry about the shipping fee. Besides UK, Mixwall.co.uk also ship to other countries or regions of the whole Europe including Russia. This means US customers or buyers from other continents are not allowed to order with the site.

As all the products are already stocked in the UK warehouse, it takes only 2-5 business days for the orders to arrive at the destinations based on the shipping method you choose. For Royal mail & Register Royal mail, the site guarantee that the orders will arrive within 3 working days including Saturday; for Next Day Delivery, they promise the package will be delivered to your door before 10 p.m. on the next working day.

Continue reading Overseas Warehouses of Chinese Sites: About Focalprice UK Warehouse