Wednesday App Review: Wish

When it comes to shopping, I am rather atypical. I don’t generally care for wandering aimlessly through malls and I am not really big into just browsing though random shopping apps or websites. Unless I need something, I don’t usually go shopping. However, the shopping app Wish makes the tediousness of wandering through the mall or browsing through an app incredibly simple and even kind of fun. Halfway between a magazine and a shopping marketplace, Wish sells a variety of different items from various vendors all around the world. A lot of the vendors are located in China, which means it might take as long as a month to get to you, but the prices are pretty cheap. However, like any other shopping marketplace that sells from private vendors, buyers have to be very careful and read all of the reviews and descriptions before purchase. There have been a lot of reviews written about Wish, some of which are pretty terrible. I have ordered several things from Wish–including some positively adorable vinyl record coasters and two really cool leatherbound notebooks–and while they took nearly a month to arrive the items were pretty good quality and were basically exactly what was pictured. One of the coolest things about Wish is that it actually has not one but four apps which cater to different people. The apps include Geek (which is more tech-based), Mama (which has children’s things), Cute (which has beauty products) and Wish. All four apps actually have all of the same items, but they market to specific people and tend to showcase different items. It’s absolutely genius and a great way to gain more customers with the exact same inventory. Plus, it makes browsing much simpler for users. Of course, all apps have downsides and I have heard plenty of people say that the clothing and shoe sizes run pretty small, so be aware of that if you order clothes. Also, the app does have some pretty obnoxious default settings for notifications on your smartphone, so I highly recommend going into the settings as soon as you download it and turning those off. It also is well worth doing a little bit of searching on the app because there will oftentimes be multiple listings for the same items from different vendors so if you find something you like but the reviews for the vendor aren’t great, check out a different one! Just like Amazon Marketplace or Etsy, purchasing from Wish is a little bit of a gamble but you can definitely find some pretty cool stuff. I personally haven’t had any troubles with the customer service, and neither have a few of my coworkers (one of which even had to get a refund for an item that was lost in transit and then out of stock). Also, as far as customer service goes, everything is done via email so be aware of that and be prepared for it to be a little slow as I believe that they are located overseas with a different timezone. Like anything else, if you know what you’re getting into, it shouldn’t be a problem. While I am sure that everyone has different thoughts and experiences, personally I haven’t had any trouble with the app yet. The trick is just to read all of the reviews, and if there are a lot of people having the same issues, then think twice. The Wish apps are available for Android and iPhones and is, of course, free. If you want a sneak peek, you can also check out Wish’s website which has a lot of the same deals. I’m not going to link the other two apps, but make sure that they say ‘powered by wish’ in the description before you download as I believe there are a couple apps called ‘geek.’ Happy shopping!]]>