Gmarket seller: synnara & 해피제주

I found some old photos of my past Gmarket hauls and decided to blog them all…I ordered Super Junior’s 5th album (repackaged) and a facial lifting mask for my sister in Oct 2011.

Ordered date: 11 Oct 2011
Shipped out from Korea date: 14 Oct 2011
Received in SG date: 17 Oct 2011
Cost (incl. overseas shipping): W47,420
Estimated weight / actual weight: 1.50kg / 0.41kg

This time, it was my “hubby” who sent me the Gmarket parcel. Tee Hee.

I ordered the repackaged album from Synnara, actual link to product here. I like buying from Synnara because my purchase count on the Hanteo chart and K chart. Besides that, they have great packaging for their albums and posters!

My sister is always into slimming stuff and she thought that the facial lifting mask would be good… but I had a great laugh when I saw it. It was like Hannibal Lecter! Here’s her boyfriend (reluctantly) modelling the mask. We bought this from 해피제주 – actual product link here. The seller can look into reducing the product weight because it’s actually really light… probably only 0.1kg per piece! Not 0.6kg!

The product was supposed to be like this:

But it looked like this on him:

HAHAHAHAHAHA! It was extremely tight and I don’t think we should use it coz he could hardly breathe with it!

Gmarket Haul #8

As if shopping in Korea wasn’t enough, I had to come home and still order from Gmarket Korea. I tell you, shopping is truly addictive. Not so good for my wallet and bursting shoe cabinet though. This time, I held a mini spree/bulk order among myself and friends. Thanks to one of my friends, the parcel was as huge as my doggy. LOOK!

I was quite disciplined and didn’t buy much this time round… only a white Tshirt and some bra sets! Tee hee! My items are at the bottom of the photo,  whereas shopping queen’s items are in the box right on top, and everything you see on the left.

Links to white tshirt (seller: 하늘 소녀) and bra set (seller: 트와니). The white tshirt costs W9,900 while the bra sets (comes with free matching underwear!) ranged from W3,900 to W8,900.

My aunt also requested that I help her buy some Baviphat items (Apple All-In-One Peeling Gel) and I got her a Grape Anti-Wrinkle Gel Cream as well. However they made a mistake and delivered the Apple Sleeping Mask Pack instead! This is the first time that I have a wrong delivery, and I’m a little clueless on what to do. Hopefully the people managing the Gmarket Global facebook account can get back to me soon!

Update: Ok, I wish I will never ever have to go through another refund process with Gmarket again. It actually isn’t really the fault of Gmarket, it was the seller who sent me the wrong item, but it was such a pain in the back coz every time I emailed Gmarket regarding the status of my enquiry, they replied me back, requesting for the same information and pictures which I have sent like 10000x before! Absolutely annoying. All in all, it took me close to 3 months before the refund was made.

StrawberryNet haul

I bought some stuff from StrawberryNet sometime in Dec last year cos they were having a special offer which I couldn’t resist THEN. At that time, I was highly intrigued by Molton Brown after stumbling upon Skin Scrubs who loves Molton Brown. Luckily, SNet had some MBrown trial shower gels on offer, so I got 3 of the scents to try! Sadly, they all smell a little off to me… don’t really like them. I like receiving parcels (who doesn’t?? It’s so exciting!), and sometimes I think I’m ordering for the sake of being thrilled.

Gmarket Haul #7

Once again, Gmarket & EMS did it for me!!! Was really glad that my parcel came within 3 days after Gmarket posted it out because it came just in time for CNY! This time, I ordered some skincare samples for my MAS store, and also a pair of nude heels. Did I mention that I love nude heels? Really like the look!

Starting from left, I have Innisfree Pore Clay mask sachets (I really like this clay mask!), Innisfree Acai berry mask sheets, Innisfree Green Tea seed serum samples, & Innisfree Green Tea BB cream.

We also have Etude House Precious Mineral BB cream samples.

You may get the samples from my Gmarket store (MadAboutSprees).

I got this pair of heels from one of my favourite shoe sellers, Storyshoe by Chloe. It costs me 23,300Won, including shipping charge.

Gmarket Haul #6

I just love Gmarket & EMS so much! Placed orders on 1st Jan & 3rd Jan, received them in Singapore on 7 Jan! EFFICIENT!

