How To Shop And Buy Online

Online shopping is no more a new thing today as the whole buying and selling process is gradually shifting to the internet.  If you need to know how to shop and buy online, then you have come to the right place. There are numerous import portals where you can shop and buy from. It is essential to know how to go about this. This will be fully treated in this series.

In this series, we shall look at how to shop and buy online from China, USA and the UK.

How To Shop And Buy From China Online

We can buy online from China using various import portals but for the purpose of this course, we will be making use of Aliexpress. Aliexpress is owned by Alibaba. It is a site that houses retailers of cheap products such as electronics, fashion materials, household gadgets etc. Most of their products are Chinese products and they offer more than 11 million unique products.

However, before proceeding, let’s look at the things that are needed:

• Means Of Payment

The best and secured means of payment to use when shopping and buying online from China is the debit ATM card issued by our banks.

Presently, I’m very sure of the GTB Debit MasterCard and Access Debit Visa Card. The GTB card needs to be activated for online transaction and a secure code (referred to as Token) will be issued. This will help to secure your card from any fraudulent practices online. A fee is however charged for issuing the token.

The Access Visa Card also needs to be activated for online transaction but no token is offered for this. You can activate the card for online transaction by changing the IPin on any ATM with the VISA logo. You can ask the ATM attendant to assist you with this.

You need to have an account with these banks before these cards can be issued.

• Shipping Address

When you shop and buy online, your goods will be delivered to this address. It can be your residential or office address, just ensure it is valid and traceable. Do not use P.O Box as your shipping address. If you choose the free shipping option, your goods will be shipped to the nearest post office to your shipping address.

Below is the format for writing a full and valid shipping address:

Name,

Address,

City,

State,

Country,

Zip/ Postal code

Phone Number

For example, the address I currently use for shipping my goods is:

Ojedokun Adedamola,

Old Oyo National Park, Isokun,

Oyo,

Oyo,

Nigeria,

211242,

2347033163088

I believe that is taken.

To get the zip/ postal code of your shipping address (i.e. the city in your shipping address), use http://www.geopostcodes.com. Visit the site and understand how it works.

• Billing Address

This is different from the shipping address and they should not be confused for each other. The billing address is the address you used when opening your bank account (i.e. the address attached to your ATM card).

How To Register On Aliexpress

Now that we know what are needed before we shop and buy online, let’s go through how to buy from China using Aliexpress.

The first thing to do is to register an account with the site. This will be done by following these steps:

1.       Visit www.aliexpress.com. You will see:

2.       Click ‘Join’ or ‘Sign Up Using Facebook.’ When you click ‘Join,’ you will have the page below, enter the necessary information.

3.       After filling in your details and hitting ‘Create Your Account,’ a message congratulating you and informing you that your registration was successful will be displayed.

4.       Go to the email you used to register and click on the confirmation link contained in the mail sent to you from Aliexpress. This is done to confirm your email address.

5.       When the above is done, a message congratulating you and informing you that your email address was successfully verified will be displayed.

That’s all. You are now are a registered Aliexpress user. This same step can be used to register with other import portals. It is now time to search for what you want to buy but that will be treated in the next post.

I hope this post helps. If you have any questions, contribution or suggestion, kindly make use of the comment box below. Also, share this post using the share buttons as your friends and family members will find it very useful.