FAQ

For Buyers For Sellers

When would it make great sense to use CoShopNow.com? Below are situations, some hypothetical, some real, of utilizing CoShopNow.com to benefit buyers and sellers

Cindy likes the yogurt and jams sold by an online business, but they charge P220 for delivery for orders below P1,000. Her order is only P500. So she created a CoShop in CoShopNow.com, and invited her neighbors to order with her. Her invitation was sent through a Viber group for her condo neighbors. Since the online shop requires prepayment before delivery, Cindy offered to pay for her neighbors first, and then collect from them upon delivery. Two neighbors joined, ordering two to five items each. Cindy used CoShopNow's Order Summary page to see the number of items ordered for each product, and placed an order with the store. The products were delivered as scheduled, and Cindy picked them up outside the condo's lobby, as required under the community quarantine protocol. She then coordinated with her two neighbors to pick up the items. One neighbor paid through a popular eCash. There was minimal physical contact between the neighbors, but a sense of community is maintained, in addition to the saving in delivery fee. Cindy is likely to order from the same store again. Since she already had a CoShop in CoShopNow.com for the yogurt products, she can reopen it again at a later date easily, without having to upload the product information again. Cindy's neighbor in another condominiums can also do the same, and sets up a CoShop for buying the yogurts from the same store. If Cindy is willing to share her CoShop details as a template, her neighbors can set up theirs in a few seconds! Alternatively, the yogurt supplier can set up such CoShops to target specific condominium complexes in order to reduce cost and get more orders.

Sophia has a favorite seafood supplier in the Roxas Boulevard area that she used to visit for her supply of fresh lapu lapu, shrimps, crabs and shell fish. With the Covid-19 pandemic, she does not feel like going there. She was happy to find out that the supplier is willing to deliver to her neighborhood of Bonifacio Global City. She knows some friends who live in the same neighborhood also like the same kinds of fresh seafood. So she copied to them the price list of the seafood supplier, and invited her friends to join her in the ordering, knowing that her friends on their own, may not order sufficient quantity to make it worthwhile for the supplier to want to accept the order. By the end of a few days, she collected orders from five friends. She sent the order to the supplier, and asked her supplier to pack the orders separately for each of her friends, and deliver to their individual condominium buildings in BGC. The orders were all to be paid in cash on delivery. The supplier managed to find a delivery service willing to do COD for multiple addresses in a single trip. Every one who placed the order went to the lobby of their condominium building to meet the driver soon after the driver notified them of his imminent arrival. Sophia and her friends all got their favorite fresh seafood, and lived happily ever after. But next time, Sophia will use CoShopNow.com to collect the orders, so that her friends can place their orders easily, Sophia can forward their orders to the supplier with a click of a button, and the supplier can see how much to pack for each person in the group, where to deliver and how much to collect from each in seconds.

During the pandemic, some people have to put up with a difficult work situation. For example, employees of condominium management company have to stay at the place of work for long hours due to lack of transportation. Residents in one condo building have been donating food and items to the building admin staff, but recently they tried a new idea. They contacted a popular restaurant in the neighborhood, and asked if the restaurant could give some free food if the residents collectively placed orders above a certain value. The free food would be given to the employees of the building management team.The restaurant saw that they could save on marketing expenses in such a deal, so they readily agreed. A CoShop was created on CoShopNow.com, listing the menu items of the restaurant. A deadline was set. If the total orders reached P5,000, the restaurant would give a pasta tray good for 8 persons. In the next two days, residents ordered from the coshop. The total value of the orders could be monitored on CoShopNow.com, so people could see how close they were to meeting the requirement. Just before the deadline, the orders reached the minimum amount required. A summary of orders was generated by CoShopNow.com, and sent by the Organizer to the restaurant and the residents who participated. Their orders, and the free pasta, were delivered to the condo the next day. The residents got the food that they paid for, and gave the freebies to the building management team.

What are the ways that I can use CoShopNow.com?

The best use of CoShopNow.com is to organize a group deal for you and friends. If you have found a good deal, but it needs a large order quantity, you can get your friends in the act, by inviting them to take part in a coshop that you have created for this deal. You can create a coshop with a cut-off date so that you can add up the orders by a deadline, and if the minimum order quantity or value needed to get the good deal is reached, you can go ahead with ordering the deal!

