7 tips to enjoy the wonders of online shopping

7 tips to enjoy the wonders of online shopping Here is a handy list of tips to ensure that your online shopping experience will be a safe, secure, and successful one.

By Masaya Ueno,
The Star/ANN | 25-03-13

 

In this tech-savvy day and age, we are fortunate to be living in a well-connected world where we have one of the best developments of this century – online shopping.

With the mushrooming of virtual shopping portals in the e-commerce space, shoppers these days are spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping online.

With hardcore Malaysian shopaholics at the forefront of this trend, online shopping has been a lifesaver for those who tyre of braving the ever-present traffic jams, suffocatingly-packed parking lots, and nonplussed shop assistants.

If you've ever been caught in a mob of shoppers or agonizingly-long checkout queues, you'll know exactly what we're talking about.

Here's a handy list of tips to ensure that your online shopping experience will be a safe, secure, and successful one.

1. Know who you're buying from
In the online world, everything revolves around credibility and reliability. Choose certified online shopping sites with a solid e-commerce reputation globally where you can shop with a guarantee that you're buying products directly from legitimate merchants.

You don't want to end up with products that are fake or of lower quality, or even worse, purchases that fall through and leave you empty-handed.
 
2. Know what you're buying
Always read the details before making a purchase. A good online shopping site will provide you with as much information as possible about the product, as well as their terms and conditions.
 
Whether it's shipping costs or the return and exchange policy, always make sure that you know all the details before committing to buying anything. Don't let the fine print fool you.
 
3. Get rewarded for your purchase
Take advantage of websites that offer loyalty programs, where customers can accumulate points with each purchase and use them as a discount for their next purchase.
 
Some sites offer a discount when you sign up for the first time, use a certain credit card, or recommend a friend, so keep that in mind. Occasionally, bonus points are rewarded during promotional campaigns during festive periods so do keep an eye out for that!
 
4. See what others are saying
A lot of people shy away from online shopping because they can't see/touch/feel/try the product for themselves. One way to tackle this is to read reviews of the product or and find out the experience of other customers. Reviews by previous buyers will be the best indication of what the product is actually like in reality.
 
Another way to do this is by checking out community sharing sites like Pinterest, where other users can curate boards of their favourite products by categories. This can help you narrow down your search or find similar products that you might like.
 
5. Keep the receipt
Just like making a purchase in a physical store, it's good to keep the e-receipt for your online purchases.
 
If the item is not quite what you expected, your proof of purchase will make it easier to exchange, return it or get a refund.
 
6. Factor in shipping costs
The actual price of the product might be cheap, but shipping costs can be a silent killer. Don't forget to factor in the added cost for shipping, especially for an overseas shipment.
 
Another thing to watch out for is the possibility of extra fee for taxes, depending on where the product is shipped from. All these add-ons can sometimes amount to more than the cost of the actual product!
 
7. Check bank statements
Don't wait for your bill to come at the end of the month. Go online regularly during the festive season and look at electronic statements for your billing accounts. Make sure you don't see any fraudulent charges. You can never be too safe when it comes to keeping your personal finances secure.
 
With these quick tips, you'll be more than ready for your next online shopping experience.
(Masaya Ueno is the president and chief executive officer, Rakuten Online Shopping)

 

From bedroom to boardroom: UK teen turns tech millionaire

From bedroom to boardroom: UK teen turns tech millionaire

LONDON: Like many British teenagers, Nick D'Aloisio has a hole in the knee of his jeans and gets in trouble when his bedroom is untidy. Unlike most, the 17-year-old has just sold an app to Yahoo! for tens of millions of pounds.

The US tech giant announced on Monday that it is buying D'Aloisio's news-condensing mobile app Summly for an undisclosed figure reported to be around 20 million ($30 million) - making the London schoolboy one of the youngest self-made multi-millionaires on the planet.

D'Aloisio dreamed up Summly while revising for a history exam when he was 15 - but two years later he speaks of market share and intellectual property with the self-assurance of a CEO three times his age.

"Yahoo! is one of these classic, well-known Internet companies," he told AFP in an interview at the office of his London publicist, sprawled in a chair in maroon jeans and a t-shirt.

