Lazada or Shopee: Which is Better?

One of the reasons why I love my “job” as a writer for this site is that it gives me a legitimate reason to spend countless hours doing “research” of items that are musical in nature.

That means going through websites, reading manuals, watching videos, and doing everything I need to gather as much information as I can possibly get about certain items before putting pen to paper.

Oh and yeah i also spend an embarrassingly long amount of time window shopping on Lazada and as of lately, Shopee.

Recently Discovered Shopee and Now I’m Hooked

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had the Shopee app on my phone but never really did anything on it. Sure, I may have opened it once or twice in the past but I immediately closed it because it just felt so cluttered.

I’ve never bought anything from them and I’ve stuck with Lazada all through out.

But recently things have changed.

I got a notification that I was approved for S Pay Later and I got curious.

One of the reasons why I stopped buying from Lazada, other than the fact that I didn’t have anything set aside in my budget for musical stuff is that I keep getting denied access to the LazPay feature.

So irritating.

Don’t they see my buying history?

Anyway…

So, I opened up the Shopee app and it’s stilla bit cluttered in my eyes and there are many annoying pop-ups but one thing I discovered was that the prices were much better than the ones in Lazada.

I mean I could get the same item for at least 10 to 20% less and also pay for it in installments. Oh… looks like Shopee just proved why it’s Lazada’s biggest contender for the title of favorite e-commerce platform for Pinoys.

 But there’s gotta be a catch, right?

So, I asked around.

Which One is Better?

Over the past month or so, I’ve been asking people which one they prefer, Lazada or Shopee and why.

Here are the answers I got:

Never buy electronics or items that may require you to call the seller for any complaints or issues from Shopee. That’s the biggest one I got which put Shopee in a bad light immediately.

For those who were more inclined to order from Lazada, these were people I knew who valued quality over the price and wanted to get the product immediately. Lazada just seemed to be able to provide premium products and get them to your door faster.

Shopee on the other hand has more discounts and promotions. More to the point that it becomes disgustingly too much discounts being flagged in front of your face. It’s like you’re in Divisoria getting mobbed by sellers or the 3^rd floor of Gmall where the mobile phones are.

As soon as you enter the Shopee app, there’s a virtual seller yelling at you “sir, ma’am sir, cellphone ma’am sir?”

I shouldn’t complain though. Those discounts shave off a lot of the price for a similar item found in Lazada.

And there seems to be more specialty items found in Shopee than in Lazada. There are also more local sellers plying their wares in Shopee over Lazzada.

So if you’re looking for something unique or you want to support local, Shopee seems to be the better option.

Last but not least, Shopee seems to have more payment options and the introduction of the S Pay Later is another welcome feature that I really appreciate which makes me want to find an item to test my credit limit on.

Personally, I’m still leaning towards buying my items online from Lazada but it looks like Shopee has given me an offer I just can’t refuse.

Buyer Beware

As with everything in life, one must always be careful.

That goes the same with online purchases.

One of the things that is making me wary of Shopee is that there are so many scammers selling items beside the legitimate sellers and that’s a shame. Shopee should enforce better filtering methods to weed out the bad ones from the good.

Although Shopee is looking mighty attractive to me these days because of their prices and the S Pay Later feature that I have yet to use, I’m still willing to give Lazada a chance to grant me access to the LazPay feature.

I really can’t say which one is better because they do have their pros and cons and maybe, just maybe Lazada has a bit of an edge over Shopee simply because it has already made a  mark in my brain as a trustworthy e-comemrce platform.

Still, you should check both places for deals because Shopee may not have the lowest prices for all the things that you want. You may also want to buy your electronics at Lazada just to avoid the chance of being scammed on Shopee.

Although I’m not saying that all electronics shops on Shopee are bad. There just are too many scammers. So really, really put in the time and effort to find a trustworthy seller before you hand over your hard-earned money.

In Conclusion

I haven’t really bought anything online for a long time. Oh wait, I did buy my wife a USB flash drive just recently but other than that, it’s been years since I’ve actually hit the “Add to Cart” button and wait anxiously by the door for my package to come.

It’s not discipline.

It’s just a necessity not to as of now because I still have some things to pay off.

That and the fact that I got caught trying to buy a guitar from an online seller back in December of last year at around 2AM in the morning.

Oh boy, that really traumatized me when my wife walked in on me finalizing a deal on FB for the guy to deliver the guitar via Lalamove. (Note to self: Always transact using the smallest screen possible and at the dead of the night when everyone’s asleep.)

But that won’t stop me from drooling over the items these two e-commerce platforms feature.

And yeah, my thumb isn’t too far from that button.

I think I might just purchase something before the year ends and because of S Pay later, I might just purchase something from Shopee and not Lazada.

For a change.