Starting from left, clockwise direction:

• A – It’s Skin BB Cream
• B – Colour pen set
• C – Skinfood Aloe BB Cream samples
• D – Sulwhasoo samples

It’s Skin is new to Gmarket, having only been selling online for a couple of days when I placed my order. Sis and I have tried this BB cream previously (a friend of hers gave her this tube when BB cream was the hype) and we loved it. Sadly, it was hard to find online and not many people know of the brand. Etude House, Skinfood and The Face Shop were more well-known outside Korea. But 2PM, a popular boy band, has been endorsing the brand since last year and of course, more got to know the brand through the endorsement! The seller was very efficient, shipping out my BB creams the day after I placed the order. But thumbs down because there were no samples included. What can I say, I’ve been spoilt by the extras the other sellers often give!

I’ve been searching for some colour pens to use during my Korean class – colours make me happy! – but pens were quite expensive in Singapore, especially when I was looking for a 10colour set. So I got this online and luckily the colours were pretty and they are really nice! The pens write smoothly and had a nice grip. The pen set also had its own pouch! But again, the seller did not include any samples for me. Nevertheless, I’m sure Korean classes are going to be more fun now! I got my pen set from 하이델

Sulwhasoo is like one of the top skincare brands in Korea and they are pricey as well. But I took the plunge and bought some samples to try. If it works, good for me. If it doesn’t, at least my curiosity is killed and I won’t have anymore lemmings for them. I bought samples of its whitening sunscreen SPF46 PA++, night whitening cream and also lip essence. The lip essence sample is a really tiny tube but the formula spreads smooth and smells citrusy. So far, I quite like it. The whitening cream smells a little herbal, not that I’m complaining cos I like herbal scents. It comes in a tiny tub, which is the same design as its full sized version. I’m really excited to try it but my skin has been a little sensitive lately, so I guess a review will be coming later instead. I bought a total of 5 samples and was given 3 other samples (2 HERA samples and 1 Primera sample) and a face mask.

I paid a total of 46,700Won for this order.

Gmarket: Shipping & tracking your packages

Recalling my previous tutorial on ordering & making payment, now it’s time to track your package.

1. Log into your account on Gmarket Korea, and select Overseas Order from the dropdown menu. *PS I intentionally waited for the G-Dragon slide to come on before taking the screenshot. His new collaboration with TOP rocks my socks off!
   
2. You will come to this page that shows all your orders, current & past. The column circled in red tells you the status of your items. I took the screenshot a little late, so I missed out on “domestic delivery” (Oh how I love the efficiency of Korean sellers!). But before your status changes to “On overseas shipping”, it would be “domestic delivery”. What “domestic delivery” means is that the sellers have shipped out your items to the central Gmarket crossdock warehouse, where your items from different sellers will be consolidated into the same package. Once all your items arrive, Gmarket will pack your items together into a delivery carton and ship to wherever you are!
   You will be able to track where exactly it is. At the time of capturing this screenshot, my parcel is on air. You can simply mouse over the ‘view in detail’ button to track your package in an instant!
   
3. Remember that I mentioned the shipping fees paid are usually more than required because the individual sellers often overestimate the weight of the items? Gmarket will help us repack items into the delivery carton and do a final weigh to determine accurately the weight of the parcel and postage fee. Gmarket will refund the excess fee paid (if any) into your Gmarket cash balance.
   
4. When you click on the amount of money that appears in your cash balance, a list of transactions within your cash balance account will appear. After consolidation, I was refunded 8,300Won as my items were not that heavy in the end. The amount put into the cash balance can be used to pay for your next order, provided the total amount of your next order (including overseas shipping fees) do not exceed the amount of money you have in the account. Anything more, you’ll have to pay for your order via your credit card.
   

At the moment, most countries only offer EMS shipping for overseas orders. However, Singapore customers have a choice of EMS or DPD. As mentioned previously, DPD is cheaper than EMS. However I noticed that DPD is slightly slower – my last order took about 5 days to reach me after Gmarket has consolidated all my items. Via EMS, the package only takes about 2-3 days to reach me. The difference of 3 days may seem nothing, but if it happens to fall over the weekend, the difference can be up to 5 days as our postal service do not operate on Saturday& Sunday. Packing-wise, both courier companies are reliable and are not rough handlers so your items will still reach you in pristine condition.

