Buying online tips: Buy online but be very careful

Online shopping has changed the shopping trend worldwide. Now internet penetration is increasing in most of the countries therefore more and more companies are offering products and services for sale online. E-commerce and net banking has also brought convenience to shop online.

Benefits of online shopping:

Cost effective: You don't have to go to various shops and stores in the market to choose products

Time saver: Since online shopping is available 24 hours so one can easily shop at his own convenience.

Easy comparison: You can easily find and compare different products available online.

Faster financial transaction: Due to online banking and internet related offers of the banks it is easier to transfer funds and complete financial transactions very fast and at lower cost. Almost all the bank are appealing and offering online transaction because it is very convenient to transact online rather than visiting the bank branches.

It is very useful both in terms of saving money and time especially for travel bookings, purchasing tickets, checking for availabilities and lots of last minutes purchases.

Researching for products and Vendors: It is necessary to research for the product you want to buy. Searching on the net and by asking your friends and relatives who are using the product is also a useful step. Even if they are not using the product ask their opinion. Check online web sites of different retailers. There are several web sites that provide detail specifications of products. Some sites also guide by comparison of different brands e.g. www.compareindia.com. You can also look for reviews of the products by their user on forums, discussion boards, etc to know more. One more effective tool is to check out auction or reselling website. You can check whether the product you are going to buy is being sold by the user who bought it recently and not satisfied? If you find several resellers of the products then it’s not worth buying. By these steps of researching decide the product.

Now it’s the time to check reliable shopping website. It is wise to buy the products from the manufacturer’s website if they have one. Most of the manufacturers have their own website with the detail of the products and the specification. If manufacturer is not selling directly check for reliable shopping portals.

Check Terms and condition: Before final buying you can also check several retailers for the pricing, payment terms, after sales service, warranty, shipping time and other terms. Get yourself satisfied with the hidden clause like “taxes extra”, “handling charges”, “duties” etc. Now decide for the best offer one has.

Now come Payment option:

There are several options available in online shopping e.g. credit card money order, cheque, payment via credit card/debit card, electronic wallet, offline payment, payment by Escrow account etc

Finally when you have decided the product and website for purchasing they will ask for payment option. COD (Cash on delivery) is the safest method, but if it is not the option they could ask payment via. Chose the payment method which you think is the best for you. If you are using credit card for online payment ensure whether payment is processed on a secured server. Please check the privacy section of your transaction also. This is a very important aspect of online shopping. Online frauds are increasing day by day and revealing financial details to an unknown website could be very dangerous. So be very careful.

Delivery terms : Check the following : insurance, service warranty, refund policy, customer support, cancellation option, cancellation charges, refund procedure etc.

By keeping above mentioned points in mind you can safely shop online and enjoy the benefit of online shopping.

Happy Shopping