Understanding Gmarket's Smile Cash, Smile Point, Gcash, Coupon and Gstamp

For Gmarket users, you would be familiar with the various payment supplements or benefits that Gmarket has. Log in to your Gaccount and you will be greeted with a overview of your points, gcash, coupon and gstamps. With so many different types of benefits, I wished they would streamline some of them or expand them to make staying loyal with Gmarket more worthwhile.

I will describe the uses of each benefit in order of their value i.e. from most valuable to least valuable.

Smile Cash
This is cash. Your refund, compensation or shipping fee differences will be returned to you via smile cash. Another way of getting smile cash is through converting your smile points (I will touch on this later).

Gcash
This is similar to Smile Cash in the sense that they are both cash. However, you can only receive Gcash through events by Gmarkets. Another difference is that while you can withdraw Smile Cash to your bank account, you can't do that for Gcash.

Smile Points
Once you reached 10,000 smile points, you can convert it to Smile Cash. They have an expiry date of two years from when you first received the points. You can receive smile points through the daily lucky draw or applying for it when you clocked certain days of attendance.

Coupons
In most instances, you will only encounter coupons during your purchase. You can either exchange for it using Gstamps (refer below), through daily lucky draw or the basic monthly coupons.

Here's where you can download your monthly coupons:

You can check the conditions, expiry date and amount of your coupon in your Gaccount:

The coupons can be applied to your purchased product either on the product page or in your cart.

Gstamps

Basically kind of useless. You can only use it to draw or exchange for coupons. Like I mentioned earlier, in most cases there will not be lack of coupons, so I seldom have to use Gstamps. They are also one of the easiest to obtain - from daily lucky day to writing product reviews.

How do I use Qoo10 Gift Card?

If you noticed, Qoo10 has recently added a $10 gift card prize to their daily roulette. This to me is the penultimate prize from the roulette. I have no idea what is the algorithm behind this roulette, but I guess you stand a higher chance of winning the gift card if you are Gold or VIP member.

The $10 gift card on the bottom right of the wheel

I have only won it once and I forgot to screenshot the steps so I shall just explain it. The way it works is pretty simple. Once you received it, you can go to 'My Qoo10 > Q account > Gift Card'.

Click on 'My Gift Card' to redeem one (if someone sent you a gift card serial no.) or activate one (if you receive it from the roulette Q). You should see something like this:

If you are using gift card verification, just typed in the serial no. and verification no. and click 'Use'. If you received the gift card through roulette Q, the gift card will appear below the 'Gift Card Verification' part and you can just click 'Use'. The gift card value will automatically be activated and deposited in your Q-money portion of the Q-account. This amount cannot be withdrawn but is like e-cash that you can use during payment.

You may now proceed to add items to your cart and check-out through the usual way. At the Step 2 'Place Order' page, scroll down to the part on Q-account/Q-money and typed in the amount you would like to use for this payment. Fill in the payment information and click 'Order Now'.

That's it! Very easy. You will notice your Q-money decreased by the amount you used for payment!

Get rebates for positive reviews on Taobao!

Following my guide on shopping on Taobao, I have another tip to share!
Yes! You can actually get a rebate/refund of RMB 2 to RMB 5 from leaving a positive review of the item you purchased on Taobao! I know that isn't a lot. Averages about S$1 for a review, but it gets credited to your Alipay account and after a few reviews, you can actually have enough to buy a small item.

Here's how it works:

1. Leave a positive review (denoted by a red flower) with at least 10-20 characters
2. Screenshot your submitted review
3. Send a private message to the seller with your screenshot
4. Send the seller your Alipay (China version of Paypal) account user ID
5. Most seller will send you a screenshot of the refund transaction

Things to note:

a) Not all seller will give you a rebate for positive review. Most sellers that have such benefit will enclose a slip packaged together with your purchase. Looks something like below:

b) The general requirement for receiving the rebate is to leave a positive rating, give them 5 stars rating for all categories, and to write a minimum of 10-20 characters review. I noticed that most of the time, the seller won't/can't check whether you did give them 5 stars for all categories. As long as you screenshot the positive rating you gave and the review write-up, they will give you the rebate (at least that's my experience thus far). The screenshot that I paste to the seller to claim my rebate:

Notice the red flower at the side, that's the indication for a positive review. You can view the reviews you gave by going to 我的淘宝 > 已买到的宝贝 > 评价管理 > 给他人的评价 (copy and use Ctl+F to search for the link to each page).

c) If you can understand Chinese, you can just go to the seller's Taobao page and look for '客服' (customer service). It looks like a blue water droplet. Just ask (if you are unsure) if they allow for positive review rebates '请问好评有返现吗?'

