The Online Shopping

My friend Budiman often said that online shopping killed the retail business. As I was no businessman, I could only tell from what I saw. Shops did close down in Orchards. Even giants such as Borders and HMV were among the first to go. If these were any indicators, then he was right.

Online shopping had gone a long way since I first knew it. I remember the time when the internet first appeared in Pontianak. This was easily two decades ago. Not long after that, I found amazon.com. I immediately loved it, so much in love that in my college days, I actually wrote a paper about it for mid-term submission.

But the timing wasn't quite right then. Imagine the days when internet connection was so slow that you had to sit back and wait for each page to be loaded. It took almost one hour to search, add the items to shopping cart and check out. Still I was so happy, partly thinking that I was going to be the first online shopper in my hometown. It was not meant to be, though. Amazon.com declined the transaction, citing the reason that credit cards issued by Indonesia was banned due to numerous fraud cases. To think that I went a long way to obtain my first credit cards! It was heartbreaking!

Fast forward to today, the online shopping experience had been vastly improved. Browsing through your computer was one of the options, no longer the only way to go. The world is at your fingertips was not just a saying anymore, it was a dream came true! Literally! In order to shop, you just had to keep tapping on the mobile app. The purchase would be seamlessly done if you had saved your credit card details before. It was that easy and convenient these days.

I still shopped at Amazon thanks to CDs and books it was selling. I'd go to Qoo10 for unusual items such as Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Rakuten was used for Japanese goods like spirulina. I preferred Lazada for stuff available locally in Singapore. For groceries, there were honestbee and RedMart. While I didn't use the last two, my wife was quite familiar with those.

The beauty of these Singapore-based apps were how competitive the prices were. Sometimes it came with discounts and promos. On top of that, it might also offer a free delivery. How attractive! Why would one bother to shop at the supermarket and carry back a 5kg pack of rice when we could have it delivered right at our doorstep? It was equally safe to purchase electronic goods, especially from the official stores such as Mi Store at Lazada. It came with the same one year warranty. To make it more comfortable, refund was almost hassle-free. Had a smooth experience in getting refund for my recent Amazon purchase.

Fun though it was, online shopping wasn't without its risks. Before my trip to Myanmar, I bought a backpack from Lazada. Much to my surprise, what I received was a tiny sized backpack. It looked exactly the same as the picture I saw, but it was so small that it couldn't be used for travelling purpose. This, I partly suspected, was likely to be a customer's problem, haha. It was either I failed to understand the bag dimensions stated on the page or the info was simply misleading. After the last fiasco, I avoided buying things that came in sizes such as bags, shoes, clothes, etc. because what I saw might not be what I got. As a conclusion, it was suffice to say that when we did online shopping, we bought only things we were sure of.

Anyway, back to Budiman's assessment, he was probably right. Online shopping was not only game-changing, but could also be addictive, especially when it had tons of promos on the days like Black Friday. Those retail shops might be nice for us to look at, but I couldn't be too sure if shopping spree still happened. I sincerely hoped that the retail business would somehow survive. Otherwise what would we see when we went to the malls? I still love walking in Orchard, especially when Christmas is just around the corner!

Proceed to checkout?

Belanja Online

Teman saya Budiman sering berkata bahwa bisnis belanja online merusak bisnis ritel. Karena saya bukan seorang pengusaha, saya hanya bisa mengamati apa yang terlihat. Memang betul ada toko-toko yang tutup di Orchard. Bahkan perusahaan raksasa seperti Borders dan HMV juga tutup dan angkat kaki. Jika ini adalah indikasi, maka pendapat Budiman tidaklah keliru. 

Bisnis belanja online sudah berubah drastis. Saya ingat saat internet pertama muncul di Pontianak 20 tahun silam. Tidak lama setelah saya menggunakan internet, saya menemukan amazon.com. Saya langsung menyukai situs belanja ini. Begitu terpesonanya saya sehingga saya menulis tentang Amazon dan mengumpulkannya sebagai tugas kuliah di pertengahan semester. 

