echo Written by Esther Cheok
I was one of the early few to discover the theme-park of a name marketplace back in 2013. Being available on a mobile app and desktop, Carousell is an online marketplace catered to Malaysians selling and buying their stuff (both new and preloved) for cheap prices. It is much like Shopee, or Mudah.my, but I find it much easier to use. Not to mention, the variety of products on sale on the site.
I access Carousell mostly using the app. Back in 2013, I used it mostly to buy things such as clothes (among them being preloved jeans for RM10, a new Tapas cropped top for RM10), shoes (I recall purchasing an authentic Nike sport shoe for RM80) and English novels. Purchasing on Carousell is so easy. You could choose between doing an online bank transfer or cash on delivery, if the seller is willing.
It wasn’t till this year, 2016, when I began to list my own items for sale. To be honest, I was slightly hesitant of it all at first; I was worried that no one was interested in my items out of the number of other things for sale; I thought it would be a difficult and a -in Malaysian slang: ‘mafan’- process to list out all of my items. I was also afraid of being conned. I certainly didn’t expect to have sold five items during the first week of listing up items.
I haven’t been using Carousell for long, but there are a few things which I have picked up during the limited amount of time I have been an active user.
Firstly, as a buyer, do not hesitate to negotiate on the price. As a buyer, I used to wonder whether sellers would ‘dislike’ me or choose not to sell their items to me if I demanded for a lower price. However, I learnt as a seller that I was quite open to negotiations as long as the price offered was reasonable. I can recall a one buyer of mine who was constantly requesting for a discount. It drove me to a point where I chose not to sell my items to him even though I could have earned over RM100 from the transaction.
Secondly, do look over your buyer’s status before accepting the offer. If the buyer has created the account on the same day itself and have no positive feedback left, do be wary of him/her, but do not let that stop you from selling the item to them.
Lastly, the post office located near the ice rink in Sunway Pyramid is very convenient for us students to post out our items. I never knew it existed and I was ecstatic to find out that I didn’t have to drive out to the nearest post office from my home to post out my items.
