online shopping

what's the HK equivalent of Amazon?


and why won't Amazon UK/ US delivery many of thier products to HK, I tried to buy a bunch of books & baby stuff and all the baby stuff and some of the books came up unable to deliver.


thanks

"and why won't Amazon UK/ US delivery many of thier products to HK, I tried to buy a bunch of books & baby stuff and all the baby stuff and some of the books came up unable to deliver."


As Jot says, apart from books Amazon is in large part a third party supplier conduit. Those suppliers may not deliver to Hong Kong.



As for the HK equivalent, there isn't one. It's the dark ages here. ;)

Well, since HK's so convenient people prefer to shop out there... check out the top floor of Times Square and Ocean Terminal, lots of baby stuff ...

I don't know about that sandrabrown. HK is far less convenient than the US for most shopping. With free or nominal shipping and most anything available online, I seldom went to a store apart from the grocery ones when we lived in the US. Even odd and "hard to find" items could be located with a search and ordered to my doorstep.


Also most places in the US have a whole slew of superstores in close proximity.


A couple of examples:

- To get hiking gear here, I first have to physically go to Protrek or equivalent, and they may or may not have what I want. In the US, I could simply go on Amazon, eBay or a whole load of other sites and find ANY item without leaving the house.

- I wanted a particular kind of light bulb. I looked around in dozens of stores in different areas before I finally found it. In the US I could just order it in about 2 minutes. Bulbs.com is one site with about 3400 different kinds of bulb.

- I like Science Fiction but the SciFi sections in HK bookstores range from sad to non-existent. In the US, Amazon.com has pretty much any book in print and mediates third party stores selling second hand books.

- I love the Wan Chai Computer Centre. But you have to look through dozens of stores and if something isn't there or in one of the other places it can be hard to find. In the US I simply logged on to Newegg.com, which has most anything at excellent prices. (By the way I do love the WCCC but it's not THAT convenient).


I'm not saying HK is bad. I enjoy the detective work and like walking around the streets. But it is anything but convenient compared to shopping online.



"Well, since HK's so convenient people prefer to shop out there..."


That's not the reason. The reason is that they have no other choice. Who knows what would happen with ubiquitous online shopping.

"you are just going about it the wrong way"


What would be the right way?



Let's put this timway.com portal thing to the test then:

- I searched on books/western on timway.com. I get two links: Amazon.com and bn.com (Barnes & Noble). Both are in the US.

- I looked for some PC components. Lots of links went to manufacturers, so that's useless for this purpose. There are a few online stores but have rather small selections. Going to WCCC would be a 10x more efficient.

- etc...


Ok, so I CAN shop online. But the whole convenience of online superstores like Amazon and Newegg is gone since there is no local equivalent. I have just replaced physical hunting with online hunting. And it's difficult to comparison shop without sites like froogle.com.


I'll revise my statement. If you do read Chinese you can shop online for quite a few items in HK. But even then the selection and ease of comparison doesn't begin to approach what you get in the US.

you can try paddyfields.com or yesasia.com

Paddyfields is indeed decent for books. But I still can't buy second hand books through them like I can with Amazon. In the US I'd buy about two thirds of books second hand and save tons.


Yesasia I had never heard of, but that's a pretty nice site. The layout is an ugly clone of the previous generation Amazon one.


Thanks C, you have proved me somewhat wrong. There's still no Froogle here but at least I can get some decent shopping done online. For some items. God forbid I need a strange light bulb though.

thanks everyone,


it was a specific changing bag made by skip*hop i left mine in the back of a taxi. I tried mothercare and bumbs & babies, in the end I've resorted to amazon who as they will not deliver to HK, I've ordered it in the UK and had it sent to my mum who will bring it over when she visits.


ta


zip

mrssmith, I have honestly gone to a dozen bookstores in Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui. I'm not mad because I can't find the stuff I want in stores. That's quite normal in the US as well. I was just a bit miffed about having to order it from the US.


In any case it seems that Paddyfields has what I want so that's fine. Timway seems to be just an alternative to Google quite frankly.

I saw they had skip*hop at Mothercare in Prince's bldg earlier, not sure if they still do. Otherwise, thk goodness for eBay!

bumps to babe sells skip hop diaper bags as well.