The tousle-haired teen hopes the Yahoo! deal will see the technology behind Summly - whose financial backers have included US actor Ashton Kutcher and Japanese artist Yoko Ono - reach an audience of "hundreds of millions of potential users".

D'Aloisio's journey to tech super-stardom began at the age of "nine or ten" when his parents, a lawyer and a banker, bought him his first laptop.

He taught himself how to video edit and before long moved on to programming - spending school holidays building apps at his home in leafy Wimbledon, south London, as "a hobby".

He launched his first iPhone app, a "workout for fingers" called Finger Mill, when he was 12. Others followed, including music app SongStumblr and Facemood, which attempted to predict a user's mood based on their Facebook status updates.

The big breakthrough came in 2011 when D'Aloisio launched Summly's forerunner Trimit, which cut down long web articles to tweet-length summaries.

The app received positive reviews from several tech blogs and quickly racked up tens of thousands of downloads.

Then, out of the blue, the teenager was contacted by representatives of Asia's richest man - Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

"They cold-emailed me," said D'Aloisio.

Li was the first investor to contact him and, not knowing what to do, the teenager ignored the message.

Two days later he was "stunned" when Li's people approached him again, and this time D'Aloisio agreed to a phone call.

"They didn't know I was a 15-year-old, so I had to explain that," he said with a smile.

"It was frightening. It was a hobby, I didn't expect this to happen. But at the same time, I had nothing to lose - I was a 15-year-old."

Li invested $300,000 in Trimit. D'Aloisio used the cash to develop the algorithm the app used to identify the key topics in a news article, working with scientists at Stanford University among others.

Summly officially launched in November last year, on D'Aloisio's 17th birthday - and the rest is history.

D'Aloisio will take up a job in Yahoo!'s London office in the next few weeks.

"I'll be integrating the Summly technology into different areas we feel are appropriate for Yahoo!, and more broadly helping them with their mobile product design," he told AFP.

He insisted that he will continue to live at home, resisting temptation to splash out on a teen bachelor pad.

His parents are "very enthusiastic" about his success, he said - but are keen to keep their son's feet on the ground.

"I still get in trouble if I don't have my room tidy," he said. The family celebrated the Yahoo! deal by going out for dinner.

As for buying himself a present with his multi-million pound windfall, it will be limited to "a bag or shoes or something".

"It's not going to be anything wild," he added. "I can't even buy a car because I don't have a licence yet."

As D'Aloisio starts work at Yahoo!, most of his friends - who he says are "psyched" about the Summly sale - will be finishing their A-Level exams before heading off to university.

D'Aloisio, meanwhile will begin studying for his A-Levels "outside office hours", and would love to read philosophy at Oxford University some day.

As for his long-term plans, nothing is set in stone - a point emphasised by the large question-mark printed on his t-shirt.

"Long-term I do want to do other companies," he said, adding that he was interested in working with artificial intelligence.

"We'll see what happens."
---- AFP

Just do it, says Yahoo's teen app millionaire

Just do it, says Yahoo's teen app millionaire

LONDON (REUTERS) - Got a tech idea and want to make a fortune before you're out of your teens? Just do it, is the advice of the London schoolboy who has just sold his smartphone news app to Yahoo for a reported US$30 million (S$37.4 million).

The money is there, just waiting for clever new moves, said 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, who can point to a roster of early backers for his Summly app that includes Yoko Ono and Rupert Murdoch.

"If you have a good idea, or you think there's a gap in the market, just go out and launch it because there are investors across the world right now looking for companies to invest in," he told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Monday.

The terms of the sale, four months after Summly was launched for the iPhone, have not been disclosed and Mr D'Aloisio, who is still studying for school exams while joining Yahoo as its youngest employee, was not saying. But technology blog AllThingsD said Yahoo paid roughly US$30 million.

Yahoo buys app from British teen

Yahoo buys app from British teen

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! announced plans Monday to buy mobile news reader app Summly from the London teenager who invented it, likely transforming him into one of the world's youngest self-made multimillionaires.

