Why are YOU a Savvy Online Shopper?

The Internet can be a paradise for consumers, as long as you know how to buy safely and avoid hidden costs. Here are some tips to make sure your online shopping information is accurate. Make sure the website has a good reputation. If you are shopping for a new site that you have not done business with before and it is not a brand name you know, take the time to do a little homework before sharing sensitive personal information. Check the site to see if there is a third party authorization sent from a reputable source such as Better Business Bureau Online, or Trust-E. Membership in these organizations means that the website has agreed to adhere to strict rules on how to handle personal information, as well as customer complaints. You can also enter the name of a website or business in your favorite search engine to see what's coming up. If someone has negative information about the site, it may be mentioned in a user forum or a customer information site. Buy only on sites that use secure technologies. When data is transferred between your computer and the shopping site server, it must be encrypted. If the shopping site server uses encryption technology, your data will be encrypted into a 'secret code' and unencrypted when it arrives at the shopping site, to prevent unscrupulous criminals from taking information during the transfer. If a shopping site asks you for any kind of personal data, there are two things you should look for to know that it uses encryption technology: - A small locked lock icon will appear at the bottom right of your monitoring screen. - The webpage URL should start with “https:”, which also indicates that the webpage is secure. Know what your shipping costs will be before you leave. A reputable site will make their shipping costs easier to find, before you check it out. Take the time to look at this information, to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Data collected from online shopping experience surveys consistently show that one thing online consumers do not like more than all shipping charges. While it is inevitable that you should incur shipping costs in one way or another, wise retailers will try to keep these costs to a minimum. Sometimes they will do this wisely by giving you incentives for additional purchases, helping to cover their costs with discounted shipping costs. And while reputable sites will have a free return policy in case you are not happy with your sale, be aware that in most cases you will not be reimbursed for shipping costs to return the item. Make sure you understand the return policy. Never buy anything on the website without reading the fine documentation - especially the good articles about its return policy. Good marketing sites will allow you to return items you are not completely happy with, but sometimes there are rules you should be aware of before ordering. Is there a refund for the stock? This payment can be anywhere from 5% -20% of the purchase price, and is intended to prevent customers from returning a sale. And make sure you know how much time we have to return the item to get a refund. Some companies seem to allow the return window almost unlimited, but in some cases it may be up to a week after receiving your order. You can still return the item after this time, but you will only receive store credit instead of the full refund. Shop with confidence. Online store sales in the U.S. reached $ 65B in 2004, and 2008 forecasts expect that price to rise to $ 117B. An incredible variety of sales are now available online, and as time goes on the options will become even bigger. But in order to make the most of this shopping mall, consumers still need to be experienced buyers. Shop safely and read good articles, then enjoy the savings and convenience of online shopping!