If you can't understand Chinese, I suggest you just paste the screenshot straight and says '给了好评，请返现' followed by your Alipay user ID 'xxx@gmail.com' 

Usually the seller will say ok and inform you that they will process it shortly. Depending on the seller, the refund may be immediate or the next working day.

d) Here's some sample general positive reviews in Chinese for the non-Chinese users:

- 宝贝实在太棒了! 选了这个保证没错，质量也相当的好！喜欢！

- 对这次购买的宝贝非常满意。以后还是会光顾这家

- 宝贝质量好得没话说！物流也非常的快，喜欢！

Please only do it when you are really satisfied with the product. If the product sucks, do not give it a positive review so that others won't be similarly cheated!

Gmarket Haul #2

frankly speaking, this should be my 5th gmarket haul, but being the lazy me, i didn't blog about the 2nd, 3rd nor the 4th. this haul was ordered during the gmarket black week, aka 1111 (11 Nov). gmarket was having massive discounts, big coupons (20,000W off) and giveaways during black week.

i shall state up front that this was my most disappointing gmarket experience, and i will explain it shortly. before that, let's take a look at the items i bought this time round! shall start with the purchases that pleases me the most.

1) sleeveless turtle neck flare dress (US$15)
this dress fitted me so well! because of my long neck, i like tops/dresses with high neck or turtleneck. a very simple and classic little black dress. i'm on the tall side so many korean one-piece dress tends to be too short, but this was just nice. it doesn't look impressive in my lousy photo as it does when one wears it. i just hope it doesn't shrink after washing!

2) ecole lucy waterproof longwear eye shadow + roll-on makeup remover + lip tint (US$13)
this was such a steal! all these for only US$13, can you believe it?! it's a customizable set of makeup, and the makeup remover was the additional optional item. sorry, didn't manage to get a shot of the orange lip tint, but i will definitely do a makeup review when i try it on. these items were neatly wrapped in bubble-wrap and came in a big box.

3) IPKN starlight eyes (2 colours) + remover (US$9)
i couldn't find any english review of IPKN waterglow starlight eye shadow on the web, but decided to purchase it because of the subtle glittery effect it was supposed to give. their spokesperson is girls generation's tiffany! i did a swatch of one of the colours on my hand, seems pretty cool! again, like all korean cosmetics, it came neatly wrapped and in a big box.

4) henry tee (US$11)
a very simple looking tee, but i don't quite like the material. it doesn't feel like pure cotton and wrinkles easily. although it was neatly packed, but when i opened it, it was all wrinkly.

ok, now back to why i was disappointed with gmarket this time round. out of the 4 items, 3 were very good while 1 was just alright. the problem wasn't with my purchase, but those that i place an order for, but was subsequently cancelled. besides the above 4 items, i also ordered a colourful knit sweater (from same shop as the henry tee) and a checkered sundress. these two items were the most expensive out of the six, so naturally i applied the biggest discount coupons to these items.

for the knit sweater, they changed the status to 'preparing for delivery', only to change it to 'cancelled' a few days later. the money was refunded straight to my credit card. what makes me annoyed is i wasted my biggest coupon on this item which i could have use it on other stuff, and for a in-season item, i wouldn't expect it to be unavailable so soon. btw, they didn't give me the reason for the unavailability, and even after they refunded me, they continue to list the item on their page for people to order.

the sundress was still understandable because it is a off-season item and after they cancelled it, they changed it to "out of stock". the problem is they refunded me in the form of cash balance to my gmarket account. as i have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, such form of cash means you will have to make a purchase from gmarket again to utilize that money. sure you can withdraw it, but currently they only support withdrawing to a korean bank account.