The company did not disclose the terms of the deal it struck with 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, but the London Evening Standard said Yahoo! would pay between 20-million pounds and 40-million pounds (US$30 to US$60 million).

"We're excited to share that we're acquiring Summly, a mobile product company founded with a vision to simplify the way we get information, making it faster, easier and more concise," Yahoo! said in a statement.
"At the age of 15, Nick D'Aloisio created the Summly app at his home in London. It started with an insight -- that we live in a world of constant information and need new ways to simplify how we find the stories that are important to us, at a glance."

Yahoo! said most articles and web pages were formatted for browsing with mouse clicks and that "the ability to skim them on a phone or a tablet can be a real challenge -- we want easier ways to identify what's important to us."

The California firm said that "Nick and the Summly team are joining Yahoo! in the coming weeks."

D'Aloisio said in a tweet: "@Summly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo!! Excited for the next chapter of Summly! Thanks to all who have supported me."

The Evening Standard said the Wimbledon youth, who would become one of the world's youngest technology millionaires, claims to have created the app as a hobby."I didn't realise it was possible to make money out of it," he was quoted as saying.

About the new inflow of cash, the youth said: "I like shoes, I will buy a new pair of Nike trainers and I'll probably get a new computer, but at the moment I just want to save and bank it. I don't have many living expenses."

Former Google executive Marissa Mayer took over at Yahoo! in July 2012 as part of efforts by the struggling Internet search pioneer to reinvent itself.----AFP/fl

British teenage whiz strikes deal with Yahoo

LONDON: One of Britain’s youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo.

Seventeen-year-old Nick d’Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content-shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn’t disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal’s value at several million dollars.

“I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly,” he wrote on his website, before thanking his family, his school — and his venture capitalist backer Li Ka-Shing — for supporting him.

Summly works by condensing content so readers can scroll through more information more quickly — useful for the small screens of smartphones.

The deal announced Monday is Yahoo’s fifth small acquisition in the past five months. All of them have been part of CEO Marissa Mayer’s effort to attract more engineers with expertise in building services for smartphones and tablet computers, an increasingly important area of technology that she believes the Internet company had been neglecting.

Although the Yahoo acquisition won’t close until later this spring, D’Aloisio said the Summly will no longer be available. Summly’s technology will return in other Yahoo products, he said.

D’Aloisio will work for Yahoo in its London office — in part so that he can complete his high school exams. Two other Summly workers will join Yahoo at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters.

D’Aloisio is younger than Yahoo, which was incorporated in March 1995.
---- AP

Online shopping boom in Asia

Online shopping boom in Asia

Thu, Dec 13, 2012

The Straits Times

 

Online shopping boom in Asia

by Lee Seok Hwai

 

TAIPEI - One consumer ordered a year's supply of sanitary napkins. Another, who was not happy with a newly purchased notebook computer, returned it after more than a week.

And if that mail-order dress does not fit, the courier who delivered it will take it back to the store, free of charge.

This is the world of online shopping for millions of increasingly wired but also increasingly time-starved consumers in Asia's biggest and most developed economies. It is instant gratification at the click of a button, with after-sales service as a bonus.

Last year, online merchants rang up sales totalling $344.6 billion in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. All five economies saw significant growth compared to the year before, ranging from 8 per cent in the relatively mature market of Japan, to 67.8 per cent in China, which has the lowest Internet penetration rate of just 40 per cent.

In Singapore, consumers spent $1.4 billion, or 33 per cent more than in 2010, according to online payment firm PayPal and research company Nielsen.

A case in point: China's largest online shopping portal Taobao reported record one-day sales of 19 billion yuan (S$3.7 billion) on Nov11, when the country marked "Singles' Day".

Bank executive Guan Xin was one of the more than 200 million Chinese - attached or otherwise - who marked that day with some virtual retail therapy. She spent about 3,000 yuan in total on a pair of running shoes, an MP4 player, a mobile phone charger, and even a mop and pail, whose prices were heavily marked down.

"It's faster to buy online. I already knew what I wanted," said Ms Guan, 27.

So did one of her friends, who bought a year's supply of sanitary napkins.

