On Thursday 10th November we discussed various aspects of online shopping post Brexit and pre-Black Friday! A member noted that many Black Friday offers weren’t actually any cheaper than normal. Another recommendation was that Amazon shoppers should use the price tracking site, Camelcamelcamel https://camelcamelcamel.com “our free Amazon price tracker monitors millions of products and alerts you when prices drop, helping you decide when to buy.” Find the product you are interested in on Amazon and paste the URL into the tracker. It will show you the history of the price of the product. In addition, you can set a price point at which you would be interested to make a purchase, and the tracker will send you an e-mail when the Amazon price drops to this price point.
Chris looked at a few Do and Don’t tips : – these are from the US: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/14-tips-for-safe-online-shopping (some of the resources are not relevant to us here) and these basic security tips are from Santander in Spain: https://www.santander.com/content/dam/santander-com/en/stories/contenido-stories/2020/ciberseguridad/ciberheroes/Online-Shopping_ENG.pdf
Chris pointed out that the EU is introducing better consumer safety when shopping on and offline. The new rules aim to ensure that all kinds of products in the EU, whether sold online or in traditional shops, comply with the highest safety requirements. There were also measures for efficient recall procedures https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220613IPR32813/greater-consumer-safety-when-shopping-online-and-offline
This led us into discussing purchasing from Alibaba and AliExpress – i.e. direct from China, because goods are often much cheaper. However, remember that AliExpress is an online marketplace where third-party sellers can list their products for consumers to buy…so buyers, beware of fake and substandard goods! Any deliveries from outside the EU may be liable for unknown customs charges. Buying online you may not be easily aware of where the goods are coming from. A delivery time of several weeks is usually a giveaway. There are also scams etc to look out for. Check this article for tips and guidance on buying from AliExpress: https://www.security.org/digital-safety/is-aliexpress-safe/
Scotty used to buy from them but remarked that there are now many local outlets, so he doesn’t use them anymore. Here’s an article looking at the risks of buying from AliBaba: https://thesourcing.co/tpost/ieuye5a311-5-risks-of-buying-from-alibaba
Looking back to Europe, we noted that there are now a huge number of online shopping sites. Chris pointed out that there’s a “Trusted Shops” system in Europe, in which vendors are vetted and earn a badge of approval. : https://www.trustedshops.eu
Amazon remains the big beast of online shopping. We agreed there’s no point in buying from Amazon UK unless you are shipping goods to a UK address (and make sure you have a Sterling credit or debit card for those purchases) One Amazon account enables you to shop all over the world. Here in Spain, it’s best to shop from Amazon.es (you can buy English edition books there) or another European site (The German Amazon site is in English). Several members have Amazon Prime in Spain: €20 per year. This gives you free delivery, often much faster; some special offers and –
- Prime Video free films and series
- Prime Music – over 2 million songs all ad-free. Songs can be downloaded to enjoy offline.
- Prime Reading – hundreds of ebooks to read via the Kindle app or on a Kindle e-reader.
- Free unlimited photo storage on Amazon Cloud Drive
- Amazon Family discounts (You can have a family account)
- Flash offers 30 minutes before non-Prime members
- Twitch Prime (gaming)
- Discount on Amazon Music Unlimited
Note: It does not entitle you to Prime benefits from Amazon sites in other countries. (this gets complicated when you are buying books for a Kindle) . Amazon now has a distribution centre in Pedreguer and “Hub locker” pick-up points in the region. These are like glorified post boxes, and great for small items – but useless if you want a fridge delivered. You have to pick up the goods from a locker within 3 days. Returning stuff to Amazon entails just printing out a special label and popping the package in the post office or dropping it off at another designated returns point.
Remember that Amazon is a shopfront for other businesses whose delivery times may be longer than you expect and that the company is not immune to fraud e.g. the fake 16TB SSD https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/inside-a-fake-20-16tb-external-m-2-ssd/7/
You can buy literally anything from Amazon, including specialist foodstuffs such as infusions, spices, Kefir starter kits etc. It’s all there and saves you the time searching for specialist shops.
You can also pay for goods from many other online vendors by using “Amazon Pay” – Basically you click on a button on the website to authorise payment for the goods through your Amazon account, hence (like when using PayPal) the vendor does not need to know anything about your bank cards etc. https://pay.amazon.com/blog/for-shoppers/why-amazon-pay-is-the-better-way-to-pay?place=hero_3&content=happy-buys-sports-outdoors
Chris Betterton-Jones, Knowledge Junkie