LAZADA and Shopee obviously dominate the e-commerce landscape in the Philippines and cater to millions of Filipinos who shop online for almost everything — from personal care products to tech gadgets and home appliances. Apart from these two leading platforms and other competitive market players, there also lies right at our fingertips — Facebook Marketplace — where small entrepreneurs and even private individuals list, sell, and trade items with locals within geographic boundaries.
While all I have for Lazada and Shopee are positive reviews (five stars) with no single experience of receiving a broken or wrong item nor getting scammed (as what others would claim), this but provides reasons why Facebook Marketplace can be a perfect online shopping destination for those who urgently need particular products and those who prefer to have them delivered at the most convenient time.
[1] Facebook Marketplace offers a wide range of consumer products, both brand new and preloved (or as what we say, secondhand). You can even ask sellers about those available in their stocks which happen to be not listed online.
[2] You can ask as many questions as you want about the product, make special requests, and even haggle over the price. Equally, you can ask the seller to send you product photos other than those uploaded online for promotional purposes.
[3] You can choose from several payment methods made available by the seller, mostly via cash on delivery (COD), bank transfer, money remittance centers, and mobile wallet apps (PayMaya, GCash, and Coins.ph).
[4] Should you need the product right away, you can make arrangements with the seller to have it delivered in an hour or two depending on your location.
[5] You can schedule the delivery of your order not urgently needed at your most convenient time. Your order does not get sorted at any centralized logistics facility, rather delivered to you directly via fast and reliable couriers such as Lalamove and GrabExpress.
[6] With Facebook Marketplace, you can finally order and have a piece of heavy furniture or equipment delivered beyond office hours and need not to file for a work leave just to attend to it. In other words, you can have the full control over your orders and deliveries.
Be the first to comment