Another use of CoShopNow.com is as an online shopping cart to display your products and accept orders online like a regular online shop. You don't need a cut-off date for processing the orders. CoShopNow.com can be used to set up coshops without cut-off dates.


How do I use Viber to take orders (if you are selling items) or place orders (if you are a buyer)?

Any shop created on CoShopNow.com can be viewed on Viber through a Viber bot created by CoShopNow in addition to the shop's presence on a web page, and buyers can place orders by clicking buttons on the Viber bot. This means that each coshop can have both a web version, and a Viber bot version.

A seller (or coshop organizer) can obtain a link from CoShopNow, and paste it on the seller's marketing material online. Buyers with Viber app on their Android device can click the link and see the products offered by the seller, and order by clicking buttons provided by the Viber bot.

Below is a screenshot of products of a coshop being shown on Viber. The buyer can click to see details of the item, or scroll right to see other items, and click to put an item in the shopping cart.

For buyers with iPhones, they should be given the link to the webpage of the coshop. There, they can order from the coshop, or click a button to open the Viber bot.


For CoShoppers [Buyers]


Why should I buy through CoShopNow.com?

On CoShopNow.com, you can take part in group orders, where prices are lower because of bulk order discount or savings from delivery fee, because CoShopNow.com allows any one to organize group ordering if they have a good deal to offer.

Group deals are often offered with a cut-off date, since orders have to be processed in a batch. So when you see coshops with one or more cut-off date buttons, check them out to see if they have an offer that you do not want to miss!


Placing orders

You do not need to register before placing an order on a store on CoShopNow.coming. At the end of an order, you will need to provide information to enable delivery and communication with the seller (coshop organizer). Emails will be sent to you for order confirmation, and a password will be provided as an option for you to check status of your order on the CoShopNow.com website.

You can Cancel an order any time before the cut-off date and time. After you submit an order, the order will be reviewed by the coshop organizer. You can view your order at My Orders, and can Cancel the order by clicking the "cancel order" button located at the bottom,
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You cannot edit individual products in an order after you have submitted it to the seller (coshop organizer). This is to avoid complications for the organizer and other coshoppers, especially coshops that offer group volume discounts, and have prepayment as an option. But you may contact the coshop organizer to discuss changes. If the seller (coshop organizer) agrees to make changes, he/she can adjust the order in the delivery note.

Can I get a refund if I do not like the item(s) delivered?

We would advise shoppers to check with the seller, since your payment is made directly to the seller (CoShop organizer), and CoShopNow.com does not take a cut from any sales between coshopper and coshop organizer.


For Organizers [Sellers]


How do I use CoShopNow.com as an online shopping cart?

You can create your online store easily from the Organizer Center of your account.

After that, you can copy the URL (website address) of your online store (called CoShop in CoShopNow.com), and paste it directly to your online marketing materials, such as a social media post or social messaging app.

When your potential customer clicks on the link, it will open your online store on CoShopNow.com, see your products and place orders.

More information is available in the "How To" section of Organizer Center, accessible after you log in to your account, and click the tab "My Account" located at the top of your web browser on a desktop device, or by clicking "+" next to "My Account" in mobile device.


How much does it cost to use CoShopNow.com to sell?

CoShops with cut-off dates will process orders together by each cut-off date. For example, If a deal requires a large order quantity to qualify, and you need to order by a certain date, then you should create a coshop with a cut-off date.

CoShops without cut-off date processes orders as each order is received.

CoShop with a Single Cut-off date
Cost: FREE
Suitable for trying out the service, or organizing one-off coshopping with friends.

CoShop with multiple cut-off dates Cost: P400 per month
Minimum contract is one month
You can set up Unlimited cut-off dates
Existing cut-off date can be changed any time within the subscription period as long as no order has been received. Suitable for small businesses that have a delivery schedule for each batch of orders

CoShop without cut-off dates Cost: P400 per month
Minimum contract is one month
Suitable for small businesses that can deliver any time there is an order

No time to set up your own coshop? No problem, we can do that for you, upload your product description, image and price details, for a small fee. Ask us at coshopnow@gmail.com.


How do I pay the service fees for using CoShopNow.com to sell products?

There is an electronic wallet for each coshop organizer. You can load it up either by bank deposit or by GCash. Service fees will then be deducted from the wallet when you create a new coshop or add a new cut-off date to an existing coshop.