If you’re an ASUS fan in Malaysia, you’re going to love this. ASUS officially launched their E-commerce store in Malaysia at 12:00pm today. They’ve been offering sneak peeks of the launch on their Facebook page for a while now, though the site actually went live a few days ago.
The choices available prior to the launch are fairly limited though, with only Zenfone smartphones available. The ASUS Facebook fans from Malaysia questioned this when the website was first introduced, and ASUS promised to roll out more products after it launched officially. We actually tried the site out yesterday and it appears that you can already start purchasing Zenfones (if you wish to) through the site even before the launch date.
There are currently only two payment options available: Credit Card or Cash On Delivery. Don’t get too excited about the Cash on Delivery option yet, there’s a whole list of areas that doesn’t accept Cash on Delivery – those living in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Melaka, Terengganu, Melaka, Johor, WP Labuan and Pahang should check with the list before checking ‘Cash on delivery’. Pre-ordered products have to be paid by credit card as well. According to the site, delivery takes 1 to 2 days in West Malaysia and 1 to 3 days in East Malaysia to get your purchases to you. Not too shabby if you asked me.
The e-commerce site has a simple design that reminds me of Mi Malaysia. Every time I open that link I feel like getting a new phone.
With the number of fake phones readily available from roadside stores, this site lets consumers buy phones with the peace of mind as they would be certain to get the real deal. However, the prices don’t differ from the retail prices you get in brick-and-mortal stores, with the Zenfone 4 going for RM299, the Zenfone 5 for RM519 and the Zenfone 6 for RM699.
To make an order, you have to sign up for an account with the ASUS online store. I was quite surprised to received two email notifications shortly after, letting me know that in addition to the ASUS account (which requires email verification), I had also registered for an ASUS webstorage account (in Mandarin no less). The ASUS WebStorage services allows me to sync my files from my mobile phones, computers and tablets. All of the functions I don’t need and more! A warning and an option to opt out would’ve been nice.
Following its official launch at 12:00pm today (December 3rd, 2014), ASUS offered a special deal with the purchase of Zenfone 4 (Free Zenfone 4 bumper case, limited to 100 customers) and an opening special (Mystery gift).
There is a limit of 20 mystery gifts to be won by the first 20 ASUS store customers, who have to send in their redemption mail with a screen capture of their order with ASUS store Malaysia.
According to their Facebook statement: “ASUS Malaysia will be kicking off a variety of special promotions, exclusive offers and gift redemption activities – especially for its fans and consumers when they purchase at ASUS Store.”
That seems to be all they’re offering with their launch and frankly, I’m a little disappointed at the lack of new products they have. ASUS does sell tablets and computers after all. Perhaps they are planning to roll the products out slowly as this is the first ASUS e-commerce store in Malaysia. We’ll be keeping an eye out for the deals to come!
