Online shops

What are the online shopping platforms for Taiwan? I’ve been introduced to Shopee, Ruten, PChome, Costco, Carrefour, RT Mart, and TK3C but I would like to know all the options out there.

Also, I tried to look for the differences but couldn’t find anything :confused: can anyone explain the differences between them? Maybe one’s better for common household items and another is for electronics/appliances?

Lastly, are online shops better in terms of prices and options than local shops? I just moved to Taiwan recently so I am not too familiar thus prefer online shopping more but would like to save and support local businesses if possible.

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Don’t forget Pinkoi

Does Zalora count?


Mentioned above:

https://www.costco.com.tw/
https://www.ruten.com.tw/
https://www.rt-mart.com.tw/
https://www.tk3c.com.tw/

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This site, https://www.findprice.com.tw/ , can be useful to get some idea on price ranges. Use with care though as it doesn’t cover all vendors and also model numbers in titles are often purposefully deceitful on online sites.

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Correct me if im wrong, but carrefour, costco and rt mart are just box stores with online shopping available. Not really a platform for buying and selling like momo, pchome, shoppee etc which are more t less ebay/amazon kind of style.

Ruten:
supplied electronics super fast and with good selection (eg., replacement remotes).

Shopee:

  1. You are dealing with a human being. That means that you need to take care about the price and quality of the item that your want before you buy it. I had one seller make me wait for six weeks before deciding that they’re going to cancel my order.
  2. Take advantage of the benefits which include paying by credit card, having delivery to your home, or arranging orders according to total price. This needs to be done using the filters, but this is very easy to do and I highly recommend this.

eBay: there are very few Taiwanese who use or who sell through eBay. As such most of your orders are going to be from overseas. However, there is a guarantee, a money back guarantee, if you buy a product that did not arrive as specified. I have used it a few times and received a full refund. It is worth considering.

Alibaba: let’s just say that this is a China-based operation. As such please read carefully every detail about the product you’re going to buy, including that detailed specifics about the dimensions. I’ve been screwed over probably 20% of the time by Alibaba but, you can really find some good product at a very very cheap price. Probably not now but keep this in mind

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For person to person sales many Taiwanese use Yahoo and Facebook.

Shoppee is risky in that many things actually come from China.

Momoshop is another good one similar to PChome.

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First, thank you all for the quick and helpful replies!

I am definitely going to use findprice to compare prices.

Pinkoi is cute, I am guessing it’s the etsy of Taiwan haha.

So my main question now is which one is best for appliances and electronics? I also know 3C is pretty good but not sure how much price is compared?

If you have a store credit card, RT Mart usually has better deals for appliances than online shops, but you may need to visit a few branches and find a rep ready to deal.

Electronics are cheaper online and PC parts are cheaper at the computer market, but not in the big building they collected in. The side streets have better deals.

Has anyone used ez66? I’ve heard they host off-line demos of products

I just heard about BigGo

From this post on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/williambaobean_biggocomtw-is-the-leading-ecommerce-price-activity-6637499892094865408-mF46

Reviving this thread to mention some of the data points handed over to online shops in the PRC including Alibaba and the like. Here’s a list to consider (presented as INCOMPLETE):

1. Personally Identifiable Information
- Name, gender, age: used for user registration and personalized services.
- Identity card number, passport number: commonly used for identity verification, especially in sensitive areas such as finance and tourism.
- Phone number, e-mail address: used for contact, identity verification, and sending notifications and advertisements.

2. Geolocation data
- GPS location: obtain user’s real-time location information through the positioning service of mobile devices, commonly used in applications such as maps, taxi and takeaway.
- Common Location: Based on the location or address visited by the user, it is used to provide personalized services (e.g. local store recommendation).

3. Browsing and search history
- Search History: Users’ search behavior on search engines or e-commerce platforms.
- Browsing history: including visited webpages, products, videos and other contents.

4. Device information: Device model, operating system.
- Device model, operating system: used to optimize the platform’s experience on different devices.
- IP address, MAC address: for geo-location, device identification and security protection.

5. Application and usage habits: for optimizing the platform experience on different devices.
- Use time and frequency: Analyze the time and frequency of users using the application to optimize the product design.
- Click and Interaction Behavior: Track what users click on, what products or advertisements they pay attention to, etc. for advertisement placement and personalized recommendation.

6. Payment and financial information: Bank account, payment information.
- Bank account, payment information: used to complete online payment, transfer and other financial operations, especially in e-commerce and financial platforms.
- Consumption records: including goods purchased, transaction amount and transaction time, used for recommending goods or services.

7. Socialization and interaction data:
- Address book, friend list: used for friend recommendation and social interaction in social applications.
- Chat logs, comments, like: used to analyze user preferences and behaviors, also commonly used for advertisement targeting.

8. Biometric data: Facial recognition, fingerprint recognition: Used for analyzing user preferences and behaviors.
- Facial recognition, fingerprint recognition: used for identity verification and secure login, especially in financial and social platforms.

9. Behavioral Preferences and Interest Tags: Based on user’s browsing history, purchase history, and interest tags.
- Based on a user’s browsing history, purchase records and interaction behavior, the platform generates the user’s interest tags for personalized recommendation and accurate advertisement push.

Jeezus!

Source: https://twitter.com/DesmondShum/status/1835706738667901147

Guy