Ms Guan is archetypal of the region's online shopper, according to analysts: Aged between late teens and 30s, willing and able to spend, as well as tech-savvy enough to search for the best bargains with just a few clicks.

And the types of products they buy are expanding beyond long-time favourites clothes and accessories, electronic gadgets and air tickets, to daily necessities and food.

The Japanese now make 20 per cent of their daily purchases at online stores, according to a recent survey by Nikkei business daily.

In Taiwan, top online retailer PChome sold a million packs of toilet paper rolls last year.
The item was ranked the second most popular - after consumer electronics - among NT$12.3 billion (S$516 million) worth of goods the company sold.

The trend presumably owes itself to good service.

Free delivery, sometimes with no minimum spending required, has become de rigueur and is a big plus for grocery purchases.

Many retailers also offer free returns and refunds - no questions asked - for faulty items or goods still in saleable condition.

Web services engineer Lee Yi-chiun, 37, once returned a notebook computer with a faulty screen to the online retailing arm of Yahoo Taiwan after using it for over a week.

"I got a full refund promptly, no problem," said Mr Lee, who is one of the company's "platinum" members, having racked up more than NT$1 million worth of purchases, including a washing machine and a refrigerator.

"I don't think a bricks-and- mortar shop would have been as generous," he said.

In China, shoppers at clothing retailer Vancl do not need to pay a cent until after the item is delivered to their door and they are happy with the size and fit. Those who are not satisfied with the garment - or are stricken with buyer's remorse - can send it back.

And lest shopping from the comfort of one's desk is not convenient enough, the prevalence of smartphones these days promises to bring the mall to consumers, wherever they may be.

In South Korea - home of Samsung - 10 million out of 37 million online shoppers last year made purchases on their mobile devices, according to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In Japan, purchases using smartphones make up 30 per cent of all online sales, while Hong Kong saw 13 per cent of online purchases carried out on mobile phones and 11 per cent on tablets, according to the findings of a Visa survey of 8,000 Internet users from Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Russia, the Philippines and South Africa this year.

Still, the online retail industry lags far behind its bricks-and-mortar counterparts.

Online retail sales in Japan, for instance, reached 8.5 trillion yen (S$125 billion) last year, but the figure accounted for just 2.8 per cent of total personal consumption in Japan.

The potential for the industry is thus immense, even though growth is showing signs of slowing years in the mature economies of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

But a MasterCard survey of online shopping attitudes in 25 economies early this year found a bigger increase in the number of consumers in the emerging markets of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia who access the Internet to do their shopping or have bought something online in the past three months, compared to the developed economies.

Singaporeans signing up for online courses

 

 

By Melissa Sim
The Straits Times
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012

     

Every Sunday, Ms Tan Yan Ling, 24, attends two hours of design lectures conducted by a professor from an Ivy League university.

But she did not have to to fill in application forms to get into the course or university, and she did not have to leave the comfort of her home in Singapore.

All she did was sign up for an account with online learning site Coursera and register for the University of Pennsylvania course.

What's more, the course is completely free.

Sites offering mass open online courses such as Coursera, edX and Udacity are partnering top universities and industry professionals, and leading the way in providing free world-class online education.

At the moment, Coursera offers 204 courses, while edX has nine courses and Udacity has 18.

These courses span an array of subjects from music and history to science and computing.

So anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can take Introduction To Computer Science from Harvard or Introduction To Astronomy from Stanford just by signing up.

Udacity, launched in January this year, has 800,000 enrolments, while Coursera, officially launched in April, has more than a million students. EdX was unable to respond by press time.

The Coursera spokesman told SundayLife! that as of August this year, about 9,000 of their students are from Singapore.

Associate Professor Manu Kapur, who heads the Learning Sciences Lab which researches learning and teaching at the National Institute of Education, says mass open online courses are catching on because of increasing competition among universities, the higher costs of tertiary education, and "a real hunger and enthusiasm for learning specialised skills and knowledge around the world".

Ms Tan, a design consultant, spends two hours a week watching video lectures, and two to three hours on her assignments, which include drawing a chair from different perspectives, and solving design problems and submitting them for peer grading, which she says has been very constructive and helpful.

