Meryll Soriano's interview with Arniel Serato, lead correspondent for PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal), introduced me to Pinduoduo (pronounced roughly “peen-dwoh-dwoh” in Mandarin).
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By Saturday morning, curiosity had won. I downloaded and opened the app to see what I’d been missing and soon found myself asking family and friends to help me score an iPhone.
The storefront looked familiar enough.
But the abundance of Chinese text made me feel like I’d walked into a shop where I recognized the merchandise but couldn’t read the signs.
I did manage to find the iPhone flash sale, which turned out to involve sending invitations.
My sister, the more cautious shopper, told me she thought it might be a scam.
I decided to leave the iPhone out of my plans.
I actually needed storage boxes, and I had a specific design, color, and size in mind.
Shopee and Lazada were out of stock.
Tiktok shop appeared to have them, but the listing gave me three measurements and left me to guess which one was the height.
I asked the seller if they followed the L × W × H format.
The reply came the next day: "Please see product description po."
I had also looked at IKEA, Anko, True Value, Handyman, and The SM Store.
After all that, I found the boxes on Pinduoduo.
What made it easy to buy
The first thing I wanted to rave about were the measurements clearly marked on the product images.
This is true to all products I browsed.
After my exchange on Tiktok shop, seeing a line that actually told me the height felt like a small luxury.
Sorting by price was just as straightforward.
Tap Price (in red font) once and the cheapest listings come up first. Tap it again and the order reverses.
Below the product photo, I could see the share of positive reviews, the number of repeat buyers, and how many people were buying the item at the time.
The reviews I browsed also included photos that looked like they had been taken by actual shoppers.
That stood out to me because on other shopping sites, some buyers upload random photos just to earn extra coins.
I’ll have a better sense of how helpful those photos are when I can compare them with what arrives.
At my checkout, credit cards and Apple Pay carried a 3% service fee.
Maya and GCash showed no service fee.
One card total appeared in Hong Kong dollars, others in Yuan, so I did the conversion myself to see how they compared with the Philippine peso price.
On subsequent purchases, tapping my saved payment method took me straight to the OTP box.
Shopping on the app was convenient and a little scary.
With prices that low, it was easy to get carried away clicking “BUY.” I nearly bought way more than I’d planned.
The boxes I ordered came out more than PHP1,000 cheaper than the options I initially checked.
And the 60-meter hose I’d been putting off buying was about PHP800 less. The shop I found offered just one color, but it had the length I wanted. It turns out I have very little loyalty to a hose color when there’s PHP800 on the line.
Where I had to slow down
I wanted to order two detergent storage containers in different sizes in one go.
The listing offered several combinations, and what I wanted wasn’t among them.
I ordered the sizes separately and am still waiting to see whether they’ll arrive together.
Then there were the pop-ups.
Even after I set my country to the Philippines and my language to English, many prompts still appeared in Chinese.
I accidentally tapped what turned out to be a button for a discount.
For one awful second, I wondered if I’d just agreed to buy everything on the screen. I also couldn’t find the cart. Ako lang ba o wala talaga?
From the listings I was browsing, it felt like one tap could take me from idle curiosity to checkout. “Kalma lang, self,” I told myself, a little late.
By then, two orders were marked “shipped,” and two were being packed. And I have not really spent time on its SALE page.
The orders are coming by sea, so I have time to wonder whether the boxes will match their sizes.
I also found a refund option, though much of that screen was in Chinese.
The English button read Submit Application, which left me wondering what would happen if something arrived damaged.
I may need a translator before I need a return label. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
I’d rather tell you how I got a PHP4,000 discount than how I talked myself into a PHP2,002 budol.
If you’re tempted to try the app, have a look at existing buyer reviews or wait for my update once the orders arrive in two to four weeks.
In the meantime, the real test is still at the sea or about to leave the dock.
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