As international K-pop fans we do share a similar struggle to search and buy the many albums and merchandise we seek as soon as our favourite group has their comeback or perhaps just to collect. Whatever the reason may be, acquiring a main resource to obtain such items, it is truly thanks to the wonderful combination of online shopping and international shipping that has made this possible.
Therefore, this Resource Review will be concerning the popular site Yesasia (Yesasia.com)
Merchandise Available:
Out of the numerous sites I have attempted to order from, Yesasia has been a personal preference in terms of its reliability as well as its providence in stock and range of items.
It is one of the few sites which immediately as soon as a group has released information on their new album or merchandise, the website has its details even before a cover image has been released. It efficiently provides that along with album information such as the possibility of posters or a DVD version included in the mentioned album as well as release date.
As well as this, it efficiently includes and lists every album as well as the particular version of the album in its list, when specifying your choice in the search bar. The website ensures to list and provide results for the album’s multiple versions as well as on the right hand side in an advert display alerts when a particular product goes on sale or what the newly released items are in stock.
Yesasia, in terms of merchandise available, in terms of music albums, lists every single version or type of album, concert album, sub-group album of the group in question. Not only this, the website includes K-Drama soundtracks as well as some of the more popular K-Dramas themselves, the majority of them English subtitled. Additionally, merchandise of your favourite group is available may it be jewellery in the style of your favourite singer, an item worn by the member, calenders, folders, bookmarks, hats, or concert merchandise, however not all merchandise is available on the site. Therefore as a result, I deem Yesasia as incredibly efficient mainly when it particularly concerns albums.
Pricing:
The pricing of albums on Yesasia I find are generally quite expensive. However with that said, it is considerably much cheaper if purchasing from a store in London that sells K-Pop albums. Pricing of albums vary with the most expensive items being concert albums, some of which have been around £100 and regular albums being around £25 or if the album is coming with an additional DVD otherwise if just simply an A version of an album in generally they are around £20, albeit it also depends on the given artist. Jewellery prices I find are reasonably priced seeing as they are based upon the style of the singer or official goods, with some ranging from £3 for earrings to around £5-7 for rings and around £10 or more for necklaces.
This is one of the items of jewellery I had recently purchased for a friend, the necklace here costing around £12 at the time in which I had bought it in.
Shipping:
Shipping as to be one of the tricky parts of the website here that catch you out when shopping. Unfortunately, the pricing of the product does not include the shipping price which varies on the weight of the items. Thus, the heavier the shopping, the more expensive and empty your wallet will be! However there is a wonderful catch to this. Thankfully, Yesasia do a deal where if a customer purchases any items on one cart equating to over £23.45 more (converted from dollars to pounds) shipping, is a word we all love to hear: Free! Otherwise if under that amount, shipping is approximately £6.62.
It usually takes around 2-3 weeks on average however if ordering an item which is in high demand, such as one I am currently waiting for to arrive, it can take up to a month for it to be at long last delivered to your door. It also takes a significantly longer period if ordering multiple items, not just the album itself, then you are in for a long and patient wait for your order to come through, sadly. (Still waiting!)
Packaging and Quality of Products:
Packages usually come in large boxes, with care placed into wrapping the product and ensuring its safe arrival. For example, the jewellery I have ordered had come in a much larger box than expected for a significantly small item, and wrapped very neatly in bubble wrap. Similarly albums have been wrapped up the same way, usually in two layers of bubble wrap and inside a carefully wrapped cardboard box. Products always come brand new and undamaged as well as unopened in their clear original packaging therefore no matter the amount of products I have ordered, I have continually been significantly satisfied with the quality.
Website Interface:
Other than what has been mentioned previously, Yesasia organises searches of particular groups or albums in list format as well as provides every single version of the said album possible. According to personal preference the site, like others sorts searches into either: best matches, alphabetically, price order, availability and average customer ratings. Then, when clicking on the product, it provides a few images of the product in good quality as well as the pricing and detailed information on what is listed within the album or product such as the number and list of tracks available and on which CD as well as information on the details of the DVD, poster or additional products associated with the product.
However, the particular feature of the website I strongly admire most would be, say for example a customer were to do a search on a particular album of a particular group or sub group, may it be a concert album or regular album regardless of the language on the page of the said album, it conveniently lists different country’s versions such as a Japanese, Hong Kong, Korean etc version in order and displays the pricing beside to allow customers to compare or opt for the version of the album they seek. I find this one of the most predominantly convenient layouts preferable when trying to decide which product to order.
Issues:
One problem that had risen when I first began to explore the site was that when I first began utilising the website, specifically when searching for a specific item or product, I had been accidentally redirected to the US version or a different version of the site, which of course caused some momentary confusion in the beginning. However when first clicking on the site, simply changing the country or region to where you live, the site reverts to a global version which, when your country of residency has been set, conveniently adapts prices into the currency of your country.
Here are some of the items bought from Yesasia (I am one of the shoppers who enjoys collecting!)
Overall:
I find Yesasia to be a wonderful website to order due to it being incredibly convenient and easy to order from. Seeing as most items are usually over the pricing requirements for free shipping it is much easier to order from. However I would prefer the pricing to be cheaper, it is usually my first choice in purchasing albums especially when looking for the particular album I would specifically like to buy seeing as Yesasia usually stocks DVD versions as well as poster versions, it it simply the website I refer to for this as well as checking information when an album is first released. It is a site I would definitely recommend to first time buyers of K-Pop goods purely for its efficient and desirable layout and availability of items.
