After making 100s and 100s of purchases on Lazada and Shopee, and striving to always to get the absolute rock bottom prices when I buy,I thought I would post a few things I do to save money...  

 

 

Just to let you know how cheap I am, I will switch sellers to save 5 baht,and will search for a extra 20 minutes in the hopes of finding a 10 baht lower price.....lol

 

As for scams and bad sellers.....That has already been well covered, and the truth is they are few in number and they don't  last long as sellers....

 

 

And as far as Free Shipping goes, I hate, hate, hate having to jump through hoops to get it, so 99% of the time I don't bother........The best free shipping with no hoop jumping is to order more than one product from the same store.......

 

 

For some products Lazada is way better and for some products Shopee is way better...So both need to be searched...

 

 

I think the most important rule for all Cheap Charlie shoppers to keep in mind is even when you have found what you think is a very cheap price for a product, there is a fair to fairly ok chance someone else is selling the same product even cheaper......Even me who always looks for the lowest price has been fooled into thinking that what I am buying is so cheap, no way can it be sold for cheaper...WRONG ......I have been WRONG so many times.......I try and not make this mistake any more....

 

 

I always start my searches like everyone else here....Just put in the name and search....English seems to give just as good of results as Thai most of the time unless you're looking for unusual things.....(Example)  stuff like exotic teas, spices, herbs the search does poorly with English and Thai needs to be used to see your full buying options....

 

Both Lazada and Shopee seem to have a fair number of hidden lower priced sellers....Not on every item or every search will you find hidden sellers, but they pop up with thorough searches plenty often... 

 

A few ways to find the hidden lower priced sellers are......

 

#1...Let's say you're looking for a toaster........Do the usual search and click on the lowest priced toasters....Then pull the page to the bottom(where other toasters will be recommended) and click on some more low cost toasters recommendations.....Then pull those pages to the bottom and click those...etc etc

 

The way the Search  Algorithm is set up is it will recognize you keep clicking on lower priced toasters and it will keep recommending ever cheaper toasters until you (after a number of clicks), you hit the rock bottom priced toasters.........If you click on the most expensive toasters the Algorithm will keep recommending you ever more expensive toasters......

 

#2...Another way I find the hidden sellers is to do a google Image search.......Just type in toasters Shopee or toasters Lazada  (Both Image search)  .....You will see a bunch of pictures of toasters.......The vast majority of the images will be toasters you already looked at, or toaster they no longer carry........But sometimes and sometimes more than sometimes you can find low cost hidden sellers here.........The only way to know for sure is to click on every single one of these product pictures both from Lazada and Shopee.....

Time consuming? Yep it sure is, but hey Cheap Charlies usually have more time than money..lol

 

I have found some pretty nice savings this way....

 

Hey we want to save every last baht here so it pays to pay attention to shipping costs.....

Sometimes the very cheapest price is not really the very cheapest price when shipping cost is included.....Loads of the very cheapests sellers want to charge top end shipping cost and I am sure pocket the difference for the real shipping cost.....I have bought from the 2nd or 3rd cheapest sellers plenty of times to get the cheapest price when shipping cost was included..

 

 

Well I am sure a bunch of you guys already know all of this......But I hope this might help a few people out there save some money........

Edited August 15, 20223 yr by redwood1

Thanks mate, super info.

On the Lazada website, there is the option to view search results by PRICE....low to high.

How do you get the free shipping on Shopee? that's not easy to find whereas easy on Lazada

And of course.... the ‘bait and switch’... 

 

A lot of vendors are getting quite tricky..... Lazada lets them get away with it... 

 

Search for a toaster - 25 baht...  Cheap !!!  Click on it... Cheap.. but there is a photo of plug !!!..

Scroll across to the toaster and its 630 baht... 

The problem of course is having to search through all the BS and chaff of vendors who are trying to be tricky.... 

 

 

I’ve found a new game... 

 

Find the cheapest toaster...   205 baht so far..  + 34 baht delivery.

