As the holiday season kicks off this winter, I am making it my goal to take care of all my shopping-- without ever leaving my chair.
The Internet is booming an industry that techies refer to as
"e-commerce." E-commerce is any purchasing, point-of-sale or otherwise,
made online. Today, there are dozens of methods used in e-commerce, all
with benefits and downsides.
In this article, I will discuss some e-commerce methods, and give you a
feel for on-line shopping. It is my hope that after reading this article, you will feel safe and comfortable enough to venture your own purchase or two out there in the great beyond.
"Traditional" Purchase
Shopping in the traditional sense requires an interest in a product and ultimately the purchase of that product with cash, check or credit card. That is no different online, with the exception that it is normally not a good idea to mail cash via postal delivery. So how do you buy what you want? First, you need to know what you want. Your favorite stores are probably out there online somewhere. You just need to know where to go to find them.
Looking for Papa John's? Try papajohns.com. Looking for Walmart? Try walmart.com. This isn't rocket science, people. These companies know that consumers aren't going to go out of their way to get their products if they can't find the store online.
There aren't very many differences between online buying and traditional buying. "Window shopping" becomes "surfing." Instead of making the sale, and coming home with the product, the product is shipped to you via postal mail. Think though, of the convenience. Most companies even gift-wrap your purchases for you (for a small fee, of course).
Bidding
On-line bidding is quite similar to traditional bidding, in that a product or service is offered at a starting price, and the determination of cost comes from the highest bidder. You can bid against people you have never met, from the dealer, whom you never have to see, with a product you never hold in your hand. There are numerous on-line bidding locations, but among the safest, easiest to use, and most cost-efficient, are Onsale, and eBay.
Onsale www.onsale.com
Onsale is one of the older sites out there. With its ripe age of 2, Onsale delivers an attractive layout, a quality guarantee on all purchases made, and easily navigable site. Purchases are made via consumer bids from manufacturers. In this market, Onsale is the middleman.
Want a Kodak camera? Buy it through Onsale, and have it shipped to your door from Kodak's warehouse. I highly recommend this site, in particular, for computer product purchases.
eBay www.ebay.com
EBay is your one-stop shopping location. Until you visit the site yourself, you may never believe that they have anything and everything you are looking for. Searching for that antique spoon your Great Aunt once had? How about that Spiderman Pez dispenser? Or maybe a new CD-ROM? Interested in a used Chevy? EBay is your answer.
The format for eBay is similar to other bidding locations online, with the exception that eBay does not act as middleman. In fact, eBay is simply the vehicle for such bids to take place. They monitor the site, they maintain the highly advanced programming, but aside from that, your bid is directly with the seller, either a business or a personal vendor.
Security
So is all of this safe? No. That's my blanket statement. No, not if you don't know what you're doing. If you visit one of the sites above, yes. You are safe. The above sites use encryption in their web coding.
When you visit a "secure" site, your browser will tell you so. That is your sign that any information transferred will be encoded, sent, and decoded on the other side. This prevents "sniffing," or tapping information from snoopy people.
Always look for secure sites before you shop. If you see a product you like online, but you just don't want to try giving your credit card number to the vendor, use their phone number. Most reputable companies respect that their consumers are not 100 percent comfortable with online purchases.
The Future
The Internet is a fairly recent method for commerce. Look forward to it being a major part of industry. E-commerce is being sold hard this holiday season, and for a good reason too. Companies that started out in garages over the net now sit in warehouses with world-wide distribution centers. Dive into this head-first, people. It is fun to be on this bandwagon, for where this wagon ends will surely be a place you'll want to be.
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Name: Brian :) Comments:
Thanks for the tip, Kelly. I just spent $330 on a CD Burner. I plan to look at that thoroughly now. :) Thanks!
Name: Kelly Comments:
We buy lots of stuff over the Internet and have never had a problem. CD's, laserdiscs, books, you name it. One CD order was lost in the mail and the vendor, without complaint, sent another one. I don't know about OnSale, but there are some specific things to watch for over eBay. I have friends who are antique dealers who use eBay to sell merchandise. If you buy something and it arrives and has little or no resemblance to what was advertised, notify eBay management immediately. They log complaints and will ban people who try to pull a fast one on a customer. Similiarly, my friends have had one or two people accept merchandise and never pay for it (for no reason.)