Shoe insoles

I’ve been buying insoles for some time now. They have various uses for me – sometimes it’s because my shoes are too big for my feet (y’know how it is… you really like the design so much that you just have to buy it, though it doesn’t fit perfectly), sometimes it’s because the shoes are too flat or uncomfortable but most times it’s because I have sweaty feet and I need the insoles to absorb the excess moisture. Is it TMI here? Oops.

Anyway, I just wanted to share which are my favourite insoles. Surprisingly, it’s not the branded ones – No Dr Scholls in my list! I like the Watsons housebranded ones. Cheap and effective. But the one that tops my list is Watsons Aromatherapy insoles – esp the Lavender ones. They are about $5/pair, pricey I know but they work pretty well. Plus the insoles are lavender scented so they keep my feet smelling fresh! I tend to look out for insoles with holes, something like the below.

Just breathe....

On the contrary, I don’t like these Scholl insoles. They are supposed to be meant for high heels, but I don’t see how comfortable this can be.

FAILFrom the picture above, you can see that the insole stops just at where the ball of your foot is. So imagine how uncomfortable it was when I tried this pair of insoles. It felt like I had 2 layers of insole and was stepping on uneven ground. It was quite expensive too... believe I bought this for $8-$9 for a pair! Super uncomfortable insoles.

Gmarket: How to make payment

So! We’ve finally managed to sign up for an account and add items to our shopping cart. The next step would be to seal the deal and make payment. The screenshots this time are a little small as I used Internet Explorer instead of my usual Firefox. Apologies in advance! Also, you would like to note that the coupons (Step 2) can only be used if you’re on IE.

1. You’ll see that I already have a product in my shopping cart. If you see the orange label that says “coupon box”, click on that to see if you have any coupons that can help you save some money.
2. When you click on “coupon box”, you’ll get the following page. What you see in the page, depends on what coupons you have. I happen to have this coupon that gives me a 2000Won discount, with minimum purchase 10,000Won. The total cost of the item I’m buying is 20,000Won, therefore I am eligible to use the coupon and get the discount.
   
3. When you’re done getting your discount, you’ll be led back to the same page as Step 1. Now select the country which you want the parcel to be shipped to, which in this case, is Singapore.
   
4. After selecting your country, your courier options will appear. This page is something like a pro-forma invoice, so you can see what is the total amount you’ll need to pay if you get the items via the delivery company you choose.
   In Singapore, we get a choice of DPD and EMS. The rate for DPD is lower, but I find that EMS is faster. Generally, the rate between DPD and EMS is about US$3 difference? I’d rather pay a little bit more and get my goods into my paws hands faster.
   On the same page, you will also be able to check the total amount payable. **Note that though it gives you the total amount payable in Won, you’ll be charged in USD if you’re paying by card or Paypal. The only time you will be charged in Won is if you use the Cash Balance in your account.
   
5. Next, you’ll be brought to a page to confirm the item(s) you’re ordering.
   
6. You will also need to key in your delivery information – recipient, address and contact information.
   
7. Next, we come to Payment Info. (Step 5 – 7 are all on the same page). If you have sufficient cash balance, you may choose to use that to pay – in that case, you won’t have money deducted from your bank. Otherwise, you may pay via card. If you choose to pay via card, make sure you select Foreign Credit Card, unless you have a card issued from Korea.
   I don’t have sufficient money in my Gaccount, so I’m paying by Foreign Credit Card.
   
8. Then, you’ll see the following page where you need to enter your card details.
   
9. Because my card has been registered by the bank for verification, I received a PIN number via SMS, and have to enter that PIN. This is a new security feature as it is the first time I am seeing it, and may differ if your bank does not have this feature.
   
10. Once you have completed the above, your order is confirmed and you’ll see this page that says “Ordered”. It is like an order summary that will include the item(s) you ordered, and delivery information.
    
