One of the things I love about China is the convenience in ordering things online. Well, assuming you speak and read Chinese or have some help.

I’ve ordered a lot of things from Newegg China before and have never had any issues. What’s great is that they deliver directly from the warehouse here in Shanghai, so you’ll get what you ordered next day or at most the day after. Usually delivery is only a few RMB and right now it’s free.

So, I just ordered an HP optical USB mouse for 28 RMB (or $4 – you can find cheaper in local tech markets or auction site Taobao, but I often wonder about the quality). No tax, no delivery fee, no nonsense, at the door cash on delivery in a day. Well, it was almost no nonsense… Ellen did call the delivery guy to ask when he’d be coming by and his response was “I’m starving and I haven’t eaten all day. I’m so hungry right now. I’ll come after I eat, so is an hour OK?”

Let’s compare this experience with just over a year ago when I bought a similar mouse from Future Shop in Canada: the mouse was on sale for $19.99, but after taxes and shipping it was nearly $30. It took almost a week to arrive and when it finally did, they didn’t call me to let me know when they were coming. So, I missed them and had to go to the post office the next day to pick it up. Just thinking about it makes me frustrated.