Lazada vs Zalora: Same Item, Different Price

With another monthly sale event coming up soon (12.12), I just thought of posting an interesting experience that's also related to a sale event (9.9 and 10.10) from two popular online shopping platforms, Lazada and Zalora, respectively. As a heads up, this isn't an actual detailed Lazada vs Zalora comparison but just a story time featuring what the title suggests --- same items at different prices. 

It all started with the need (not want) to look for new nice looking bags at affordable prices. It was incidentally during the September sale event. There's a monthly regular sale happening at several online shopping platforms, including Lazada, Shopee, Zalora and more. They normally occur during the same day as the month's number, i.e. 8.8 (for August), 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, 12.12 and so on. I browsed through Lazada at that time. It was September. 

I found a few gems on the site. One of which is this drawstring bag. 

My excitement turned into disappointment when I received the item. While it does look okay, it turns out that it's not really to my liking. This is why I am not fond of online shopping because even if something looks good on a picture, it may not be once you get a hold of it. Well, it may still look okay but the overall look and feel may not actually be something you'd like. It turns out that way for me. In short, it was fine but it's not my type. 

I still hoped to find a drawstring bag of a similar design and I found one through Zalora the next month, during the 10.10 October sale. 

Like the similar looking item from Lazada, however, the drawstring bag from Zalora isn't to my liking either when I saw it. But I loved the other bags from the same sale event at least so only one was X'd out.

While it's been a month or so after and I already hid the draw string bag from Lazada, I realized that it actually looks the same as the product from Zalora. I took a picture of them together for comparison (image below). The item on top is from Lazada while the latter is from Zalora. 

Lazada vs Zalora: The Difference

While they are the exact same thing - brand, design and all, the pricing is different. In the order pages shown above, it was notably cheaper from Lazada at ₱159 pesos while it costs ₱399 pesos on Zalora. So the real sale goes to the former in this case. However, in terms of which one is a better buy, the latter is a clear winner. Their bag is definitely brand new and looks pretty while the other appears faded and smelly. It looks like a bad "ukay-ukay" find. It may not necessarily be old but it could have been kept in storage for too long. I can only assume. But I ain't complaining, it was only 159 pesos after all.

So next time you find something interesting in either Lazada or Zalora, or maybe even Shopee, might be a good idea to look up the same item on the competing shops. Just play with keywords, description, brand and so on. You may just find the exact same items sold at very notably different prices.