Shopping Talk – #ShopForGood, Shopping made more meaningful

This October, TANGS unites brands in support of good causes and socially responsible shopping with exclusive products and promotions for various beneficiaries. TANGS #ShopForGood returns this year, bigger and super awesome!

TANGS #ShopForGood 

Over 50 brands are offering exclusive items and promotions to raise funds for various charity organisations in conjunction with the TANGS #ShopForGood event. This year’s #ShopForGood has Singapore Children’s Society as its key beneficiary, an organisation that aims to protect and nurture children and youths regardless of race or religion. For every receipt generated from the 1st of October to 1st of November 2015, TANGS will donate $0.50 to Singapore Children’s Society (up to a max. of $100,000).

Shopping made more meaningful 

Walk around TANGS at Tang Plaza or TANGS VivoCity and attempt spotting these displays.

TANGS aspires to not only raise money for charity by donating part of the purchases to the various charity organisations involved but also to raise awareness of the many socially responsible shopping alternatives that are in the market and provide shoppers another factor to consider (other than price and product) when making their purchase decisions. Shopping is made meaningful because of these reasons and considerations. Some of the brands involved are categorized under Beauty, Fashion, Home and Food.

I could not attend the shopping event on 10 Oct due to my leadership course so I headed down to TANGS at Tang Plaza to have a look at some of the promotions and products under this campaign after! As J and I are starting to plan some of the home appliances for our upcoming home, we headed straight to our current favourite section, Home, and here’s what we found!

Besides raising money and awareness, TANGS too hope to elevate a collective social consciousness and build a better community. As the leading retailer in Singapore, #ShopgForGood is a very conscious decision by TANGS to take the first step in making shopping more meaningful and contribute to the greater good!

Have fun shopping at TANGS! :D

Lifestyle Talk – Ebates

Besides working out and eating, my next favourite past time is SHOPPING and do you know that you can actually earn cash back just by shopping? I actually could not believe it, until I scrolled down to a huge variety of brands that are under Ebates Singapore!

I now know where to get Nike items that are not available in SG! :P

Of course, there are other supplement brands that interest me too, like MYPROTEIN and Nutri-Health Supplements, etc. Read on to find out more about Ebates Singapore!

Ebates Singapore

What is Ebates?

Ebates is a pioneer in online shopping cash back and operates by giving members up to 26% cash back. Founded in 1998, Ebates Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, but also runs dedicated sites for customers in Canada, China, Russia, and South Korea. In 2014, members globally spent close to US$3 billion shopping through Ebates. Ebates Singapore was launched this week to cater to the Singaporean shoppers.

What are some online stores that Ebates work with?

Ebates currently liaise with over 2,600 online stores globally that range from men’s/women’s clothing, travel and vacations, health and beauty, electronics, baby and children products to office supplies. Some familiar brands include eBay.com, Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren, Shopbop.com, Victoria’s Secret and others.

Does Ebates Singapore work with any local online merchants?

At present, Ebates Singapore has Rakuten.com.sg on board with them and they are definitely interested to partner with local online merchants for their localized Singapore website and are in talks with other local merchants to support the growth of Ebates in Singapore. So we can look out for more local online merchants on board with Ebates Singapore in the near future!

Rakuten Super Sale

Rakuten is having a huge sale right now and I’m eyeing the BenQ CP70 Portable 4R Photo Scanner (going from $124 to $29.90 now!!!) and the Beats SOLO HD by Dr. Dre (going at $195.50, with almost $40 off!!!). Get up to 90% off from Rakuten Super Sale + 15% Cash Back (highest in the market) when you shop via Ebates Singapore.

There are more discounted items on Rakuten.com.sg so go check it out! :P

How to start using Ebates

1. Sign up for a free account with your email, password and enter my personal code (which will be revealed below)

2. Browse or search for your favourite brands

3. Click through Ebates to complete your purchase on your favourite store

4. Cash back will be credited into your Ebates Singapore account 3-7 days after your purchase

I’m sure there would have been some burning questions at this point in time so I have compiled some of the enquiries that I have personally questioned during my own shopping and research on Ebates Singapore so here goes!

Common Questions

Where does the money come from?

Ebates generates additional sales and traffic to their partner stores. After shoppers complete their purchase, Ebates earns commission from merchant and shares it with customers.

How do consumers receive their cash back? And how often do these payouts occur?

Every consumer who signs up with Ebates will own a personalized account. Once the consumer makes a purchase, most cash back will be reflected in the user’s Ebates account within 3-7 days. Some stores, however, cannot confirm the user’s purchase until the return period is over and may take up to thirty days to confirm the cash back.

Actual cash backs are paid quarterly in the form of a cheque, through PayPal or credited back to the consumer’s credit/debit card.

Do note that if the shopper has earned less than US$5.01 cash back, Ebates will carry over their cash back to the next payout.

Link to cash back payout schedule: www.ebates.sg/help/most-shoppers-want-to-know#faq_section_3_question_1

How do Ebates members ensure that they are earning cash back?

Purchases shoppers make at Ebates stores are only credited if they shop through Ebates.sg and click to a store via an Ebates link.

How do I store and ship my purchases when I shop on an overseas site that does not provide direct shipping?

Shoppers will have to key in their free U.S. address which they get from signing up for an account with a freight forwarder like comGateway.

Good news!!

You will all get a USD$10 signup bonus just by keying in my personal code (limaran-EbatesSG) here!

