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.

Simple Recipe: Golden Fish Cakes

A recipe that is affordable (less than S$10) and easy to make! It makes for a perfect snack or appetizer for a hot day.

Ingredients
1 boneless cod fillet (I bought mine frozen for $8)
1 medium potato
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
water
parsley
chives, chopped
salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon mayonaise
1/2 tablespoon mustard

Method

1. Boil the potato until it's cooked. In a separate pot, put in the cod fillet, pour in water until the liquid covers the cod fillet completely. Cook the fillet at medium heat until it's done.

2. Remove the potato skin and then dice or shred the potato.

3. Remove the cod fillet from the pot and let it cool. Dry the cod fillet with kitchen napkins and using your fingers, flake the fillet. Be sure not to make the flakes too small.

4. In a bowl, mix the cod fillet flakes, potato and the remaining ingredients with your hands. The mixture should be sticky enough to mold into balls, if not, add more breadcrumbs.

5. Mold the mixture into cakes.

6. Heat the oil. Put the molded fish cakes into the hot oil and fry it until it turns golden brown on both sides.

Review: Pince and Pints

I have been wanting to try out Pince and Pints (P&P) for a long time, but was choosing the right time to go so that I can avoid having to queue. I tried Burger and Lobster (B&L) in London, where P&P drew inspiration from, and had a really enjoyable meal there.

Went on a Wednesday evening. Reached around 5.45pm and there was some refurbishing going at the other half of the shop so I can only be seated at around 6.15pm. I love the grilled lobster at B&L so naturally I opted for the same at P&P. The pricing at B&L and P&P were about the same, though I have this feeling that it is more value for money in London compared to Singapore as it is more difficult to get a S$5 meal in London than in Singapore, so at S$48 per lobster dish... B&L is definitely value for money.

My grilled lobster took about 15mins to arrive. It was plated just like B&L and has the same side dishes to go with it. I would say the lobster at P&P was decent and worth a visit, but after experiencing the one at B&L, this pales in comparison.

The lobster here was smaller and doesn't seem as fresh as over at B&L. The flesh should be firm and bouncy, but it was mushy at some parts. The char-grilled taste was there and it was delicious, but the quality of the lobster definitely needed some improvement. I remembered feeling full and satisfied at B&L, but not so at P&P. I even managed to finish everything (including the fries and salad) even though I'm an extremely small eater! The greens had the taste of soil/mud and the overall taste was just ok. The butter/garlic sauce seems diluted and the chives seems like it has been left in the open for a long time. The fries, at first few bites, was surprisingly better than at B&L. However, towards the end of my meal, I started to feel the grease in my throat and was wondering if they used bad oil or didn't change the oil often enough. That said, their service was excellent, way better than at B&L.

Address
Pince and Pints
32, 33 Duxton Rd, 089497

Review: The Lawn @ Shenton

Happened to be around Tanjong Pagar when I dropped by The Lawn for lunch. I like salads, especially when there are a wide variety of toppings and generous serving. Salad-focused F&B outlets are usually on the pricey side. The last thing one wants to feel is to pay a lot yet end up hungry and dissatisfied.

The staff were polite and efficient in taking and preparing your order. You get a slip of paper to choose either salad/olive rice and your choice of mains. You can choose 5 toppings for if you opt for the salad, otherwise it will just be rice, standard salad and the main.

I had the salad (mesclun leaves with egg, cucumber, olives, pineapple, fusilli pasta), grilled cajun chicken with a honey mustard dressing. I have tried other salad outlets before, but this is is by far the best. The portion was substantial with the right amount of mesclun leaves and topping so that I am full but not tired from all that chewing. I think I did a neat combination with the toppings as it doesn't feel dry even with the little dressing I added and neither was it too bland or salty. Though the pineapples were canned, but it added some sweetness and juice to my salad. My only disappointment was the cajun chicken. It was breast meat and thus very dry. For a meat-lover, I actually enjoyed the salad more than the meat.

Address
The Lawn at Shenton
8 Shenton Way #B1-11
AXA Tower

Review: Salty Peanut Gelato Cafe

East Village is a mixed development near Simpang Bedok that has officially opened a month ago. Many of the stalls, especially the ones inside, are still vacant. Besides a Cold Storage, there are several small F&B establishments fronting the mall.

Just recently I got to try out Salty Peanut gelato cafe. Their signature flavour, needless to say, is salty peanut. Despite not being a fan of creamy ice cream, I tried the salty peanut and gula melaka with salt. A single scoop costs $3.80.

Salty peanut tasted like snickers without chocolate and full of finely grounded peanuts. It was fragrant and has just the right amount of sweetness. I am not a fan of peanuts, so to me this was of average liking.

Gula melaka is something I love, but I was kind of reluctant to try out for fear of it being very rich and sickening. To me surprise, it was actually very good, much better than the salty peanut. It has a rich taste of gula melaka but doesn't have the richness of coconut milk which sometimes make me feel sick when eating desserts with gula melaka. The salty taste from the salt added another dimension to it and helped brought out the fragrance of the gula melaka. Like it, yay!

Some other flavours I spotted were Matcha, Tutti Frutti, Mixed Berries and Kiwi Sensation (?). Might be back to try out their fruity flavours next time.

Address
Salty Peanut
430 Upper Changi Road, #01-69

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.