Akan tetapi kondisi saat itu masih belum menunjang bisnis belanja online. Bayangkan masa ketika koneksi internet masih begitu pelan sehingga anda harus duduk dan menanti halaman situs terunduh secara lengkap. Dibutuhkan waktu hampir satu jam untuk mencari barang dan menyelesaikan pembayaran. Meskipun demikian, saya masih tetap bersemangat, mungkin karena saya menyangka bahwa saya akan menjadi orang pertama di Pontianak yang berbelanja online. Tidak pernah terpikirkan oleh saya kalau amazon.com akan menolak transaksi tersebut dengan alasan kartu kredit Indonesia termasuk kategori bermasalah karena banyaknya kasus penipuan. Sedihnya rasanya, apalagi saya telah bersusah-payah mendapatkan kartu kredit pertama saya. 

Kembali ke masa kini, fitur berbelanja online sudah kian canggih. Melihat-lihat lewat komputer adalah salah satu cara untuk berbelanja, bukan lagi satu-satunya cara. Dunia berada di ujung jari anda bukan lagi sekedar pepatah, tetapi mimpi yang menjadi kenyataan. Untuk berbelanja, anda cukup menggunakan satu jempol di layar telepon genggam anda. Transaksi akan semakin lancar jika anda sudah menyimpan data kartu kredit di app. Begitu mudah dan nyaman sekarang. 

Saya masih berbelanja di Amazon terutama karena buku dan CD lagu yang dijualnya. Saya mengunjungi Qoo10 untuk barang-barang tidak lazim seperti Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Rakuten saya pakai untuk produk Jepang seperti spirulina. Saya memilih Lazada untuk barang-barang yang dijual secara lokal di Singapura. Untuk sembako, ada lagi yang namanya honestbee dan RedMart. Saya tidak memakai dua app ini, tapi istri saya terkadang berbelanja lewat dua situs ini. 

Keuntungan dari penggunaan app lokal ini adalah harganya yang kompetitif. Terkadang ada diskon dan promo juga. Selain itu pengirimannya pun bisa saja gratis. Menarik, bukan? Daripada berbelanja di supermarket dan membawa pulang satu karung beras, tentunya lebih praktis kalau belanjaan kita diantarkan sampai ke depan rumah. Sama halnya juga dengan membeli barang elektronik, terutama dari toko-toko resmi seperti Mi Store di Lazada. Barangnya sama, garansi pun juga sama-sama setahun. Bahkan retur pun tidaklah begitu sulit. Baru-baru ini saya mengembalikan satu barang ke Amazon dan prosesnya cukup mudah. 

Berbelanja online memang seru, tapi tidak berarti bebas resiko. Sebelum perjalanan saya ke Myanmar, saya membeli tas ransel dari Lazada. Di luar dugaan, yang saya terima itu tas ransel berukuran mungil. Bentuknya seperti yang saya lihat di foto, tapi ukurannya kecil sehingga tidak cocok untuk dipakai berkelana. Saya tidak tahu pasti apakah saya yang tidak mengerti ukuran tas yang tertera atau memang informasinya tidak sesuai dengan barangnya, haha. Setelah kasus ini, saya tidak lagi membeli barang yang memiliki berbagai ukuran, misalnya tas, kaos, sepatu dan sebagainya, sebab apa yang saya lihat mungkin bukan apa yang akan saya dapatkan. Sebagai kesimpulan, mungkin kita sebaiknya membeli barang yang kita tahu pasti kalau kita memilih untuk berbelanja online. 

Sebagai penutup, kembali lagi ke komentar Budiman, saya cenderung sepakat dengannya. Belanja online tidak saja mengubah gaya hidup, tapi juga bisa membuat orang kalap, terlebih lagi ketika sedang promosi besar-besaran, misalnya pas Black Friday. Toko-toko ritel mungkin sedap dipandang mata, tapi saya tidak begitu yakin kalau bisnisnya seramai dulu. Saya hanya bisa berharap kalau mereka bisa bertahan, sebab tanpa toko-toko ini, apa jadinya pusat perbelanjaan yang biasa kita kunjungi? Saya masih suka berjalan di Orchard, apalagi di saat menjelang Natal!