Online Shopping: The Good And The Bad
by CHARLIE ANGELES
If you are looking for affordable used cars, used clothing, used oil field equipment, used car tires or basically anything that is a second hand product or refurbished product that are slightly used or in good quality, and you don��t have time to ocular, there are several online shopping sites for you to visit.
The objective of online shopping is to sell retail or wholesale products to consumers or businesses that are either canvassing for brand new products or second-hand, refurbished products that are still in good condition.
Online Shopping has made our hectic lives easier. Citizens around the world can gain more information about products and services that are available abroad. These potential customers can browse online shopping catalogues without putting effort on travel time �C this also applies to the locales. Americans are more web-savvy and believes that the future is with the Internet. In fact, based on the statistics provided by INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM, 69% of its population has Internet penetration.
The most popular sites for online shopping include Amazon and eBay. Both websites catalogues products and services by type of merchandise whether books or electronic items. The advantage with these sites or any other sites for this matter is that they offer a wide array of products from different brands or titles, which makes the comparison of goods a lot easier for the consumer.
The advantage of doing online shopping is its point of comparison. The consumer can browse product categories with different brands and compare prices, features and specifications, quality (based on product ratings) and performance (based on product reviews from other online visitors).
There have been many issues and interconnecting issues regarding online shopping that have been raised since its launch in the World Wide Web. Most concerns deal with the late deliveries and poor return/exchange policy. But as the dot.com bubble happened, Internet fraud and online identity thieving surfaced along with phishing and pharming sites.
Phishing and pharming sites are websites that masquerades as a trustworthy website that acquires very sensitive information like usernames, passwords, and credit card details for criminal intentions. But contrary to popular belief , shopping online with your credit card is safe as long as you deal with a trusted retailer who maintains a site verified by Secure Socket Layering (SSL).
Since 2000, businesses are becoming more and more interested with online visibility. Even bookstores and supermarkets embraced online shopping as a new medium that targets the consumers that are unavailable to drop by at the store and provide them the convenience of on-time deliveries and secured transactions.
So how do you protect information when transacting with online shopping websites?
In you are interested to purchase items online for the first time, it is important to consider the website��s reputation, the extensive product information and availability online, the speed of ordering process and shipping (delivery time and costing), discount availability, return-exchange-refund policy, and especially the payment scheme.
Online shopping websites require credit card payments, but you can email them if they have other options. Other websites have other means of payment transaction like debit cards, electronic money, cash-on-delivery, cheques, wire transfer, postal money order, and PayPal/ Xoom.
So always remember that Internet scams exists online just like in the real world. Always be cautious of the websites you intend to do financial transactions.
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