Is it reliable to buy ceramic tiles online?
As the Internet is highly developed, I believe that many people working in the ceramic construction industry must have been consulted by friends more than once, and the author, who has been a bricklayer for many years, is no exception. In the past few days, a friend happened to ask this question to the author.
Look online to see how popular this issue is. A search on Baidu using the keyword "buy ceramic tiles online" yields 18,500,000 search results, which is an astonishing number considering that ceramic tiles are a low-profile product. However, when searching for similar keywords such as "buy paint online" and "buy wallpaper online" on Baidu, the results obtained are obviously much lower. Comparing the Baidu search results for buying ceramic tiles online and buying other building materials online, we can find that buying bricks online is a topic of considerable concern.
In view of the high popularity of the topic of buying tiles online, and combined with the fact that a friend asked whether buying tiles online is reliable, the author feels that it is necessary to write an article.
It must be noted that this article has a premise: because everything has pros and cons, we must also admit the fact that buying bricks online has pros and cons, from the perspective of consumers rather than brick sellers who open online stores or physical stores. to think about the problem.
1
Benefits of buying bricks online
As we all know, compared with offline shopping, purchasing small commodities online has many advantages such as low prices, high efficiency and worry-free, rich and concentrated products, and convenient returns and replenishments. Like other online shopping behaviors, buying bricks online naturally has certain benefits. However, ceramic tiles are semi-finished products after all, and delivery, transportation, and receipt are not so convenient. Compared with online shopping for small commodities, the benefits of online ceramic tile shopping are very limited. In summary, there are only two points:
First, buying bricks online is more affordable. Because, under normal circumstances, the price of ceramic tiles in online stores is cheaper than in physical stores.
Second, buying bricks online saves time, worry and effort. Of course, this only refers to the inquiry and understanding of ceramic tiles and brands., asking about prices and other steps before placing an order.
The reason why many people want to buy bricks online should be mainly based on these two points, especially the first point. That is, more people consider buying bricks online based on price factors.
2
Disadvantages of buying bricks online
As for the disadvantages of buying bricks online, any brick seller who opens a physical store can tell you a lot in one breath; although their position is very subjective, you will find that what they say is basically true. To sum up, the main points are as follows:
First, products vary in quality. On different e-commerce platforms, taking Moubao as an example, in addition to the higher admission requirements for the official flagship stores of some ceramic tile brands, the barriers to entry for many ceramic tile online stores are very low. It can be said that there are tens of thousands of ceramic tile online stores everywhere. There are so many ceramic tile online stores with a wide variety of products in different designs and colors. They may not look very different, but whether the quality is up to standard, whether fakes are passed off as genuine, whether they are passed off as inferior, etc., are all confusing for consumers who don’t understand ceramic tiles. Big question.
Second, the goods are not right. There may be color differences between the product pictures on the product details page of ceramic tile online stores and the actual products, and many merchants may even beautify the product pictures through P-pictures. Color difference in ceramic tiles is a relatively common problem. Although it is not necessarily a quality problem, it does not necessarily affect the decoration effect; but if there is a color difference, it will definitely cause the difference between the actual product and what consumers see online and imagine in their minds. Different results.
Third, replenishment and returns are troublesome. Ceramic tiles are products with relatively large volume and weight. They are not very convenient to transport, and it is not cost-effective to ship too few products. If you encounter problems with replenishment and returns, it will be cumbersome, laborious and expensive to operate.
Fourth, it is easy to cause over-purchasing. Out of fear of being out of stock, replenishment is prone to color difference and other reasons, consumers often buy too much bricks online, resulting in unnecessary waste. Because of this, there are always some unscrupulous online store merchants who take advantage of consumers' mentality of "returning and exchanging is troublesome and defaults to loss" to sell some ceramic tiles with poor quality.
Fifth, dealing with transportation damage is troublesome. "Chinese-style logistics" often causes damage to ceramic tiles. Once damage occurs, it is troublesome to deal with follow-up problems whether through replenishment or other methods, which can easily lead to quarrels and disputes.
Sixth, the price advantage is no longer obvious after including freight and handling charges. Only looking at the price of a single tile, online shopping is indeed quite cost-effective, but when you factor in the cost of transportation and delivery to your home, consumers may feel a little "thumped" in their hearts.
…This does not include issues such as the difficulty in ensuring after-sales service for online stores.
In a nutshell, if you want to buy bricks online, you should be prepared to bear any uncertain results.
