Harry
It starts great, now very average.
I started using Yamibuy in 2014, spent close to 4000 to date. There are a lot of snacks on Yami, a lot of which i am not able to find in local asian markets. If i'm looking for asian snacks, i would look on Yami before any other sites. The price is average. Some cheaper than local store and some more expensive. Overall it is slightly more expensive than it is, the reason being that Yami does not have a store front. Being a lazy person, it doesn't really bother me. The support team is great, they usually responds to any inquiries within one business day. If some items you want are out of stock, you can ask the support for an ETA. All is great when items you are looking for are in stock, or Yami have enough in stock. If an item is on sale and you limit the number of items per purchase, that would not be an issue. However, if an item at its regular price has been on limit per purchase year round, that is just not acceptable. Another issue with stock. I have couple items i wanted that are out of stock. I have it notify me when it is in stock, i also check the site daily to see if it come back in stock. The reminder system is working half the time. Some items that came back in stock will remain on the reminder and no email will be sent. Some items i'm looking for are sometimes out of stock for 1-2 month, and there will be like 50 in stock and be gone in a day. This continues for like a year for items i'm watching. I don't buy enough to make the purchase worth the price so the items on my watch list stays there indefinitely because they get so little stock. Another problem that is really apparent with last year is the introduction of third party sellers. It is great for fresh snack that are not available otherwise. What actually happens is Yami removes their item and have third party take over. So items that were available directly through Yami now has to go through third party. What used to be one shipping charge becomes two three shipping charge. If you are bringing in third party, compete with them like Amazon. I do not mind if an item is slightly more expensive, but if i have to buy from multiple seller and have multiple filler items, i will stop buying. My friends and i are already holding a lot of purchases because it would always result in buying from more than one seller when the same items were available from Yami before. Something minor that bothers me a lot is when the page with newly introduced items. The list of items would be a simple query of last n items added to the system. However, some items reappear there multiple times. Yes, it is really obvious when the same robot reader appear in the recently added items when i see it more than 2 month ago. Give it a new tab, maybe call it "You may have missed" or something. Do not put it in new arrival because it is not. Local deals. Please have something in setting that can disable them if they are X distance away from me. Most of them are near LA area, I do not live in LA and there are like 50000 local deals. I used to like Yami a lot, now i'm buying less and less because a lot of items get really limited stock despite it happening year round. Items i used to buy are disappearing. Some brand are gone as a whole. Some brands with 20+ items have like 80% out of stock. The introduction to third party is a must if Yami wants to grow but removing items because third party also have same brand is just ridiculous.