When you  check out on Shopee you can enter a discount voucher code but I've never seen them offered. Where can you get these codes for Shopee and Lazada?

6 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

When you  check out on Shopee you can enter a discount voucher code but I've never seen them offered. Where can you get these codes for Shopee and Lazada?

 

I don't use Shopee but on Lazada discounts are offered next to the seller's name on your cart. 

 

Never seen one where you enter a code in that box ???? 

1 minute ago, Baht Simpson said:

When you  check out on Shopee you can enter a discount voucher code but I've never seen them offered. Where can you get these codes for Shopee and Lazada?

The discount codes (if they are working) are right there on the product page...Just click where it says discount code to see them.....But most of the discounts are real Yawners....1% 2% off.... Yawn......Or spend 1,000 baht to get 3% off .....Yawn.......Once in a great while I have found a ok 5-10% discount but not often...

Whilst we are on the subject of Lazada and friends, what do you think of items "Delivered by Seller"?

 

 

I've had a couple of items that got "stuck" on the way to me, they all got delivered eventually (having taken a very "interesting" route when tracking was eventually forthcoming) but I try to avoid unless there are no other options.

 

16 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Whilst we are on the subject of Lazada and friends, what do you think of items "Delivered by Seller"?

 

 

I've had a couple of items that got "stuck" on the way to me, they all got delivered eventually (having taken a very "interesting" route when tracking was eventually forthcoming) but I try to avoid unless there are no other options.

 

Delivery not as good for sure but not a dealbreaker 

18 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Whilst we are on the subject of Lazada and friends, what do you think of items "Delivered by Seller"?

 

 

I've had a couple of items that got "stuck" on the way to me, they all got delivered eventually but I try to avoid unless there are no other options.

 

Same here. Ads need to scrutinised carefully to check this very issue. Also you often don’t know when the item’s likely to be arriving when being ‘delivered by seller’.

 

It’s a nuisance but sometimes can’t be avoided if they’re the only place that has exactly what’s required or provides the best price.

 

 

Edited August 15, 20223 yr by ArnieP

2 hours ago, redwood1 said:

Just to let you know how cheap I am, I will switch sellers to save 5 baht,and will search for a extra 20 minutes in the hopes of finding a 10 baht lower price.....lol

if this was your job you would be making less than a burmese migrant worker. 

 

like driving an extra 20 miles to save 50 cents. 

Just now, scubascuba3 said:

Delivery not as good for sure but not a dealbreaker 

 

Yeah.

 

My biggest issue was a "not inexpensive" (no COD) item that was flagged as "delivered" by the seller as soon as he handed it over to his "delivery partner". He did actually send tracking info when I messaged him, but it still took 3 days when Kerry would have been next (or even same) day as the collecting office was the same as our local office.

 

Does it make any difference what card you use for either of these sites

 

I see Kasikorn bank have an online shopping card or do they accept UK credit cards just as easily and are there any benefits to using one or the other ?

13 minutes ago, Padthaigoong said:

Does it make any difference what card you use for either of these sites

 

I see Kasikorn bank have an online shopping card or do they accept UK credit cards just as easily and are there any benefits to using one or the other ?

i use my UK credit card and sometimes truemoneywallet and COD, no difference

You've missed one trick.

 

If the item cannot be found with the Lazada or Shopee search facility, do the exact same search on the Google Search, and it'll provide not only links to Lazada/Shopee and many others that didn't even appear within their websites/Apps, but often also the cheapest prices.

 

The only downside is they might no longer be selling or are sold out. Worth it for obscure items. And where you are on the hunt for cheap. 

3 minutes ago, Gaccha said:

You've missed one trick.

 

If the item cannot be found with the Lazada or Shopee search facility, do the exact same search on the Google Search, and it'll provide not only links to Lazada/Shopee and many others that didn't even appear within their websites/Apps, but often also the cheapest prices.