After clicking on the link, you should be able to see this:

Only valid if you try out Ebates and spend USD$50 within 90 days upon signing up though so what are you waiting for? It’s time to get your loots and enjoy cash back rewards now! :P

Fashion Talk – ZARA with the man

Jason and I were invited to the ZARA store to pick our clothes for each other few weeks ago and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (at least for me)! We both know what we look good in but at the same time, very willing to try out different styles picked by each other.

We were invited to the Somerset 313 outlet since the one at ION Orchard was under renovation. The expansion of ZARA ION Orchard will be reopening next month and I cannot wait!

The store at Somerset 313 is huge and spacious and shopping (and running around) was a breeze because we don’t really have to worry about walking into people’s paths. The staff were friendly and helpful so we really enjoyed the shopping experience which took us almost 3 hours! :P Okay, Jason started out being very enthusiastic about picking clothes for me, until we were walking up and down the store more than twice. HAHA! Picking clothes for Jason on the other hand, was really easy. I know what he likes and what he will look good in so the process was greatly shortened!

So, these are the outfits J had selected for me and we brought them all to Bali with us. J picked a lot of basic white tops for me because he knows I love the prints and details of the bottoms at ZARA and of course, they have a wide selection of white tops for us to choose from!

Straw Fedora: ZARA 

Tie-front Top: $59.90 

Striped linen Bottom: $59.90 

Chain Sandals: $79.90 

J remembered I always had this straw fedora hat I had gotten from ZARA some time ago and he loved seeing me in any form of head wear so the first outfit he chose was specially to match that straw fedora. He picked a simple white top with tie-front and shorts with some navy (the stripes) to match the navy (belt) on the straw fedora. The chain sandals was love-at-first-sight for me, he had no choice but to pick it! :P

Metal-front Top: $59.90 

Paisley Palazzo pants: $69.90 

White soft Clutch: $45.90 

Leather Sandals: $55.90 

The second outfit was inspired by the Balinese art that we would be expecting to see during our trip to Bali so J picked paisley prints to match with another simple white cap-sleeved top, white clutch and leather sandals to allow the prints on the pants to stand out. So brilliant of J!

Necklace front Top: $59.90 

Striped Palazzo pants with drawstring: $55.90 

Leather shoulder bag: $189.90 

Okay, there were too many instances of love-at-first-sight because this pants was another one and to top it off, it was retailing at a really affordable price of $55.90! So, again J was tasked to pick items to match this striped palazzo pants. He still thought the pants, though striped looked rather plain so he picked a necklace front white top to slightly enhance the overall look and a full leather shoulder bag. I was actually quite surprised at this particular choice because he had always preferred me carrying a clutch than a bag.

Mandarin-collared linen shirt: $109.90 

Denim embroidered shorts: $49.90 

J and his obsessions with dressing me in shirts started way back. But I did not look very good in shirts before I started working out (I used to have very narrow shoulders). I told him I wanted to look less formal in one of the outfits so he picked a subtle denim shorts with embroidered details to allow the shirt to stand out a little more. I really love this outfit because it feels super comfortable!

Drawstring dress: $69.90 

Animal printed leather Sandals: $55.90 

This dress was picked by J after he realized none of the outfits that he had picked was a one-piece. Final choice was this drawstring dress in a perfect shade of blue which left him nodding in satisfaction when I came out of the changing room. He then found another leather sandals with animal prints to match this dress which I thought was a great choice (and affordable at that too)! Thumbs up! :D

J and I have been fans of ZARA and I really like how the quality had improved over the years and prices still made very affordable! We really had an enjoyable time shopping at ZARA Somerset 313 and I absolutely cannot wait for the reopening at ION Orchard tomorrow!

ZARA will be reopening its store at ION Orchard and we would like all of you to join us there tomorrow, 7th May 2015, 10am – 12pm!

We are so looking forward to the expansion and reopening of ZARA at ION Orchard and we hope to see you there too! ☺

For latest fashion inspirations and updates, head over to www.zara.com!

Fashion Talk – ShopperBoard

Friends and family who knows me well enough knows I LOVE to shop. And I can spend hours on my phone browsing through my shopping tabs (because I’m always outdoors) when I’m alone. I open up to 15 tabs at one go sometimes I don’t even remember what were the items I was eyeing, I got so frustrated and finally gave up, until Shopperboard came along!

About ShopperBoard 
Backed by Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) and a renowned Japanese venture capitalist firm, ShopperBoard is a social shopping platform.

A Pinterest-style social network that is 100% focused on shopping, shoppers can save products they love from any online store and organize them all in one place — like a one-stop collection of all their shopping carts arranged in a visually appealing manner.

Window shopping is brought to another level and on the go by letting users discover other popular hashtags, stores, and even shoppers whose style they admire.

Main issue 
So my main problem was this, I open too many tabs at one time and more often than not, I left my browser app with many opened tabs, which caused my mobile device to lag and battery to run out quickly.

Solution
Earlier this month,I was introduced to ShopperBoard, which then solved my main problem because it looks like pinterest and the most awesome feature in the in-app browser!

Now’s the exciting part because ShopperBoard is giving away a $100 H&M Shopping Voucher just by window shopping! Here’s what you need to do:

Download the ShopperBoard App

Follow @ShopperBoard

ShopperBoard Facebook

ShopperBoard Facebook Giveaway

Remember to follow me @limaranagustina! Have fun and best of luck everybody! :P