Why online shopping?
From the relative comfort of your home, you can get information on an almost unlimited variety of products and services, compare them and make a decision to buy online, have the goods delivered to your door and save time – what is more, you also save money!
Competitions between the online shops is even more severe than between the regular shops. The development of internet technology made possible the careful studying of the online shoppers’ behavior and preferences. The most common means for that are the online surveys, the feedback forms, analysis of the visitors interest to different products and promotions based on the website’s statistics and much more. All this makes selling online easier and brings increasingly bigger profit, however it also helps consumers find trendy goods easily and makes decision making less troublesome as they can trust the various reviews published for each product and see how it is rated.
General tips for online shopping:
Any product can be found in numerous websites at a great variety of prices and naturally arises the question: Where to find the best price and purchase conditions? What to look for? Below we will try to deliniate the most important aspects of online shopping:
Promotions may typically include free shipping or multiple shipping discounts, sometimes limited only to certain states, free gifts, discount on certain items at the end of the season, discounts for quantity or based on the total price of your purchase.
Safety – The page on which you provide your credit card information should be protected by encryption, SSL (Secure Shell Layer) or SET (Secure Electronic Transmission). You may look at the beginning of the address bar and see whether is says “shttp” or “https” which states a secure mode. Additionally if the website uses a SSL the logo of the company which issued it will be typically displayed on the purchase page or before it.
Handling and Shipping is another important aspect – Some sites have lower shipping charges than others. Often the charges depend on the distance, however some retailers have flat fees regardless of where you are located.
Sales Taxes – The law sates that the seller can only charge sales tax if the he is located in the same State as you. Respectively if you find a seller in a different state you will avoid the additional sales charges.
Return policy – Check carefully what the procedure is in case you have problems with the delivery or the goods you ordered – will they let you return merchandise?