The convenience of online shopping can't be beaten. Especially if you are shopping for a downloadable product such as an e-book, sheet music, a software program, or an audio or video file. Downloadable products can be delivered immediately, for instant gratification.
However there are risks involved with online shopping. You need to be sure you are dealing with a reputable merchant, and you need to be sure your transaction is safe, and not being spied on.
While Australia doesn't have the major US shopping comparison sites Froogle and Bizrate, we do have AU.Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping and NineMSN Shopping. However keep in mind that these are generally sponsored listings, where participating merchants have paid on a per-click or per-sale basis for their products to be included. They are not comprehensive shopping sites. True shopping comparison should include a general search for the product at major search engines, and additional searches through online stores you already know about.
Be aware of paid advertising. Being at the top of a shopping comparison site doesn't necessarily mean you've found the best product. Look closely at the site to see if the results are sorted by price, popularity, brand, or whether the advertiser has paid for their product to be featured at the top.
Search engines can reveal other's experiences of a product or shop. When searching for a laptop recently, a search engine found a post from the popular Whirlpool forum providing information about which retailer had the best warranty and after-sales service.
Search for variations on your product. When searching for dog collars, Yahoo Shopping was confused by plurals, finding nothing, while the singular form returned several products. NineMSN Shopping returned several results from ebay.
Check the terms and conditions on the site, returns and privacy policies, and delivery costs. When you proceed to checkout, ensure the transaction is secure, with the padlock appearing at the bottom of the taskbar.
If you use a credit card online, you may wish to use one with a small credit limit to reduce risk. Or choose a third-party payment processor such as PayPal, so that you don't need to provide your personal credit card details to each individual retailer.
More importantly, ensure that your PC is free of spyware and keylogger programs. Even the free version of software, such as Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, and ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm are capable of detecting and blocking most malware.
Several paranoid friends have even saved private information in a secure encrypted file, to cut and paste into shopping sites, to be undetectable by keylogger programs.
For official guidance, visit the Australian Consumer Affairs website at www.consumer.gov.au for news, publications and frequently asked questions about online shopping.
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