In the latest period I was in the position to be customer for so called "pink" market. I found this name because I cannot name it in an other way. What is this "pink" market or how to do "social" shopping?
I call "pink" market the small business done around online shopping, those people who are buying for you from websites or places who are not accessible for you in terms of distance, shipment, payment and so on. They buy also for them and they just add your shopping to their list asking for a comission between 10-20%. Usualy this business is build around online shops from West Europe who are not delivering in Romania or they are delivering with big shipment taxes.
Also it is important to know that on this kind of shops payments have to be done with Visa or MasterCard and....not all Romanian have this kind of cards, even if they have quite good financial situation.
People who are making this "pink"business are usually fans of online shops that they are using for this small business, they also chat with you giving you advices about the products, they are present in social platform online as Facebook...in fact they advertise and they communicate their business only in Social Media. I found until now on Facebook around 20 "pink" shops only for baby articles. I used and tested 2 of them...and they were great.
Is this black market? Tehnically yes, practically not. It is true that you are not receiving an invoice, you don't beneficiate on the post-sales services as return, quality warranty....but you don't need it so much. What you have in plus? a nice and usually honest communication with these sellers, they also are buying from the same shops...it is practically like you have a friend who is doing your shopping in your place. They don't do so much profit, they just like to buy good and inaccessible things, they like online and they also like to socialize. So, it cannot be called black market. Some of them are also helping you to sell something that you don't like it anymore after buying it or they advice you what not to buy or when to buy.
What you can buy trough this "pink" market - generally soft goods and cosmetics. A big market is for baby articles which in Romania is still poor supplied or at very expensive price. I give only the example of Mothercare who in Romania is a "luxury" baby store . You can buy the same articles from the online shop Mothercare in UK at half of the price in many situations. Mothercare UK is not delivering in Romania....but they are people who have some connections there , friends or relatives working abroad, who are receiving the orders and than they are sending the packages in Romania.
Romanian also prefer to buy like that because they trust more in products coming from West European..even if in Romania they can find the same at similar prices..and here I talk about cosmetics. And it is true that I saw people not buying Dove or l'Oreal from Romania, but ordering this to this "pink" sellers who are bringing to their door l'Oreal or Dove products from Uk or France or Italy.
Victoria Secrets it is also a very appreciated online store by the Romanian women....but the shipping is very expensive and also you have to pay the VAT and customs taxes.....not so nice, sometimes this additional cost arrives to 30%-40% of the value of the products. For this kind of shopping Romanian women try also different solutions, they make small groups making just one order once every 2-3 months and in this way the cost per person for the additional taxes is more convenient. Or they do also the order trough somebody having friend in US and....they try to reduces the additional cost.
I estimate that this "pink" market is increasing especially in this "crisis" period. People still need quality and they don't want to risk. A Romanian woman, working 10-12 hours/ day and having a salary of 400-500 euro still want a good perfume...and she don't want to risk to buy a fake one. Also a mother who wants really good things for her baby and she has some cash in certain periods...she doesn't want at all to risk it and to buy something wrong. Fisher Price toys are affordable in UK ...or Phillips Avent products...and the promotions on Huggies from UK are never happening in Romania...so a mother is seeing this quickly and she reacts accordingly.
I estimate that at least 2% of the online transactions for shopping are done for this "pink" market. The" pink "shoppers are receiving their money back from their "pink" customers in cash before or after delivery...or a part before the delivery and the rest in the moment of the delivery.
I like this "pink" market who is showing that on the "non food" market is it still place to grow....but just to respect the shoppers. Romanian are still looking for quality, they don't have so much available cash...but when they have it, they don't want to risk.
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