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online shopping

Shopping

5 Tips You Should Know For Safe Online Shopping

online shoppingA few decades ago, no one would have believed that there would one day be a way to comparison shop from the comfort of your own home, receive instant confirmation of purchases, and have the goods delivered to your front door as quickly as the next day. Heck, there’s even one-click ordering to make the process totally foolproof and eminently efficient. But there are potential drawbacks to shopping online, as well, and the main one is security. Luckily, there are ways to protect your private information when you shop online.

Look for the lock. Any time you decide to make a purchase online, you need to make sure that the website you’re ordering from is protecting your personal information. When you see the padlock icon situated next to the address bar at the top of your screen, it means that the data you’re transmitting is protected by encryption software, so anyone trying to steal it will get nothing but gobbledygook. That said, you should also take steps to protect yourself, such as setting up an account with a password, opting for 2-step verification whenever it is offered, and selecting the option whereby your payment information is NOT saved by the online retailer.

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Shopping

Ways To Save Money When You Shop Online

online shoppingA lot of people find it much more convenient to shop online rather than to shop at a physical store.  It’s quick, it’s easy, and it can be a great way to do most of your shopping.  Here are a few simple ways you can save money when you shop online:

1) Compare prices – Before you decide to click the button and pay for an online item, first check other online stores to see if they can offer you a better deal for the same thing.  All this takes is a click of a few buttons.  A much better option than driving around the city from store to store.  At that point any savings you may have made on your purchase would be eaten up by the cost of travel, not to mention your time.  Price comparisons online shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.  If you are having trouble finding the same product at other stores, than compare the price of similar items so you know whether or not the price you will be paying is reasonable.

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Business

Every Second Counts: Five Ways To Get Your Customers To The Checkout Page Faster

online shoppingThe whole point of shopping online is to get exactly what you need within minutes, which is why every single second counts. As soon as a customer reaches your home page, the clock starts ticking. Your mission is to get them to the online checkout page as quickly as possible, and there are five ways you can accomplish this mission.

Prevent Loading Delays

Loading your website with all the impressive bells and whistles available, such as Flash and catchy media clips, might seem to be a great idea in concept. However, keep in mind your customers will be forced to wait for these features to load completely before they reach the core content of your website. One study confirmed 30 percent of your unique visitors will leave your website without any hesitation if it takes longer than 6 seconds for your web page to load. A one-second delay can result in a seven-percent reduction in your conversion rate, according to Kiss Metrics.

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Shopping

5 Tips For Playing It Safe When You Shop Online

online shopping tipsEveryone knows that the Internet can be a dangerous place when you are shopping online. No matter if a particular shopping cart says that it is secure, it could be a scammer trying to take your hard earned money. In fact, statistics say that 14% of all transactions end up costing somebody their money or their identity. However, most of the time, if you take the right precautions, shopping online can be as safe and secure as shopping at a local retailer.

Here are 5 tips for playing it safe when you shop online:

If you feel like a site might be a little suspicious, pay with your credit card and not your debit card. With your debit card a thief can empty out your entire checking account. A bank might give you part of the money back, but because it is essentially cash you can possibly lose a lot of it; this can be extremely unfortunate if you have a lot of money in your account. With credit, you can usually report it as fraud and not have to pay that portion of the bill when your statement comes at the end of the month.

Make sure that the website is a secure shopping site. There are a number of ways to find out if a site or the site’s payment gateway is secure. For one, there might be a little lock at the bottom of the screen that connotes that the site is secure. There might also be a symbol in the URL bar that will ensure that the site is secure and won’t record any of your personal information for later use.

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Shopping

The Pros And Cons Of Buying From Daily Deal Websites

do daily deal websites save you moneyEveryone likes a good deal, which is probably why deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Woot, and HauteLook  have flourished over the last several years. Some offer daily deals on services in your geographic region, from restaurants and retail stores to local events, while others provide discounts on clothing, electronics, home goods, and pretty much anything you can imagine (there are all kinds of specialized DOTD sites for various industries). And if they’re virtually handing out free money for items you’d buy anyway, there’s no reason not to enjoy the massive savings these sites can provide. Of course, there could be a few flaws in the system, especially for people who can’t seem to pass up a deal, even if it’s not exactly in their wheelhouse. So before you sign up for DOTD sites, there are a few pros and cons you might want to consider.

On the upside, daily deal websites can offer you a ton of savings. Suppose you have a hubby at home who likes to buy the latest and greatest electronic gadgets. By signing up for a membership on Woot you can get deals on items like surround-sound speakers, crazy computer casings, noise-isolating ear buds, and allergen-reducing robot vacuums, just to name a few nifty products. By the by, Woot also has a DOTD spinoff for wine (so you can sip some discount vino while your spouse sets up his new electronics), as well as pages for tee shirts, home goods, sports, and more.

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