Expected to be the largest holiday shopping season on the Web since its inception, it’s almost overwhelming the number of merchant options a shopper has to choose from. All year long you’ve book marked all of your favorite sites and now that it’s time to sort through them to find your favorite merchants, you’re feeling discouraged.
You could try and remember all of those dot com ads you keep seeing, hearing and reading about–you know, the ones that have virtually dominated all of the advertising mediums in recent months. You could venture over to one of the top search engines and do a search on “men’s shirts” or “ladies dresses,” or even “toys,” and you’re certain to get wonderful, usable results. Not always. You could try and drum up the dot coms you remember in your head but what if you get there and discover they don’t quite offer all of the shopping items you are looking for? Perhaps they’ve got stuff for Mom or your sister-in-law, but little for your nephews or even your customers.
Maybe you’ve been designated party host(ess) extraordinaire this year and you’ve lagged behind in your party planning and you thought you’d try to catch up by shopping online. Where do you go, though? Some might give up and resort to the traditional brick-and-mortar means of shopping–but who wants all the fuss of long lines, driving all over town to the various shops you need to go to for the variety of items you’re looking for? Bah humbug! We’re all too busy for that. Don’t succumb to traditional ways of shopping because online shopping either seems too daunting.
You may also reason or fear that your credit card transactions won’t be safe if you shop online. Shopping online is not only secure and virtually risk-free, but extremely convenient and satisfying–you can get it all done in a day if you want to and you can do it in your jammies!
Not convinced? Consider these reassuring and helpful tips:
1. Be selective about which merchants you shop with. Look for shopping guarantees, privacy policies, and assurance of secure credit card transactions.
2. You encounter just as much, if not more risk when you provide your credit card number over the phone or hand it over to a clerk in a store to complete a transaction. Your credit card is never completely safe in any medium but encryption technologies have come a long way on the Web since just a few short years ago.
3. You can shop for apparel, books, home furnishings and decorating items, and a multitude of other items on the Web 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Can you do that with most brick-and-mortar merchants in your local area? It’s rare. If you’re a night owl or have a case of insomnia, put that time to good use and finish your holiday shopping!
4. The Web offers a selection of merchandise unsurpassed in any mall or local department store. If you are seeking items from department or specialty store chains that aren’t in your local area, you can shop from them on the Web instead. The vast selection of unique gift items on the Web is amazing. Consider it the largest mall you’ve ever had the opportunity to shop in!
5. Many online merchants offer gift wrapping and shipping to your recipient’s homes. We’re all so busy and rushed in this society, take advantage of these options and take some of the stress off–unless you actually enjoy gift wrapping and shipping items yourself. Many of us don’t have the talent or the time!
These are just a few tips out of many that you can apply to your online holiday shopping experience. The best tip of all is to use common sense and enjoy it–it’s perhaps the easiest, most convenient option we’ve had since the concept of the catalog!
About the author:
Deborah Brown is the founder of former AllforWomen.com
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