Everyone Is Shopping Online For Some Good Reason

The more you understand about any subject, the more interesting it becomes. As you read this article you'll find that the subject of online shopping tips is certainly no exception.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you're fully informed about online shopping tips, keep reading.

If you're staring at a holiday shopping list, trying to work up the energy to tackle it, you probably know that you have several main options:

* You can make your gifts instead of buying them.
* You can go out and buy them in stores.
* You can shop for them online.

More power to you if you're going to make gifts. Most people won't, though, so they're left thinking about where to buy things. Shopping online is one option you should consider. Permit me to run down some pros and cons:

Pros
You can buy almost anything online these days, from wine to books to furniture to clothes. You can do so conveniently from your home, without having to fight any crowds or bad weather. You can do plenty of research online, too, reading many customer reviews of products, for example.

In many cases, you can avoid paying sales tax by buying online. That can save you 7% in Rhode Island and 6% in New Jersey. You may also get free shipping, which is available at many sites. And by doing some price comparisons at sites like Shopping.com, you can snag better prices online than elsewhere.

Cons
As a fan of online shopping myself, it's hard to come up with downsides, but here are a few: You can't touch what you're buying online. If you're in a store, you can evaluate for yourself how soft a sweater is or whether it will fit Aunt Esther. If you're online, you have to rely on a picture and a few lines of descriptive text.

Another drawback for some people is security -- they fear giving their credit card information to a website. Well, it is true that identity theft is a big problem. But when you hand your card to a cashier in a store, you've lost control of it for a little while, too. Just be careful shopping online. Shop at trusted, established vendors. When you're about to enter personal information, look for an icon such as a closed padlock or an unbroken key at the bottom or top of your web browser's window -- indicating a secure site. Or look at the web page address. A secure page's address should begin with "https://" instead of "http://".

Everyone's doing it
You may not realize it, but online shopping is very much a mainstream practice these days. According to an article in the WichitaEagle (Kan.), "Last year, consumers spent $481 million on Dec. 1, the highest-traffic day. Consumers spent $13 billion online during the holiday season last year, Visa says. The busiest days for online holiday shopping are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Visa says 2.5 million households are expected to shop online for the first time this holiday season."

This year, online shopping sales are expected to total almost $20 billion.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.