
Are you planning to shop online? Do you have to place an order at an online store but want to be sure of what you are supposed to do when you get there? Is this your first time shopping online? If the answer to any of the above is yes, you shouldn’t worry because you’re about to find out how to shop online.
Shopping online can be fun and risky at the same time. You may fall prey to scammers if you’re not careful while shopping online. You can buy the wrong item even though the site you’re shopping at is genuine.
Well, a lot can go wrong in online shopping so you need to be careful while doing that. But the truth is, if you know how to shop online, you won’t have to worry about doing the wrong thing.
So, here, we are going to give you some tips on how to shop online safely. If you stay with us until the end of this little piece, you are going to get all the information you need concerning this. So, let’s get started.
Types of Online Shopping
Most times, when people hear about online shopping, they only think about visiting e-commerce websites, such as Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, and Alibaba, to order items. Well, those are just some of the ways you can shop online.
As technology innovates and the internet becomes more accustomed to solving problems for people, many kinds of online transactions take place. This is why we don’t believe that the only type of online shopping is when you visit an e-commerce website to buy things.
So, here are some common types of online shopping that you should know about:
- Placing orders on e-commerce sites, such as Amazon. These sites are like supermarkets. So when you purchase an item there, it will be delivered directly to you.
- Placing orders on digital marketplaces, such as AliExpress. This type of online shopping is where you buy items from different vendors on a digital platform provided by a company. In this type, you may find a lot of products from the same brand listed by different vendors.
- Booking services through online agencies. This type is where you book flights, reserve accommodation, purchase tickets to events or a show, and so on, through a third party website.
- Buying subscription plan. You can find this type of online shopping when you want to subscribe to movies, service providers, mobile apps, cable TV, insurance, financial services, coffee, and so on.
- Social media shopping. Well, most people don’t know this is online shopping too. Anytime you want to make arrangements or purchase an item through social media, just know you’re doing online shopping.
Note that there are many other types of online shopping but the ones we mentioned above are just the basics. You are going to discover other types as you become familiar with shopping online. However, we are going to give you tips on how to shop online generally.
So, even if we didn’t capture the type of online shopping you want to engage in right now, you should continue reading because you can apply the tips here to every form of online shopping.
Things You Need to Shop Online
So, now that you already know that online shopping involves every form of virtual transaction, we are going to use this section to mention the things you are going to need before you can shop online.
So, as you plan your online shopping experience, you should make sure you have the following and that they work very well before you begin the process:
- Access to the internet. Of course, you can’t do anything here if you can’t access stable internet.
- A smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC. As long as your phone can access the internet and download websites or mobile apps you wish to visit, you’re good to go.
- A bank account. Well, you have to pay for what you bought, right? You need a functional bank account to be able to shop. Most websites accept credit and debit cards, e-wallets, and e-vouchers as payment options. Note that whatever payment method you want to use must be linked to your bank account before you can pay with it. Most reputable sites will not allow you to pay for your purchases with another person’s card or e-wallet.
- Shipping address. This is necessary if you are going to receive a tangible item. Some websites accept a P.O. Box address as the shipping address but many don’t. All the same, you should find a convenient shipping address that will enable you to receive your parcels safely.
- Knowledge of how to shop online. This is important because it will stop you from making avoidable mistakes. We will get to this later if you continue reading.
Now that you have an idea of the things you should put together before you begin your online shopping experience, let’s find out some challenges you may face when you start the journey.
What Are the Challenges of Shopping Online?
Online shopping is an awesome experience if you know how to go about it. You will understand how awesome it is when you imagine how convenient it feels to book or order things and have them delivered to you without stepping out of your current location. That is how good online shopping is.
But then, online shopping comes with some challenges. These problems are limitless but we can mention a few you may likely encounter.
So, before you start shopping online, you should look out for the following challenges:
- Fraud: Some online vendors are scammers. So you need to be cautious before ordering things online so you don’t fall victim to such people.
