Shopping online from the convenience of your own home is one of the miracles bestowed upon us by the internet. We can easily buy anything from our weekly groceries to our automobiles with just the click of a mouse. With the ease of online shopping come some risks–identity theft, false advertising, and scams to name a few. Keep reading to learn how to reap the rewards of online shopping while protecting yourself and scoring great deals.
When shopping online, make sure that the online store offers secure checkout. This will help protect your personal information from being stolen. To ensure the site is encrypted look up into your web browser’s URL box. If the website starts with https, the site is secured. This stands for hyper transfer protocol secure.
If there are any coupons offered, after you have found the items you want, check to see. There are many websites that offer coupons. These coupons can be a certain percent off, a certain dollar amount off or free shipping. Many times several coupons are offered. Choose the one that will save you the most money if this is the case.
When getting things shipped to your home that you bought online, know your consumer rights regarding time tables and condition of products. You have a right to receive items according to the terms stated when you ordered them and reasonable expectations of goods being undamaged. Check with the BBB for exact specifics and get what’s coming to you fairly!
When shopping online, most places only accept debit or credit cards. Keep this in mind when you are deciding on a site to shop from. Try to find another site if you don’t feel comfortable providing the company with your credit card information. Try to find a site that offers a secure page when you’re adding your credit card information.
Find out the online store’s return policy. If you are considering making a purchase on an item that you may want to return, be sure you find out if returning the item is an option. Sometimes when you shop online, items can not be returned and you do not want to be stuck with an unwanted item.
Look for coupons before purchasing a product online. Most online stores always have some promotional offers going on. If you do not find any information about current offers on the site of the online store, look on other sites. Customers sometimes share their coupon codes on message boards or couponning blogs.
When buying clothing or shoes online, always check on the site’s return policy. Since judging size can be difficult by sheer guesstimation alone, you want to make sure you can return or exchange the item if it doesn’t fit. Otherwise, use a tape-measure and chart to determine your exact size for the country of origin you are purchasing from.
If a deal seems too good to be true, it is. Keep in mind that anyone can launch an online store and not all stores all reputable. Do more research on different stores before deciding where you want to purchase your products from. If it is sold by a store with a bad reputation, do not choose a very affordable product.
If you followed a link from an email an online store sent you, pay attention to the URL. Some scammers send fake emails that look just like what a popular email store would send except that the URL is slightly different. Make sure you received an email from an official check and address the URL of the link you followed.
As you are well aware, shopping online from your home computer or mobile device is highly convenient. You don’t have the hassle of dealing with traffic or lines at the store. Certain risks come with online shopping, however. You now know how to avoid these risks and fully enjoy the online shopping experience.