 

The only downside is they might no longer be selling or are sold out. Worth it for obscure items. And where you are on the hunt for cheap. 

You're right. Enter the item you search for in google and add Priceza to the search term

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

Yeah.

 

My biggest issue was a "not inexpensive" (no COD) item that was flagged as "delivered" by the seller as soon as he handed it over to his "delivery partner". He did actually send tracking info when I messaged him, but it still took 3 days when Kerry would have been next (or even same) day as the collecting office was the same as our local office.

 

I have had similar issues with those kinds of listings, and Lazada customer support was not helpful either, so since then I skip over them as soon as I see shipped by seller.

Besides Lazada and Shopee there are plenty of others to find good deals, especially if you are looking for some bigger or special items, like a used PC or even car. Baht & Sold, classifieds on Facebook and also Ebay! I tried them all.

And yes it is worth comparing. Some items sold on Lazada with a big discount are even cheaper on Shopee. Last year I bought a gravel bike. Lazada: big discount: from 95.000 to 37.000 Baht. Then I looked in Shopee, exactly the same bike (brand and built) for 25000 Baht! Same goes for my projector (not same price, but difference). Amounts differ sometimes into the thousands and not just one or two baht.

3 years ago I bought a PC on Baht & Sold from a guy who lived in Phuket. I paid around 18000 Baht for it. The GPU in that thing was worth more then I paid for the whole machine. And even now it runs without any issues.

Shopping around pays. 

But sometimes I prefer to pay a little more in a shop than to order it from any of the online stores. Once I bought a phone from Lazada. It was good, but those are items I prefer (also second hand) to buy from the shop where I can hold it in my hands.

What the online shops offer though are items that are hard to find in any regular shop. That's the beauty of buying online.

16 hours ago, Crossy said:

Whilst we are on the subject of Lazada and friends, what do you think of items "Delivered by Seller"?

 

 

I've had a couple of items that got "stuck" on the way to me, they all got delivered eventually (having taken a very "interesting" route when tracking was eventually forthcoming) but I try to avoid unless there are no other options.

 

But for some items it is valid as they will take care in transport and/or assemble for you - recently purchased an electric bed that would have been a nightmare DIY.  

Also, use the app on your mobile phone. They give a lot more free shipping (especially Shoppee) vouchers to entice you to buy via the app because you have that with you nearly all the time and might be tempted to buy something on the go when you wouldn't think to buy it sat at your pc.

11 minutes ago, Carlosm said:

Also, use the app on your mobile phone. They give a lot more free shipping (especially Shoppee) vouchers to entice you to buy via the app because you have that with you nearly all the time and might be tempted to buy something on the go when you wouldn't think to buy it sat at your pc.

how do you get the shoppee free shipping vouchers? no one's clarified yet

19 hours ago, KannikaP said:

On the Lazada website, there is the option to view search results by PRICE....low to high.

It sounds like a lot of fun.☹️

39 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

how do you get the shoppee free shipping vouchers? no one's clarified yet

They make the (so called) free shipping so complicated that most people I think would rather pay.....Which is exactly what they want...

27 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

They make the (so called) free shipping so complicated that most people I think would rather pay.....Which is exactly what they want...

Yes i do unless i can buy on Lazada for less

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

how do you get the shoppee free shipping vouchers? no one's clarified yet

Login. Go to 'my account' (top bar, your user name). Scroll down to 'my vouchers. 

I tend to look for items that I think are reasonably priced, also at the product and seller ratings. If it says coming from overseas on Lazada, not interested.

Having said that, the OP is right. I was looking for a meat thermometer, I thought this is BS, the prices are 500 - 700 baht.

Sure enough, when I kept clicking and going through the pages, I got a meat thermometer for 77 baht, including shipping, from a reputable seller.

24 minutes ago, Carlosm said:

Login. Go to 'my account' (top bar, your user name). Scroll down to 'my vouchers. 

this one? cost 30 baht?

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

this one? cost 30 baht?