Qoo10 Coupons/Q-points/Q-stamp, where do I start?

Hi, I have seen many newbies to Qoo10 asking about their benefits (coupons, Q-points and Q-stamp) or loyalty system. It is extremely difficult for a newbie to understand how to make full use of their loyalty system. Here, I will be sharing how to apply the various benefits and some tips in making the best out of your purchases on Qoo10.

Coupons
Generally speaking, there are 3 main categories.

• Shop coupon - Available on the shop/seller's page and applicable to items sold by the shop (subject to certain restrictions). The coupon can be applied at the cart page when you check-out.
• Item coupon - Obtainable through roulette spin, gift from someone or Q-stamp exchange. The coupon can be applied at the item page where you are choosing your options and adding it to your cart.
• Cart coupon - Obtainable through roulette spin, gift from someone or Q-stamp exchange. The coupon can be applied at the cart page when you check-out.

Occasionally, Qoo10 will have event coupons which works similar to the above 3 categories of coupons. For e.g. the 'MasterCard Item Coupon' which is an item coupon but only applicable if you check out using MasterCard. Another one is the 'Black Friday 30% Cart Coupon' which is essentially just a cart coupon available around Thanksgiving.

Within each category of coupon, there are different value or denominations. The common ones are:

• $1 coupon for minimum spending of $10
• $5 coupon for minimum spending of $30
• $10 coupon for minimum spending of $100
• 50% coupon with a maximum of $5 off

Since coupons are the easiest to obtain, for any purchases above $10, it is highly recommended to use at least one when purchasing.


Q-stamps
Q-stamps can be obtain either through roulette spinning, MameQ exchange or writing a review to a product you have purchased.

Q-stamp can be used to redeem coupons or charge Qtalk Callpoint (an app similar to whatsapp). When redeeming, note that 'EXCHANGE' means you are guaranteed to get the coupon, while 'DRAW' means you are just getting a chance to try to get a coupon. My recommendation is don't bother with drawing a coupon using your stamps.

Another use for Q-stamp is to buy items at an offer price. The items offered are shown on the Q-chance sale page: http://list.qoo10.sg/gmkt.inc/Event/QchanceSale.aspx

Q-points
Out of the 3 main types of benefits, I would say Q-points is the most valuable, but also the hardest to get. You can see Q-points as a form of online currency, where you can use to offset the cost of your purchases. It is available from roulette, buying an item, writing a review or special events.

This option is only available after you clicked on 'Place an Order' from the cart page. You will then be asked to fill in the shipping details, choose a payment option and to select if you would like to use your Q-points, if any.

As you can see from the screenshot above, there is a drop down menu to select how much Q-points you would like to offset your purchase. 100 Q-points = $1. You can only offset up to 30% of your purchases or 1,000 Q-points (i.e. you can only have a further discount of at most $10).

Additional Tips
Now that you have a clearer idea of the various types of benefits, here is my final advice to you.

1.  Always check if you can use all 3 categories of coupons (i.e. item, cart and shop coupons). If can, use all, duh!
2. If there are items you know for sure you are going to get, best is to plan which coupon to use for which item before you purchase any of the items. For e.g.you might have a 30% discount coupon and you used it on item A which only gives you a $3 discount, but you could have used it on item B which will give you a $5 discount!
3. If you have more than one cart coupon and a few times that individually satisfy the cart coupon criteria, split your payment. Pay for item 1 using one cart coupon first, before buying item 2 using another cart coupon.
4. Combine small-value items (individually <$10) during payment so you can hit $10 and at least use the $1 coupon.
5. Coupons cannot be applied to some of the time-sale or daily-deal items.
6.  You can always ask for a coupon at the Q-desk (scroll all the way down at the roulette page). Bear in mind though, that you can only receive the same type of coupon as a gift just once.
7. Earn additional Q-stamps by writing a review with a photo attachment of your purchase.

A Guide to Shopping on Taobao

Just recently I took advantage of Taobao Single's Day (aka 11 Nov or 1111) sale to buy some stuff. It is a day when most Taobao minishop will offer discounts and the volume of transaction can get really big. I don't use any buying agent for my purchases. Taobao SEA has it's own forwarding agent to help deliver whatever I buy to me (currently it only applies to certain destinations like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia etc.).

