Top 4 Online Shopping Sites in the Philippines

The company Lazada is a private international group founded by Maximilian Bittner back in 2012. It is one of the biggest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia as it was established in Singapore and later on spread to neighboring countries like the Philippines. It started its first launch back in March 2012 with its own model of business: selling inventories or products directly from its warehouses. A year later, its marketplace expanded to allow third-party retailers to make use of the site by enabling them to sell as well and this model became the hit and accounted for 65% of its sales. Aside from its backstory, The website offers a variety of items ranging from games to automotive parts. In the Philippines, it is one of the most well-known shopping sites up to date besides Shopee and Zalora as it was the first to commercialize here in the Philippines.

In all honesty, when I was writing this article, Lazada was the first to come to my mind when I've thought about e-commerce and the online market. The reason may be because of how it was one of the first promoters of e-market here in the Philippines and how it changed the "game" of the market. As for my experience, I had a love-hate relationship with the site. Sometimes, Lazada gives off one of the best services among other competitors and sometimes it would serve as a rip-off and a marketplace for scammers. The first item I bought in Lazada was a pair of desktop speakers. With no bias, even though I would have brought a branded one, I chose a local speaker which served its purpose. Needless to say, it did its job without ever malfunctioning or whatever.

Aside from its main competitor, Lazada, Shopee was also one of the most used e-commerce sites in the country. It is headquartered under the Sea Group (known previously as Garena) and was founded back in 2015 by Forrest Li. Another Singaporean e-commerce, it made its way to the Philippines through the same model of Lazada by the means of expansion and branching. Aside from the Philippines, it reached to countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia. Just like Lazada, Shopee also boasts an expansive range of products from beauty products to social satisfactory services.

After deliberately spending my days with Lazada, I found out about Shopee through a commercial ad on the television. It was around 12:30 heat around the block that day and boy was I happy to find this site. From my perspective, I think Shopee's main advantage over any other e-commerce sites in the Philippines is through its use of vouchers and discount codes. Compared to Lazada, Shopee offers more coupons and vouchers making shopping really enjoyable. As a consumer myslef, hearing vouchers and discount codes are really one of the best methods of forcing people to buy stuff. I mean, it really makes the deal when you hear stores offering 10% to 20% off (or even up to 50!) on products.

Alongside one of the first e-commerce sites to launch, Zalora is the first ever fashion e-market to hit the Philippines. It was founded by Gunjan Soni back in 2012 and headquartered in Singapore. With a similar business model from above, the difference is seen in the product as Zalora mainly focused on fashion, clothing and online boutiques. Zalora offers men and women the latest trends and fashion in the country as well as in Southeast Asia. It is one of the biggest online Asian e-boutiques in Asia up to date with a net revenue of 120,000,000$ USD. Nevertheless, it lives up to its reputation through quality service.

It is the best. From a biased perspective, I think Zalora has one of the most profound services of giving equitable customer services. My first ever item here was a pair of Adidas sneakers ( I am an Adidas person). Happy to say, after typing my shoe size and having it to be delivered at my home was a gamble since normally, when people ought to buy shoes, they actually need the right measurements else everything will be for naught. As for its online interface, you will have to measure your size yourself and be able to choose from the options enlisted in their stores. Back to the risk, it was worth in the end. With its services, I would really promote Zalora for it as well as its stylistic online interface. Without a doubt, it is one of the best e-boutiques in the game right now.

When belling second hand goods, Carousell is the way to go. Previously, Carousell is a smartphone and web-based consumer-consumer and business consumer marketplace. Along with the others, it is headquartered in Singapore and founded by a trio Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo, and Markus Tan. It primarily operates on Southeast Asia and now stands up to its name as marketplace for selling new and secondhand goods. It was also established and founded back in 2012 along with Lazada and the others.

Although I haven't really checked out the site completely, I once made a deal and everything went fine. I bought a used computer here and I generally think that the online store is the real deal. Not many scammers around since what the sellers offer here are secondhand so there is no doubt about that the quality is not what you'd think. Plus, offers here are meet-in-place and that totally deletes the "Is it legit?" kinds of questions. Going back to my computer, I'd say everything still works fine and is what I use to write this article! Nonetheless, Carousell makes the competition for secondhand goods.