Online shopping
I don’t shop online as much as I used to in my youth. At that time, e-commerce was not that developed in Singapore but Amazon was already a name to be reckoned with in the US with locals starting threads to share deals during its sales and package forwarding service was fast taking off to feed the burgeoning consumer demand for shopping overseas. I would scour ebay and Amazon for items to add to my collection. I was intimately familiar with the airmail rates for USPS.
Now I’m past the age of collecting things. Online shopping is mainly for non-expensive items that are priced more competitively compared to brick and mortar shops (screen protector, mobile phone cases) or stuff whose quality I am familiar with because I have bought them before (eg food, toiletries). For clothes, I still prefer seeing the quality of the actual item and trying them on before buying. The platforms I use more often are Shopee and Lazada. I will compare the prices if the same item can be found on both.
Amazon has a lot of catching up to do in Singapore as it entered the market late and the Chinese shopping platforms are very aggressive with their promotions but Singapore is a small market anyway. I will confess it took me a while to be familiar with Shopee and Lazada as the interface is modelled after Chinese shopping apps and can be bewildering to browse through. I often end up forgetting to apply certain coupons to maximise the discounts. In contrast, Amazon’s interface is clean and easy to understand even for a first-timer.
Investing in familiar brands is a great way to start one’s investment journey as one has a better understanding of the business operations. The very first stock I invested in was $Singtel(Z74.SG$ . Although I don’t shop at Amazon these days, if I were to choose to invest in an e-retailer, I would choose $Amazon(AMZN.US$ as it has a proven track record, a large customer base and vast experience in the industry. It has the financial power to continually invest to defend its moat. It has also diversified into cloud computing which is a growing industry. It is no wonder it has been a key constituent of $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US$ .
Disclaimer: The above is my personal opinion. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to invest. Please consult a financial advisor and do your due diligence before doing any investment.
Disclaimer: Community is offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. and is for educational purposes only.
Read more
Comment
Sign in to post a comment
Benji_123 : Got make money Bro?
阿花。 : What do you think of DBS, is it appropriate to enter a higher position now?![[undefined]](https://static.moomoo.com/nnq/emoji/static/image/default/default-black.png?imageMogr2/thumbnail/36x36 "undefined")
aoimizu : When it crashed in Nov last year I wanted to buy in but didn't ...feeling stupid now but oh wells ...bout the money elsewhere is same ...![[undefined]](https://static.moomoo.com/nnq/emoji/static/image/default/default-black.png?imageMogr2/thumbnail/36x36 "undefined")
费北敬 : i just started online shopping w shoppee this year![[undefined]](https://static.moomoo.com/nnq/emoji/static/image/default/default-black.png?imageMogr2/thumbnail/36x36 "undefined")
Dadacai OP 费北敬 : How are you liking it?
Dadacai OP aoimizu : Happened to me with other stocks too. There will be other chances, I’m sure.
Dadacai OP Benji_123 : Not for this one. Thanks for asking.
Benji_123 Dadacai OP : sorry to hear that Bro!
Dadacai OP 阿花。 : I hold this stock for a long time. Let's see if it will pull back and add positions. This is not investment advice.
phady05 : Is Amazon worth the long-term investment?
View more comments...