I used to enjoy window shopping on Lazada, particularly for Mini PCs. But lately, the experience has become tiresome, thanks to how vendors are allowed to list multiple specs—and even entirely different models—on a single product page.
Take the Beelink SER5 Max Mini PC as an example. This model, powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, has been on my radar for a while. Typically, the 32GB RAM and 1TB NVMe storage variant sells for around Php22,000. But when you search for it on Lazada, you’ll encounter listings priced as low as Php7,995.
Sounds like a steal, right? Not so fast.
When you click on the listing, you’ll find that the advertised price isn’t for the SER5 Max. Instead, it applies to an entirely different product—the Beelink S12 Pro with an N100 CPU, no RAM, and no storage. To make matters worse, these listings lump together multiple models, including the Beelink S12, SER3 3750H, SER5 5560U, and SER5 Max, each in varying configurations of RAM and storage.
By the time you navigate through the confusing options and finally select the SER5 Max with 32GB RAM and 1TB NVMe, the price is often much higher than expected—or the variant is not even available.
This approach makes it nearly impossible to distinguish real deals from regular prices. For shoppers like me, it’s a frustrating way to ruin sale events like 11.11, 12.12, or Black Friday.
Suggestions for Lazada:
- Prohibit bundling completely different products/models under a single listing. It’s acceptable to group variants of the same model with differing RAM and storage, but combining entirely unrelated products should not be allowed.
- Introduce a mechanism that enables shoppers to report sellers who use deceptive listings to mislead customers and gain undue attention.
By the way, this applies to Shopee as well. I’m just a loyal Lazada shopper (first-mover advantage), so my focus has been on Lazada so far.