- Poor customer support: Many online stores and sites have poor customer service delivery. For instance, you may send an email to the support team without receiving any response. Sometimes, the response will come in late. And if you decide to go for the live chat option, you may end up discussing with a bot.
- Delay in delivery: Sometimes, after shopping online, your parcel may not arrive as early as scheduled.
- Picking the wrong item: Since you can’t touch, see, and closely examine what you’re buying online, you may end up buying what you may not use. You may also buy the wrong size, color, or even design of a product. Sometimes, what is displayed on such sites is different from the actual product.
- Stressful return and refund policy: Many online stores and sites accept returns and pay refunds but their policies can frustrate the process. They can also delay completing the process so that it may take a long time to receive your refund or exchange.
- Lost or damaged item: Some bought items get lost or damaged while in transit. Unfortunately, most stores will not refund or replace such items, making the shopper lose his money.
- Poor information: Products sold online do not give enough information or description that can help online shoppers determine whether to buy them or not. This always causes problems for people when they discover the things they bought are what they shouldn’t have gone for.
- Regional restrictions: Some stores and sites restrict shoppers in certain countries from buying things on their platforms. Some do not deliver to certain countries and regions. If you don’t know this and purchase items from the site, you won’t receive your parcel. This happens especially if shoppers use VPN to access restricted sites.
Okay, like we said, there are so many challenges or risks you can face when you shop online. But you shouldn’t always look at the bad side of things, even though that will make us cautious. Anyway, let’s briefly look at some of the advantages of shopping online.
Benefits of Shopping Online
Even though there are challenges with online shopping, the benefits shouldn’t be ignored. So, if you are losing faith in online shopping because of the risks involved, you should know the good side makes it worthwhile. You just need to know how to avoid putting yourself in a tight corner while buying any goods and services online.
So, here are some of the benefits of online shopping that we shouldn’t ignore:
- Online shopping is convenient.
- You can source and buy items from different parts of the world.
- You can save money because you can find items where they are sold at discounts.
- You will have access to varieties.
- You can save your time and energy.
- You can relax and take your time to shop.
- No one (especially salespersons) will pressure you to buy a particular item.
- With online shopping, you can send gifts to loved ones easily by submitting their addresses as the shipping address.
- You can be sure of products’ authenticity when you buy from accredited stores or directly from producers.
- You can get updates on sales, discounts, new arrivals, and so on from the store’s promo emails.
- You can track your parcel.
- Etc.
As you can see, the advantages of online shopping surpass its disadvantages. So don’t be discouraged because of some challenges you may face while shopping online.
How to Protect Yourself while Shopping Online
As you must have known by now, shopping online comes with some hazards. We have discussed them above and you need to have them in mind each time you start your online shopping. However, we want to use this section to give you some tips that can help you have a great online shopping experience.
So, let’s take a look at what you should do to protect yourself while shopping online.
Go for Popular Brands or Websites
Your chance of being scammed or buying substandard products reduces as you go for popular and better brands. The brands we are talking about here could be any company that sells its products directly to end users as well as marketplaces that can help you buy things from good vendors. So, be careful with placing orders at unknown or new brands. They may give you what you don’t want.
Read Reviews
You should make it a point of duty to find out what people say about the website or brand you want to shop from. You can search for reviews from bloggers, popular e-magazines, review platforms like Trustpilot, and even social media platforms. If you’re going to check reviews on social media, check the company’s page on X (former Twitter) and Reddit or any other social media that allows free speech. Go through the comment section of the brand’s social media account to find out what people say about it.
Please, if you can’t find any authentic reviews of the site or brand, desist from spending time and money there.
Check the Validity of the Website’s Security
Before you shop on any e-commerce website, you should make sure the site is secure. You can tell this in two major ways. One is through the URL. If it begins with ‘https’, know that it is secure and the information submitted there will be encrypted. But if it is just ‘http’, the site is not secure. In the case of the latter, please, don’t submit your personal information or payment details on such a website. If you do, scammers can easily collect them and use them against you.