3
Essential skills for buying bricks online
Since the benefits of buying bricks online are limited and there are many disadvantages, does it mean that you must not enter the game? You can't say it so absolutely. In fact, there are still people on the Internet who share successful cases of buying bricks online.
In addition, as long as you master certain methods, you can still avoid pitfalls when buying bricks online.
First of all, we must understand that there are three main types of ceramic tile online stores: one is the official flagship store of a traditional brand (that is, a ceramic tile brand that does not use e-commerce as its main channel); the other is an e-commerce brand (that is, a ceramic tile brand that is purely e-commerce) The official flagship store; the third is a personal store, most of which are opened part-time by relevant personnel from ceramic tile companies.
The existence of official flagship stores of traditional brands is mainly for promotional materialsbrand and crack down on online copycat stores without causing any impact on dealer channels. Therefore, there are relatively few ceramic tile styles sold online (to avoid affecting the business of offline dealer stores. Although dealers can also attract traffic through official flagship stores, they prefer to sell offline), and the prices will not be very low. If individual The product prices are extremely low, mostly to attract traffic.
Most e-commerce brands do not have their own factories. Most of the ceramic tiles sold in their official flagship stores come from OEMs of ceramic tile manufacturers, and the quality is uneven. The quality of the ceramic tiles sold in individual stores depends on The strength of the ceramic tile company in which it works.
What if after understanding the three types of ceramic tile online stores, you still want to buy ceramic tiles online, and you don’t want to suffer a loss? Then you must master a reliable method to test the quality of ceramic tiles. Many ceramic tile online stores provide small samples for free, and buyers only need to pay shipping costs. Consumers can choose several of their favorite products of the same price range or category for horizontal comparison testing.
The main indicators reflecting the quality of ceramic tiles are water absorption, surface hardness and impact resistance. Generally speaking, the lower the water absorption, surface hardness and impact resistance, the better the quality of the tile.
The common method to test the water absorption of ceramic tiles is to pour a little water on the bottom of the tiles and observe whether there is penetration. This method is actually unreliable. The current national standard for porcelain tiles requires that the water absorption rate is less than 0.5%. Even if the water absorption rate of some tiles reaches 1%-3%, it is difficult to see obvious penetration of water marks with the naked eye; only the water absorption rate is within Only when more than 10% of the ceramic bricks (porcelain tiles) are made, will water stains slowly penetrate. Therefore, this method can only be used to distinguish floor tiles and ceramic tiles, and is basically useless for comparing the water absorption of floor tiles.
The common method to test the surface hardness of ceramic tiles is to scratch the surface of the tiles with hard objects such as a utility knife and keys. This method is also unreliable. The hardness of ceramic tiles is usually expressed on the Mohs hardness scale. The most common glazed tiles currently on the market have a Mohs hardness of 5 or above, while the Mohs hardness of ordinary utility knives and keys is generally only 4. About; use low-hardness items to test high-hardness ceramic tiles, it is strange that scratches can occur.
As for how to test the impact resistance of ceramic tiles, there is currently no mainstream method.
If the above methods for testing the three major indicators of ceramic tiles are notIt’s reliable, so what kind of method is reliable? An expert who wrote and posted on Zhihu created a method that has been recognized by many people.
Test the water absorption of ceramic tiles: Immerse different test samples completely in water, and soak them for 48 hours while ensuring that the back is not blocked. About hours. Take out the sample, wipe it clean, and air-dry both sides for about 1 hour to ensure that there are no water droplets remaining on the tiles, so as not to affect the test results; then weigh the different samples separately. Water absorption rate tested for 48 hours = (weight after soaking - weight before soaking)/weight before soaking.
Test the surface hardness of ceramic tiles: Purchase a Mohs hardness pen online on Taobao. Use a Mohs hardness pen to scratch the surface of the ceramic tile, starting from level 3 and gradually increasing the level until scratches appear.
Testing the impact resistance of ceramic tiles: Purchase several solid stainless steel balls with a diameter of 50mm and a weight of 500g on Taobao. Hold such a solid stainless steel ball in your hand and start dropping it from a height of 10cm to impact the sample tiles. Each time you drop the ball, increase the height by 1-2cm, and record the height when damage or cracks appear.
The above test methods can digitize the main indicators of ceramic tiles at the lowest cost.
Have you learned how to buy ceramic tiles online? If you haven’t learned it yet, never make purchasing decisions based on the positive reviews of ceramic tile online stores. You know the reasons behind it.
If you have other opinions, please leave a message!
