Selective shopping required
Recently, I've been talking to a friend online who has been working in China for a few years. Somehow or another, our conversation lead to online shopping (of cos, I am afterall an online shopaholic) And I mentioned that I see that there are a lot of people getting stuff from China nowadays. Especially sprees, then introduce her to the concept of spreeing in Singapore and showed her the few sprees community livejournals. :)
Well, of course she is AMAZED. :) And she told me, in China (actually the trend is coming up everywhere in the world I think), they also have group purchase one, they call it "tuan gou", but usually they group purchase stuff from overseas labels. Because China imported stuff are really really expensive, due to the heavy import tax levy on foreign brands. And most of the Chinese themselves, would not really buy the "imported stuff" that are selling really cheap in China, because 99% it will be fake.
It is alright for apparels and stuff she says and I totally agree especially if you want to get really CHEAP clothes. But she saw that a lot of sprees are dealing with cosmetics, skincare, etc. And she cautioned me against buying it/joining the sprees. "Don't take chances with your face." she says. You never know if it is fake.
Thing is, most of the time, I am only crazy about Korea and Japan stuff. But then again, most of the stuff that are related to cosmetics and skincare are from Korea/Japan, haha. But luckily I am particular about getting stuff from the country itself. Which is why I started organizing sprees myself.
Just sharing some of the stuff she ask me to take note of to whoever is reading this and is interested to know:
- There are a lot of Skinfood fakes around in China. Just search for skinfood with the chinese word "zhen jia" and you will see a lot of Chinese themselves discussing about the it. Most of it is sold on taobao. Brands like laneige, missha must be wary too when purchasing from taobao.
- There might be fake BB creams selling in China. She herself cannot really confirmed which brands. But as this BB trend is really popular now, a lot of factories are coming out with the fakes to try to ride on this trend. But she read about some of it in some Chinese forums she visited now and then.
- Be careful when shopping at taobao. As usual apparels and clothes are fine, but stuff like cosmetics and skincare, better don't.
- When they themselves state direct from Korea, direct from Japan. It is your choice to believe them. But don't take chances with your face.
- For Taobao, most of the stuff are meant for originally sale within China only. Which means they are not really particular about quality as they do not have to fulfill export standards.
And I am ending off with a slight note about stuff from Korea.
I've been checking with my agent on some stuff that I bought from Korea. Especially for bags and shoes and accessories.
And of course checking with some of my Korean friends.
Here's the facts:
Almost all shoes and accessories (that are relatively cheap) are MADE IN CHINA. And that doesn't mean it is inferior quality. Most of the MADE IN KOREA shoes are at least SGD50-60 and way above.
Almost all bags below SGD60 are MADE IN CHINA too.
Here's the reasons, most of these manufacturers locate their factories in China now to save on production costs. This doesn't mean that quality is no good. Afterall these are exported goods, to be meant to be exported to other countries. Exported goods must meet with a certain standard before it can be exported. (In this aspect, I must clarify the meaning of exported goods. It doesnt mean that if they shipped to you from china, means it is exported goods. Exported goods means that the production of the goods themselves are meant for export in the first place and the rights belong to the company that request the production of these goods. Example, NIKE, ADIDAS. etc. )
And yes, I have to admit that after confirming the facts, some of the bags in my previous bag sprees should be made in china, most probably. But I really import it from Korea and some of the suppliers in Korea do not state where their bags are manufactured from.
For bags, example of a popular bag site in Korea (whose photos/designs are famous for being imitated), http://www.suanna.co.kr.
They have a Suanna factory in China which produce their own bags. So almost all their bags are made in China. But all are meant for export.
And lastly, Koreans have very strong legal rights to their photos within their country themselves. It means that most of the time, if you are a Korean wanting to sell items in Korea, you have to take your own images with your own stock of items. If the original owner finds out that you are using their photos to sell, you can incur huge legal costs. That is why each shop have their own set of images, even if the items are similar to other shops. Which being said, 99% of the time, it is the actual items being photographed. But just take note of color difference, lighting difference, color conversion due to compression of images.
You know that a spree organizer is lying if she/he says that their apparels are from Korea and their photos have Taiwan models (mixture of Korean and Taiwan photos/models).
Lastly, how do you know if your spree organizer is getting the original authentic item from Korea itself. Let's go back to the example of http://www.suanna.co.kr, if the bag you have is supposed to be from there (meaning you bought the bag based on the photos which you know belongs to there), then the supplier should have the ability to get any bags that belongs to suanna. Think about why yourself. :)
Hope all these information helps. And I hope I did not offend anyone by writing this post. :)