bookrebus Chapter 112 Online Shopping Learning
Chapter 112 Online Shopping Learning
The afternoon sun lazily shone in the community garden. Li Yuan had just returned from buying groceries when she saw her neighbor, Sister Wang, who was the same age as her, sitting on a bench, sighing.
"Sister Wang, what's wrong? You look so worried." Li Yuan stepped forward and asked with concern.
Sister Wang looked up and said helplessly, "It's all because of online shopping. My daughter buys this and that online all day long, it seems so convenient. I was thinking of learning how to do it myself, but once I started fiddling with the phone, I didn't understand anything. It feels even harder than the math problems I had in school!"
Upon hearing this, Li Yuan's eyes lit up: "Sister Wang, what a coincidence! I was just thinking of learning online shopping! You know, at our age, we can't fall behind the times. At the company, I often see my colleagues receiving packages, all smiles. I've been thinking, there must be some tricks to it, and I should learn it too."
Sister Wang seemed to have found a kindred spirit, and she took Li Yuan's hand and said, "That's great! Let's learn from each other, and maybe we can learn faster. I only know Taobao, but when I open it, there are all sorts of things, and I don't know where to start."
Li Yuan took out her phone from her pocket and sat down next to Sister Wang. "Sister Wang, I heard from the younger people in the company that the first step to online shopping is to have a shopping app. Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are all commonly used. I'll download Taobao first; I heard it has everything." With that, Li Yuan opened her phone's app store and started searching for Taobao.
In no time, the Taobao app was downloaded. Li Yuan opened the app, registered, and logged in in one go, which amazed Sister Wang: "Yuan'er, you're quite skilled at this, much better than me."
Li Yuan laughed and said, "I'm just learning this on the spot. I've seen my son playing with a mobile phone before, so I have some recollection of it. Look, Sister Wang, after logging in, there's a search box here. If you want to buy something, just enter the keywords here. For example, if you want to buy a piece of clothing, just enter 'women's clothing', then click search, and a lot of pictures and descriptions of clothing will appear."
Sister Wang leaned closer to Li Yuan's phone and looked at it carefully: "Wow, so many! How am I supposed to choose?"
“That’s where things get interesting,” Li Yuan said seriously. “You have to look at the sales volume and reviews. High sales volume means more people are buying it, so the quality should be pretty good. Good reviews mean that everyone thinks it’s good. Look here, click into the product details page, there’s a size chart here, you have to choose the right size according to your body shape. You also have to look at the color and style carefully.”
Sister Wang nodded, seemingly understanding, "There's really a lot to learn here. So, once you've chosen, how do you buy it?"
"After you've made your selection, click the 'Buy Now' button, then fill in your shipping address and contact information, and choose your payment method. There are many payment methods, such as WeChat Pay and Alipay, but you need to link your bank card or have money in your account before you can pay," Li Yuan patiently explained.
Sister Wang frowned and said, "Is this payment safe? I've heard there are a lot of scammers online."
Li Yuan waved her hand: "Sister Wang, as long as you operate on legitimate software, and are careful to protect your account password and avoid clicking on unknown links, you'll generally be fine. Big platforms like Taobao have security measures in place. Look, let me demonstrate how to add a shipping address." As she spoke, Li Yuan guided Sister Wang step by step on how to fill in the address information.
"What if it doesn't fit after you buy it? Can you return it?" Sister Wang asked another question.
"Returns are possible, which is one of the advantages of online shopping," Li Yuan replied. "Usually, the product details page has return and exchange policies, with a time limit. Within this period, if you don't like it or there are quality issues, you can contact the seller for a return and refund. A courier will then come to pick it up, which is very convenient."
Sister Wang suddenly realized, "Oh, I see. Online shopping is really great. I was worried it might be unreliable. By the way, you mentioned JD.com and Pinduoduo, what's the difference between them and Taobao?"
Li Yuan thought for a moment and said, "JD.com is more reliable for electronics and home appliances, and the logistics are fast; Pinduoduo has some more affordable items and often has group-buying events. However, each platform has its own characteristics, so it depends on what you want to buy. I've heard that some young people compare prices on different platforms to see which one is the best deal."
"This is quite troublesome, it must take a lot of time, right?" Sister Wang said.
“It might be a little slow at first, but you’ll get faster once you get used to it. And sometimes when there are promotional events, like ‘Double 11’ or ‘618’, the discounts are huge, and you can save a lot of money. My colleague bought a lot of things during ‘Double 11’ and said they were more than half the price of usual,” Li Yuan said with envy.
Sister Wang became interested: "When does this event start? Can we participate?"
"Yes, you can participate. These events usually start their promotion several days in advance, and there will be various coupons and red envelopes available on the app. We can add the items we want to buy to our shopping cart in advance, and then check if the prices have dropped after the event starts before placing our order. However, we should also be careful not to be misled by those dazzling promotional tactics, as some items may not be much cheaper, so we need to do the math carefully," Li Yuan reminded.
"Wow, there are so many tricks to this," Sister Wang exclaimed. "So how can we know which things are really a good deal?"
"That depends on your usual accumulation of knowledge," Li Yuan said. "You can follow some bloggers and experts. They will share their online shopping experiences and strategies, what things are worth buying, and what are the pitfalls. I saw a blogger on Douyin who talked about how to find high-quality and cost-effective items online. I learned a lot from him."
"You can learn online shopping through TikTok?" Sister Wang asked in surprise.
“Of course, you can find everything on Douyin. Not only are there shopping guides, but also live-streaming e-commerce. Some hosts will demonstrate products live, introduce their functions and usage methods, and also offer special deals. You can place your order directly in the live stream.” Li Yuan said, opening Douyin and showing Wang Jie several videos about online shopping.
Watching the video, Sister Wang couldn't help but sigh, "This era is changing too fast; we really can't keep up."
Li Yuan encouraged her, "Sister Wang, don't be discouraged. We'll learn slowly. Once you learn how to shop online, it will be much more convenient to buy things in the future. You won't have to go to the mall anymore and get tired and sore. Plus, you can buy some things that you can't buy locally. Isn't that great?"
After that, Li Yuan and Sister Wang began their first online shopping experience. Li Yuan decided to buy a simple household item first—a towel. She opened Taobao, searched for "towel," and then carefully filtered the products using the methods she had learned before. She found a towel with high sales volume and good reviews, checked the material, size, and other information on the details page, and then clicked "Buy Now," successfully completing the payment process.
Ms. Wang, somewhat nervously, chose to buy a small desktop organizer. During her search, she kept asking Li Yuan various questions, which Li Yuan patiently answered. After finally selecting the organizer, Ms. Wang encountered a problem at payment: she had forgotten her payment password. Li Yuan quickly comforted her and helped her retrieve the password step by step, eventually completing the payment.
In the days that followed, they eagerly awaited the arrival of their packages. When the courier called to notify them to pick up their orders, both were overjoyed. After receiving the towels, Li Yuan carefully inspected them and found the quality to be excellent, matching the seller's description. She happily told Sister Wang, "See, online shopping is pretty reliable!" Sister Wang also received her storage box. Although the process had been somewhat complicated, she smiled with satisfaction upon seeing the actual product: "Yes, it'll be so much more convenient to buy things from now on."
With this successful experience, Li Yuan and Sister Wang's enthusiasm for online shopping grew even stronger. They began to try buying more types of goods, from clothes and shoes to home furnishings, gradually mastering the skills and processes of online shopping, and enjoying the convenience and fun it brought.