This guide here is meant to teach you how to shop like a pro on Taobao and what are the things to look out for. Whether you are using a buying/forwarding agent or not, most importantly it is to navigate to the product you like and have that bit of assurance that it is not a scam shop.

#1 Taobao vs Tmall
At the Taobao main page, you will see a link to Tmall (天猫) just below the Taobao logo. Tmall is part of Taobao and most buying agent can help you purchase from both.While Taobao minishops can be set up by individual, selling/re-selling anything, Tmall shops can only be set up by companies. You will definitely get more consistent quality/service over at Tmall than at Taobao because Tmall has stricter guidelines to follow e.g. 7 days refund policy, delivery time no later than x days. Tmall shops are usually of the company's own brand, hence the authenticity of the product. Major international brands like Reebok, Nike, Prada are listed on Tmall together with domestic brands like Li Ning and 361degrees.

#2 Seller Reputation
Taobao has a seller reputation rating as denoted by the number of hearts/diamonds/crowns, with the crowns indicating more reputable. The seller reputation is usually indicated just below the name of the minishop. For each transaction, the buyer is allowed to give a rating of Good, Average or Poor to the seller. A 'Good' rating will earn the buyer 1 reputation point, a 'Average' rating earns no points, and a 'Poor' rating will cause a deduction of 1 point. Clicking on the rating will bring you to a page whereby they give you more in-depth statistics on the seller's performance, even comparing the seller to other sellers selling similar products. Personally I don't recommend looking into such in-depth statistics because it might confuse you more, and unless you can read Chinese, it will take up some time.

 

#3 Product Review Quickview

If you can't understand Chinese, one quick way to get a sense of what others say about a product, is to look at the 'People's Opinion' (大家印象). It is located in the 2nd tab when you scroll down to see the product description. It is a system-generated cloud of words that are frequently said by reviewers of the product. An orange box is a positive comment, while a grey box is a negative one. You can use google translate to help you with these key words, rather than translating the reviews which can be colloquial at times. Using the screenshot below as an example, the orange boxes are 'overall good', 'thick material', 'pretty design', 'looks beautiful wearing it', 'true to size', 'very comfortable', 'good attitude', 'nice packaging', 'decent delivery'. The grey one says 'weird smell'. 

Note: Only products with a significant number of reviews will have this 'People's Opinion' function.

#4 Taobao Gold Coins

This is only applicable for those who can add items to cart and check out the purchases. For those who uses a buying agent, you will not be able to make use of this benefit.

It is basically a loyalty system whereby you login each day to collect your daily gold coins, with more gold coins given if you login on consecutive days (http://taojinbi.taobao.com). The gold coins can then be used to offset the cost of certain purchases when you check out your items. 100 gold coins = ¥1. 

Tip: You can earn double gold coins daily by downloading the Taobao mobile app and clocking in your attendance there. There are also other ways to earn more gold coins (doing mission, lucky draw etc.) which I don't recommend you wasting your time to do so.

#5 Check for Discount Voucher

Always check for any discount voucher that the minishop might provide before making payment. At the cart view, if there are any discount vouchers, it will be indicated as 优惠券 right next to the shop name. Click on it and you can then collect a voucher by clicking on '领取'. At this point, you have only downloaded the voucher but have not applied it to the product you are going to buy. Proceed to make the payment. At the payment page, the system would have automatically included the discount under '店铺优惠'. In the event that you have several vouchers, you can click on the drop down to select the most beneficial to you.

Note: Some vouchers will have a minimum amount spent requirement hence you might be able to download the voucher but not able to use it.

