Shopping,Online Shopping,Shopping Tips
Shop Online,Online Store,Shopping Center,Shopping Malls.

The internet has changed our buying habits.

Many people have found the convenience of online shopping to be a great experience. You can easily click and see the product. You have a fun time shopping, browsing, reading and getting informed about products. And you don’t have to take time out from your busy schedule to fight traffic, crowds and lines to buy the perfect gift for your recipient.

In theory you could create a retail web site with a limitless selection; an online store where every kind of merchandise known to man could be sold. Would people be interested in buying from such a huge enterprise?

Why do people buy online?

Location: You can shop online from almost anywhere as long as you have access to a power supply and a telephone connection. You can shop in the comfort of your own home or you can shop in your office. You can even shop while on the move, if you have a laptop connected to a mobile telephone.

Convenience: You can visit a web site almost whenever you want, you can browse through it at your own pace and you can make a purchase at any time of day or night. The internet makes it possible to shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Information: The internet makes limitless amounts of product information available to the online shopper. You can access product specifications, brochures, product comparisons and all manner of other information with just a few clicks. You no longer have to wait for a brochure or a catalogue to come to you.

How do people shop online?

What are the factors that determine the buying decision? Just like in the real world where shops are built of bricks and mortar, the online store needs to welcome the shopper and make them feel comfortable and safe.

Once a shopper arrives at your web site they need a little time and space to familiarise themselves before being bombarded with information or choices. If you put too much information on your home page then the average shopper will miss a large proportion of your content. Likewise, if you present too many choices you will overwhelm the shopper and it is very likely that they will leave straight away.

The purpose of your home page should be to simply tell the shopper where they are and to ensure that the general layout of your online store is easy to understand. Your customers need to know if they are in a vast warehouse or a small boutique! They need to know where the entrances to each department or section are located; their question is often quite simple how do I find what I’m looking for?

Your web site should be attractively designed, with enough white space to make your content readable. You should choose a web friendly font in a size that is large enough to be read on an average monitor.

Navigation is critical. Your web site’s navigation should be obvious; it should be laid out in a simple and logical way. Your customer should be able to navigate within your web site by using the navigation buttons and links that you provide without having to use the browser back button. Shoppers should be able to navigate inside your web site without leaving.

Consider how you could make the online shopping experience fun and interesting. The technology is now available to provide live customer support; you can now guide and advice shoppers as they browse your online store. You can add sound to welcome people to your store or to add an audio description to your products. You can demonstrate your products in action using video technology.

It never ceases to amaze me just how many web sites simply don’t work. Broken links, missing images, badly installed scripts. Payment processing that is incorrectly configured; too many clicks to get from the product to the checkout; forms that require too much mandatory information. The list of problems is endless.

A simple checklist for a successful web site:

Make it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for with a minimum number of clicks.
Provide accurate and full product descriptions. Ensure that your images are of good quality and that they show your product in the best possible light.
Make sure that your products are competitively priced and that you clearly state the total cost of purchase including taxes and shipping costs where appropriate.
Make it easy for your customer to complete their order and to process their payment. Provide payment options where possible. Ensure that your payment process is secure.
Be responsive with your support. Shoppers are looking for a speedy answer. If you don’t provide it, then your competitors will. Provide online help or an Autoresponder. Keep your promises.
Deliver your product on time and meet, or exceed, your customer’s expectations. If you demonstrate a reliable and quality product delivery you will get repeat business.
Follow up. If there is going to be a delay, let your customer know. Don’t just make the sale and then ignore your customer, keep in touch with a polite follow up message or special offer.

There are a number of very important factors missing from the online shopping experience. People can’t smell the freshness or the perfume of your product. People can’t touch your product and they can’t feel the quality or the texture. You must compensate for these gaps by making the online shopping experience for your customers the best it can be.

It is vital that you test and track your visitors’ behaviour and try to improve the experience through careful analysis of your testing and tracking results. You have visitors arriving. Now is the time to take action!

Main 5 rules for Online Shopping.

First before buying from an online store find out what that online stores return policy is.
Second ,now days it's good to know what the privacy policy of any website you fill out forms on is.
Third,Now for the purchase itself, make sure email address must be right it's important,your postal address must be right and your credit card info must be correct.
Fourth,Most online stores will send you an order confirmation email to confirm your order was received.
Finally, Most stores will let you know when your order has been shipped.

It’s a funny world we live in:

I have a friend who took his wife out for a romantic evening to a local restaurant. The last place you would expect credit card fraud to happen. By the time he noticed they had charged him double the amount for their dinner, it was too late to go back to the restaurant. He rang me and we concluded that it must be a mistake. It was later that we found out that the restaurant owner’s reputation was a bit shaky. Apparently he frequently overcharged customers in the hope they wouldn’t notice. I don’t know. It’s a funny world we live in.

Does this mean the internet is safe? Relatively yes, but don’t forget, the Internet is an open field and there are some bad elements out there.

We have been shopping online for years. We never had a problem with credit card fraud on the Internet. But then again, we always take precautions. From this point forward, you will see 10 checkpoints online merchants have to pass to secure our business...

Will your credit card details be safe?

Reputable companies online know that one of the things preventing customers from placing orders with them is customers not been sure whether their credit card details will be safe. Responsible companies have taken this concern onboard and have set up their systems to provide the customer with maximum security. How would you know if you are entering your payment details on a secure page?

You should see a picture of a lock on the bottom right hand side of your screen. This lock will appear on the page that you fill in when ordering and ensures that your name, address and credit card information is being sent to the online store through encrypted code. This encrypted code means that a hacker will not be able to steal your credit card information.

Does the online store value your privacy and confidentiality?