Another way to verify if a website is secure is by checking the padlock icon on the address bar. If it is locked, the site is secure and any information you submit there is encrypted. But if it is open, the site isn’t secure. You obviously know what to do when you discover the site is not secure. This option is only possible for URL that starts with “https”.
By the way, you can click on the padlock on the address bar to find out when its security certificate will expire. If it is about to expire, you will find out and then avoid shopping on the website.
Avoid Downloading Apps from Untrusted Sources
Though scammers still hack into apps you downloaded from trusted sources, it is still safer to use them than picking up random apps you can’t trust where they come from.
If you want to download any mobile app, you should visit the Apple App Store, if you’re using an iOS device, or Google Play Store if you’re using an Android phone or tablet. Alternatively, you can download an app from the website of its owner if you trust the site and the company.
Never submit your payment information to an app you downloaded from a random unverifiable source.
Check the Company’s Registration Details
Before you place an order on any company’s website, search for its registration information. If you find it on the website, go further to find out if it’s truly registered or whether it’s a scam. If you’re not sure about the company’s registration, please, tread with caution.
Buy a Small Quantity First
Don’t be tempted to buy a lot of things on your first online shopping. Give it time to be sure the site you’re shopping from or the subscription you’re paying for can deliver excellent services or products. Only increase the amount you spend if you can trust the site.
Read Product Descriptions and Reviews
Before you order any product through online shopping, you should read its descriptions and reviews very well. The description will give you a lot of information about the product while the review will tell you what previous buyers said about it. You should always go for products with a lot of positive reviews.
Play Smart while Making Payments
Usually, you will use your credit or debit card to pay for items you bought online. You can also use other methods, such as PayPal, Google Pay, and the rest. Most shoppers prefer using the payment method that is most convenient for them. But this shouldn’t be the case at all times.
When you want to pay for the items you bought online, you should go for the payment option that won’t expose you to scammers. It is important to use the payment method, where you don’t always have a large amount of money. Each time you want to make payments, always remember that malicious third parties are lurking around.
Steps to Take When Shopping Online
Now, let’s look at the steps you’re going to take while shopping online. Note that the steps we are going to look into here are for shopping on e-commerce websites or the websites of manufacturers and agencies.
So, if you want to buy something online, you should take the following steps:
- Search for the website. When you find it, remember to check the URL to be sure it’s secure.
- Check the URL to confirm it’s the right website. Some scammers replicate genuine websites to confuse shoppers. However, they make a few adjustments to their websites’ URLs, which you might not notice unless you pay attention. So, check the spelling of the website’s URL and domain to see if it’s the correct name of the company. If you notice an additional letter or number on the URL, chances are, that the website is not genuine. You should take time to apply all the tips for safe online shopping that we gave above.
- Search for the item you want to buy. You may likely find the button for searching different categories of products in a company’s collections on the main menu of its website.
- Visit the product’s order page. If you find a product you like, you should click on it to visit its order page. When you get there, read the product descriptions and reviews from previous buyers. Spend as much time as possible on this page because that’s the best place to get information about the product.
- Add products to the cart if you like them. You may have to select the color, size, and number of units you want before adding an item to your virtual cart.
- Check out when you are done shopping. After adding a product to your cart, you can go back to shop some more. But then, if this is your first online shopping experience, you shouldn’t buy a lot of things right now. This is because if you buy a few things, you won’t lose much if you make any mistakes. All the same, if you are done shopping and wish to pay for what you bought, you should do the following:
- Click on your cart to see what you bought.
- On your cart page, click “Checkout” to begin the checking-out process.
- Provide your contact details or create an account with the website. If the company allows guest shopping and you don’t want to open an account with its website yet, you should skip this stage.
- Provide your shipping address. This is compulsory because your item must be delivered to you or the person you are shopping for. All the same, if the company allows shoppers to pick up their orders from its nearest supermarket, you should opt for that if you don’t want to provide your shipping address.
- Pay for the item. The payment option available at the store will determine how you can go about this.
- Track your parcel. