Shopping online: A luxury of the 21st century

Online shopping, what would we do without it, nowadays? You can buy anything when you want, be it at midnight, or noon. There is no need to get out of your home or office, no need to drive in the heat or in the rain, no need to find decent parking, no need to walk from one shop to another in search of what you want, no need to find an excuse to tell the sales assistant when you don’t want to take whatever she or he is trying to sell you.

The list goes on, and that is why online shopping has become so common and is on an ever increasing growth trend.

Online shopping makes our life easier. It will never replace the fun of when you go out on a shopping spree, as a leisure activity, but it does remove the boring out the functional shopping, when you know what you want, and need it quickly and at a good price. Shopping online gives you the facility of looking at the specifications of an item in great depth, read reviews, check for competitive prices, and in most cases have it delivered to your doorstep at no extra charge.

There are good shops out there but there are also the bad ones. By taking some preventive measures, we can easily protect ourselves against possible scams or fraudulent businesses. There is something you can do and some questions you need to ask.

Before committing to an order, check the contact information of the shop. Is there a telephone number on the site? Is there a physical address? Does it fit in with what you are being promised (e.g. you want to buy Italian fashion, but then you see that the shop is in China).

Is the seller reachable, and does he/she answer you promptly? Try contacting the seller with some questions, if you have any, and consider the amount of time they take to answer you. This will give you a good indication of how much they value their online customers.

Read reviews: check out reviews on their site, but also check for other independent reviews. See what comes up, and get the general feel of the users’ comments.

Check out their social media pages. Check what is going on in their Facebook Page. You might even stumble upon a discount coupon which is pretty common to get from Facebook pages of online shops. See the type of comments that the users are leaving.

Read the full details of the product description, and ensure that you understand it completely. If you are not clear about it, contact the seller, before you but the item, and ask.

Read the shipping and refund policies that the seller has on the site.

If you do decide to buy the item, make sure that when you are typing the credit card details, your connection is secure. This is usually depicted by a locket that appears on the browser. If the seller asks you to complete the sale by sending the credit card details in an e-mail, beware. Email is not safe, and your credit card details can be easily stolen while they are being transferred or once they are on the seller’s PC. Ask for an alternative form of payment, maybe by money order or by PayPal. Nowadays, any respectable business can easily acquire a simple and secure method of payment, so do not trust any other primitive way of paying for your items.

It’s also important to compare. Analyse what each seller is claiming, and see what price differences exist between the sellers.

Don’t trust shady websites, or vague classified ads. If something doesn’t feel right in the communications with the seller or in the transaction, or if the bargain seems to be too good to be true, don’t fall for it. If you can’t find any previous sellers history /reviews, no social media pages and no inclusion in popular shopping e-malls, don’t trust the seller with your credit card details, or any other form of payment.

There are various Maltese shops that now have an online shopping facility. It is good to know that you can buy an item without having to wait too long for it to be delivered. Many online shops are also aware of the international competition, and keep their prices competitive.

Online shopping should be a pleasurable experience which makes shopping fun and quick.

Joanne Bishop Magro is a marketing executive at www.TrolleyMania.com.