11st Haul #2

following the previous 11st haul experience, i decided to on another spree on 11st! it was a much smoother experience this time round! placed the order for 5 items on 6 aug, received it on 14 aug.

i noticed that 11st consolidate and package the items very neatly and carefully, with bubble pouches to protect fragile items. i was surprised that it came in a big box even though i ordered only 5 items and with the exception of the shoes, the rest are small items.

a review of some of the items i bought from 11st:

rating: 4/5

fashion vintage sunglasses. true to image. comes with a pouch and a hanky. not much complaints except that it didn't look as good on me than i expected it to be. 

rating: 3.7/5

pleated mini skirt. what i like about this mini skirt is that it has an inner safety shorts. its comfortable and more suitable for outdoors and sports, although the material is slightly on the thin side.

rating: 4.5/5

strappy heels. my best buy this haul. its a decent quality shoe, nice design and great comfort! love the buckle part, which you don't really have to buckle, but just hook it over for easier wearing. highly recommend buying from this brand. if not for my budget, i would have bought another pair from them.

Gmarket Haul #1

this was my first time using gmarket but navigating through the gmarket website was a breeze. since it was my first time, i didnt really have any strategy and it was really to get a feel of what gmarket has to offer.

after placing my order and paying for it on 4 march, the vendor proceeded to ship the items to the gmarket warehouse. one of the vendor informed me right away that his item will only be available for shipping a few days later. thats fine with me. most of the items were received within

the package arrived neatly packed. each of the item was either wrapped up in plastic wrapper or in a box. i hvae no complains on the delivery or the package in general!

so here's part of my haul! sorry, might not have real photos of some of the items because i have no time to take photos of them!

1) leggings with mini skirt (US$ 11)
i have a wide hip so the H-line skirt version doesnt suit me well. opted for this flare skirt instead. i was so satisfied with this item. its not too thin, the quality is good and it fitted me so well. initially i was afraid it will be too short, like many leggings which i have previously bought, but this was long enough without the leg ends keep moving upwards. you can wear it with a sweater, long blouse or a jacket!

2) knit sweater with bow and split back (US$ 22)
quality is there, nothing major to complain just that the cutesy-ness of the bow makes it feels like a cheap wear at times.

3) sweater with ruffle collar and ends (US$ 24)
saw this style on korean tv often so i guess it was the trend there. it gave off a more feminine look as opposed to your usual sweater. wore it twice ever since i bought it... comfortable and warm enough for spring weather. the only bad is the ruffles part seems to form creases easily as the material is not good quality as the sweater part.

11st Haul #1

a month ago i wrote about my first experience with 11st, but i havent had the time to update on the final outcome of that first experience.

after receiving that email notifying me of trying to push for a quick delivery from the seller, i received a call from 11st. the customer service guy informed me that one of the delayed item was out-of-stock and asked if i wanted to cancel or wait. as i was going on a overseas trip soon, i decided to cancel the item. the guy sounded apologetic over the phone and told me the money will be refunded to me. his english was clear so thats a plus point. i would have been satisfied if they just email me to confirm, but the fact that they did this long-distance call showed that they were more responsible. the problem this time round was quite minor, but imagine if im having major issues, i would think them initiating a phone call would be easier.

ok, so things really did speed up after that phone call. within less than an hour, i received another auto-message email informing me that item has been cancelled and the money refunded. i paid for my order by paypal, so the money was refunded straight into my paypal. this, to me is very important. i know of e-commerce websites, especially korean sites, refunding back to your account which you can either withdraw it to your bank account or use it for future purchases. i dislike the idea of the refunded money being left in the site's account because it sorts of force me to have to buy something if not my money's going to be just left there. the other option of withdrawing to a bank account is very troublesome and most of the korean websites will only support korean banks or credit cards.

my order then proceeded to ship out by ems. ems is usually very fast. from past experiences, shipping by ems will take no longer than 5 working days (on average it was 3) to reach my doorstep. if the parcel reaches singapore at 2-3am on a working day, i can receive it on the same day (by noon). if it reaches singapore in the afternoon, im able to get it the next morning. really fast!

items i bought

rating: 4.7/5
mint green flare skirt. i bought this as a working attire and it didnt disappoint! my most basic expectation of such skirt is that it shouldnt crease or crumple easily. this skirt doesnt. in fact, the material used was above average, though there was minor fray ends. the skirt ended up slightly above my knee (im quite tall), so its still length-appropriate as a working attire. i have since wore it once to work, and my friend complimented it! the mint green is a lovely pastel shade!

rating: 4.7/5

grey glitter slip-on. i really have nothing negative to say about this shoe! its comfy and fits snugly on my feet. i wore it twice so far, never gave me any blisters. its well crafted, shimmery without being too bling. no flaws that are obvious to the naked eye. the only reason why i didnt give it a 5/5 was i think i saw similar slip-ons going at a cheaper price but of cos i can't be sure of the quality of those.