Millions of people make purchases online, but many people still worry. They fear the unknown and have many doubts and questions about who they are dealing with. They are afraid of being scammed, and rightfully so. Online shopping can be a completely safe and rewarding experience provided you are dealing with a legitimate, reputable retailer. But how do you know if they are legitimate??? Here lies the "fear of the unknown."

Well, as with anything in life, there are precautions to take, questions you should ask yourself, and signs to look out for. Provided you are careful with who you decide to purchase from, online shopping can be a very convenient and pleasurable experience.

Important Safety Precautions:

Take a good look around the website. Make sure you read their Privacy Policy. A privacy policy let's you know the procedures and methods they have in place to secure your personal information. Find the answers to these questions...Do they share your information with others? Some companies sell or distribute your information to other companies. You may wind up on everybody's mailing list. Do they have security measures in place to protect your information (i.e. SSL)? SSL is the abbreviation for Secured Socket Layer. SSL is security software that encrypts information transmitted between browsers. What this means in layman's terms is that your personal information such as name, address, credit card number, etc. is coded or scrambled so that anyone who may try to intercept this information as it is transmitting cannot read it. But don't just rely on them telling you that their site is secure, check for yourself. You will know when you are in a secure browser by looking at the bottom browser bar on your computer (lower right). If the browser is secure, you will see a security lock image. Also check the web address in your top browser bar. Secure web addresses begin with "https" whereas, non-secure pages begin with "http."

Setting up accounts with online stores is quite common. However, many people are leery of this because they don't understand why it is sometimes necessary. Generally, the only information you are providing is your name, address, email address, and sometimes your phone number. This is all necessary information that the store needs in order to ship your order or contact you regarding your order. Setting up an account with the retailer usually provides you with additional such as tracking the status of your order. On the other hand, if the account set-up asks for more than just your basic contact information, then you may not want to proceed. You should not be required to provide your social security number, bank account number, or birthdate. This information is much more personal and should not be necessary to have an order shipped.

Shipping and Refund Policies:

Read the shipping and returns policies before making a purchase. Make sure you feel comfortable with them. Find answers to these questions...What is their shipping timeframe? Is it within a reasonable amount of time? Will they notify you if it will take longer than anticipated? What choices will you have then? Do they allow returns? Are there restrictions on what items you can return and explanations as to why? Do they make sense?

Does the online store have contact details? You may think, of course an online store would display their contact details on their website. You would be surprised. I was. No email address, nothing. This is a sure red flag. Reputable companies will have contact details.

The internet in convenience surpasses the offline world when it comes to shopping - but one thing it can’t match is that offline you can physically touch the product. Therefore a refund policy of 30 days is great, more is better. No refund policy and I would stay away.

Confirmation of your Order:

Do they send you some sort of confirmation when you place your order? When you place your order what you need is something to tell you they have receive it, a receipt if you like. A reputable company will either issue you one via email or display a new page of their website where they thank you and tell you the order went through okay and your product is on its way.

When do they deliver? What times do they deliver during the day? Do they deliver on the weekends? Can you choose a time to have your gift delivered? Will it be delivered personally to the recipient intended or will the courier leave it outside their door?

How will your gift arrive? If its flowers, will it come with a vase or in a nice box or wrapped? Will your bouquet contain flower care instructions? How about flower food to make your flowers last longer? If you’ve ordered another gift product, will they wrap it? In what kind of material will they deliver it? Do they tell you these things on their website?

How long have they been in business?

This may not mean too much. There are companies that start off and surpass all others. But perhaps for your peace of mind, you may want to use an online store that has been in business for some years. To check the history of the company is easy.

You can go to networksolutions.com and click on "whois" on the top bar. You will be taken to a page where you can enter the web address of the online store you want to check and you will receive the relevant information.

Is the online store’s site easy to use? Is navigating easy? Is looking for products easy? Do their graphics download in a reasonable time? A sure sign of an amateur sight is if they have their website cluttered with information.

Have they gotten any bad reviews?

A reputable company isn’t necessary one that hasn’t any bad reviews to its name. It’s virtually impossible to please everyone. There have been companies I have bought from and absolutely loved. So it surprises me sometimes when I stumble on a bad review about their products or even bad comments about them. So when is a bad comment about a company worth considering? I take note of reviews where the writer complains of:

not receiving the product
not receiving a refund
not having their emails answered

If you want to see what kind of reviews a company may have, click on alexa.com. When you get to the website, type in the address of the store you want to check out. This will also show you how long the company has been in business.

Don't make huge purchases right off the bat. Make a small, low cost purchase with the company and consider it a low-risk test of their credibility. This allows the retailer a chance to prove themselves worthy of your business, but limits the monetary risk you are taking. Should all go well, you can make a larger purchase in the future with peace of mind, now knowing that this is a legitimate business.

There are many advantages to purchasing online and as long as you are careful with who you choose to deal with you can reap the rewards.

Here are some of the benefits:

Convenience: Why fight the crowds in the stores, especially during the holidays, when you can sit at home on your computer and shop. And price comparisons are just a click away when shopping on the internet. There's no need to fight traffic running from store to store looking for the "best deal." You can have your purchase delivered to your doorstep within a few days.

Prices: Online retailers and storefronts purchase their products from the same manufacturers. However, an online retailer doesn't have the costly overhead that a storefront has (i.e. Lease payments on the building, heat and electric, just to name a few). Therefore, the online retailer doesn't have to markup the price as much as the storefront in order to make the same profit. So you, the consumer, come out the winner!

Store Hours: Online retailers are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Shop at your convenience.

So as long as you take some simple precautions, shopping online can be a very pleasurable, time saving and money saving experience.

Pages :