Monday, October 20, 2008

What I should look for when shopping online

Shopping Online Safely

When you shop online you should look for a number of things to help insure a good shopping experience. First, is the checkout process secure? When you go to checkout your items and pay for them look for a padlock in your browser. This tells you that your information is encrypted and won't be seen by prying eyes. For an example, look at this Shopping Link.

You can see the padlock in the browser.

Return Policy and Shipping

Every decent online shopping site will have a return and shipping policy. This is needed in case you receive the wrong merchadise or the merchandise is defective. Shipping methods should also be stated. Note: UPS will not ship to PO Boxes.

Reviews of the Site

Try to find reviews from other buyers who used the site. You might find them on the site itself, through Google, Google Checkout, or other shopping sites like ShopMania, Shopzilla, etc. Even giant sites like Amazon will have some disgruntled customers. What to look for here is whether the majority of users were satisfied with their shopping experience.

Item Prices

Item prices are probably the first thing on a shopper's mind. This makes sense since it is your money and perhaps you are not a billionaire. You can use comparison shopping sites like Shopzilla, Shopping.com,Google Product Search, and also MSN's Product Search

Overall, most online shopping should be done with common sense. If you feel uncomfortable shopping any site, remember you can come back some other time or shop somewhere you feel secure shopping