Most courses are structured this way, with lectures, quizzes, peer-graded assignments and optional online forum discussions.

Udacity's head of business strategy and planning Clarissa Shen says the platform is "not just about streaming a physical classroom and putting what works in the classroom online".

Students also learn by "doing and not by listening", as is the case in a regular distance learning course, she says.

Courses usually last from four to 15 weeks and require anything from two to 15 hours of commitment each week.

Ms Tan says it was difficult having to juggle work, social commitments and the course.

She and a friend, Ms Samantha Yuen, 34, tried sharing notes and ideas to help each other through a course offered by the University of Pennsylvania on Gamification - applying game scenarios to solve real-life problems - but both were unable to complete the final assignment in time, and were not given a completion certificate.

Certificates of completion are offered for some courses, at the discretion of the university and instructor, and can be a real motivating factor for students.

Ms Erin Jeong, 24, an account executive, managed to complete an Introduction to Computer Science offered by Stanford University and received a completion certificate for her work.

"This particular course was for beginners like me and I managed to finish each week's worth of work way ahead of the deadline."

She says the certificate was a big motivator because it is "physical proof to show others, and yourself even, that you studied a particular course".

For Ms Yuen, a digital content manager, taking a Coursera course in Human-Computer Interaction, meant being able to take a course not usually offered in Singapore.

The hospitality graduate says she picked up most of her IT skills on the job and could not find "much digital training in Singapore".

Previous attempts to look for such courses were unsuccessful as the ones she found were held in Australia and cost between $2,000 and $4,000, which she felt was too expensive.

So when Coursera offered a Human-Computer Interaction course taught by Stanford University, she immediately signed up.

"It's definitely an opportunity to learn something not typically offered as a structure course in Singapore, and for free."

National University of Singapore computer engineering undergraduate Goh Eng Wei, 24, says the quality of the course he is getting at Coursera is "comparable if not better than what he is getting at university", in terms of teaching and content.

He is currently taking two courses: Cryptography from Stanford University and Neural Networks for Machine Learning from the University of Toronto.

But how is it possible that quality education is being dished out for free?

Coursera says it has secured US$22 million (S$27 million) in funding, while Udacity says it has a Series A investment, which in Silicon Valley speak usually means between US$2 million and US$10 million in venture capital investment.

EdX did not respond to press queries, but reports show that its founding partners Massachusetts Instutute of Technology and Harvard have committed a combined US$60 million in institutional support, grants and philanthropy.

The platforms are also exploring revenue streams such as opt-in job placement programmes and the possibility of paid certification.

But not all are convinced of the efficacy of such courses. Associate Professor Cho Hichang, from the department of communications and new media at the National University of Singapore, points out that "online learning can be a one way transfer where the teacher talks to the students. There are no group projects and the personal touch is missing".

He adds that findings on e-learning are "mixed".

"Some studies show it is almost comparable but not better than traditional classroom learning (although others have found the opposite). Some studies have found that students are less satisfied with online learning," he says.

While Prof Cho acknowledges that online learning is convenient and cost effective as one video can reach out to people all over the world, he feels that a combination of online and traditional learning is probably the best approach.

Ms Joyce Huang, who founded a group called SG Geek Girls, which teaches computer skills to women at minimal cost, says she often sends her students online videos to watch and then holds weekend tutorials for those who need extra help.

The 25-year-old marketing executive, who takes only a $10 administrative fee from students, is very much in favour of "democratising education and making it available to everybody".

Undergraduate Goh also thinks the concept of free online courses is "an amazing idea". "Education should not be restricted to only those who are rich, but those who want to do something good with their lives."

So perhaps mass open online courses are not just another passing Internet fad.

Nanyang Technological University Professor Kam Chan Hin, associate provost for undergraduate education, says the university has developed an e-learning platform for its own students but is "exploring partnerships with leading players of the e-learning consortia such as Coursera, edX, and Udacity".

NIE's Prof Kapur says: "Given that there are now efforts to look into designing accreditation systems for such courses, they have the potential to become even more popular because they allow learning no matter where you are, as long as you have an Internet connection."