The 11st Shopping Experience Thus Far

made my first order with 11st on 19 apr (sat). a total of 8 items that are available for worldwide shipping.

it is now 23 apr (wed) and the order status on 6 of the items is still stuck at 'paid'. a description of the status from 11st website is shown below.

the 'paid' status was there ever since i paid i.e. on 19 apr. bear in mind that since this is for international shipping, the 'completed (shipping)' shown above only equates to 'delivered to 11st logistic center'. 11st will then shipped out the entire package of 8 items to me. with the exception of 2 items, the other items seemed to have not been acknowledged by the seller.

i received an email from 11st informing that they have sent an email to the sellers 'pushing for quick delivery'. i guess this is their standard when an order hasnt been acknowledged for more than 3 days. this calmed me down a bit knowing that there is someone to rush the order for me instead of my having to draft a message to tell them to do it. since most of the sellers are presumed not to be well-acquainted with english, we might not be able to communicate well.

11st also mentioned about the option of cancelling the order if the seller takes too long. personally i dont like the idea of cancelling what ive already set on ordering. i usually spend quite some time weighing my options of the different items so having to cancel it annoys me. and then theres also the problem of where the refunds will go. will it be credited to my 11st account? which means its hard to withdraw and i will have to make another 11st purchase? or will they refund it back to my paypal which im not sure if they will refund the transaction fee too.

since this is my first experience with 11st, i just hope things speed up from here on and leaves me with a favorable impression.

11st Get K-beauty for Free!

11st was having a k-beauty contest/promotion and i managed to win a banilo co cc cream!

this was the parcel i received. i was surprised that a 30ml cc cream came in a large parcel.
turned out that besides the cc cream, there was also a pretty cosmetic pouch.
thank you 11st!

click here for k-beauty contest!

Korean Online Shopping Malls

no doubt, i love korean fashion. they have really unique yet asian-focused items which suit me. there's also a wide variety of items and the attractiveness of korean fashion can be partly attributable to the 'natural' feel their models pull off. with korean pop (kpop) being so popular and internationally recognised these days, it is hard not to get attracted to their style.

being one of the most wired country in the world, korea has many online shopping malls and domestic delivery is usually quick and comprehensive. you can deliver anything from food, snacks, groceries to fashion items all at a click of the mouse.

problem
despite the huge number of online shopping malls (blogshop equivalent), it is hard for people living outside of korea to purchase. here's some of the reasons why:
- some websites require verification of korean identity in order to register
- webmasters can't speak/communicate in english and website are in korean
- items for sale are usually made in small quantities, not enough for international demand
- selling to international customers require certain approval from authorities
- parcel forwarding service for korea products is rare

my experience
i have looked into many of the korean online shopping malls. there's so many beautiful items which i would love to have, but only a handful of such malls cater to the international community.

most of the malls require you to verify your korean identity which makes it impossible for non-koreans to register. although the main page of the mall is usually full of english links/words, but once you clicked in on the item, you will realised the details are all in korean. i have sufficient knowledge of korean to navigate through the website and to purchase, but as i have said earlier, most of these sites are not opened to international customers.

if you really really want to get the item, i supposed emailing the webmaster might work, provided they can speak decent english. the downside is that because they have no structured delivery system for such adhoc international orders, the delivery is usually expensive and payment mode might be limited (e.g. wire transfer which is extremely troublesome). additionally, you will miss out on any loyalty programme that website had to offer as compared to korean buyers.

i did bought a shoe directly from one of the korean sites before. i had to do wire transfer and the entire cost (including the shipping cost) was not worth it. i specifically told the webmaster to give me a brochure (which has my fave idol on it), he agreed, but ended up didn't packed it in the package.

this kind of situation frustrates me. that item looked really good, but yet i cant buy it. sad.

this prompted me to source for more effective way to get similar items... but i shall talk about it another day!