11. You will also be able to see the order in your Gmarket account homepage.
    
12. If you have more than 1 order with Gmarket, you can also save money on shipping by combining shipments! I made an order 2 days earlier, on 1st Jan, which I am still waiting for the items to reach Gmarket consolidation centre. So I am able to combine both orders to be shipped out together.
    
13. Now 2 become 1! Sellers usually make an inaccurate estimate of the shipping weight, thus the shipping cost is often jacked up. Also, there is usually a minimum shipping charge. If you combine shipments, the total weight of your shipments become much less, and thus you save. Gmarket will repack all your shipments into 1 box, and weigh before shipping out to you. The excess shipping fee paid will be refunded back to your Cash Balance.
    

Gmarket: How to shop

Now that you’ve signed up for an account, let’s move on to the actual shopping process, shall we? It can get quite daunting when you’re shopping on Gmarket for the first time, especially when you are not sure if the site is safe. There are a few ways of payment, the safest being payment to Gmarket (they act as a middleman, to ensure that your shopping experience is nothing but smooth!)

1. Go to the main page of Gmarket Korea (English) and key in what you would like to shop for. For the purpose of this blog post, I am going to shop for shoes. Sometimes, if I’m at a loss on what to shop for, I will just take a look at the bestsellers for each country and also the best mini shops (on the left, circled in red)
   
2. Sadly, the English stops where the results are displayed. If you don’t read Korean, you will have to rely on the pictures for clues.
   
3. I sometimes sort the results by sellers who offer overseas shipping (very important for me as I have been disappointed many a times after selecting the item I want, only to find out that the seller does not ship overseas… BAH)
   
4. After which, I will sometimes filter further, according to price or best selling item, if there are too many results
   
5. Ok, now that you’ve selected your seller, here comes the difficult part. Deciphering the Os and Xs of the Korean alphabet. Remember, most of the images you see on the selling page are clickable. A pop out will appear (disable your popup blocker now!) to reveal more details about the item you wanna see, such as more views of the item, close up details, colours available, size and measurements. Take note of the item number as well!
   
6. For this particular example, the product details are already on the main picture. Korean shoe sizes are usually in numbers (eg 230, 235, 240, 245, 250, 255 etc). Measure the length of a pair of shoes that you own and match it to the Korean shoe size. If your current pair of shoes measures 230mm, your Korean shoe size would be 230 or 235 (I like to take a size up as I find that Korean shoes run a little smaller… I can put padding in the shoes if they’re too big, but not the other way around). I wear a size 6 or 6.5, depending on the cut, and find that Korean size 240 fits me nicely.
7. Most of the Korean sellers put up their item descriptions in Korean, so it would help if you can read Korean, or otherwise, hope you find the following colour chart useful. Please feel free to let me know what other colours you’d like to know!
   
8. After you have decided on the item you would like to purchase, the next step would be to add item to cart. Click on the purple tab that follows you if you want to purchase more than 1 item. Otherwise, go up to the top to select your desired item. It would be useful to have paper and pen by your side to write down the item number and also the colour (in Korean words).
9. The following picture shows you what is the difference between the 2 option fields: the one in black is the design or style (remember the number and the colour in Korean words!), and the one in red is the size.
   
10. Now that I’ve selected the design and size that I want, it’s time to ADD TO CART!

Gmarket: How to sign up

Since I’m sick at home today and nothing much to do, I decided to do up a blog post for Gmarket… before teaching you guys how to buy stuff on Gmarket, the first step is HOW TO SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT!

1. Log on to http://english.gmarket.co.kr/ then click Register on the top (next to Sign In button)
   
2. Fill in all required fields and click on the “ID availability” button to check if the ID you want is available or not
   
3. You will see this if the ID you’ve chosen is available.
   
4. Next, you’ll come to a section “Alien Registration Number”. Choose No as most of us will not have a “Alien Registration Number” (similar to our IC number). The section after that requires you to key in your email address. The “email availability” button is similar to the “ID availability” button above. You can also choose whether you want to subscribe to the newsletter or not – I find the newsletters very informative. They send regular emails on offers and special deals.
   
5. You will see the following if your registration is complete. Otherwise, you’ll keep getting prompters on what is wrong at Step 4.
   
6. Check your email and you’ll see this email confirmation from Gmarket. Click on the button to complete registration!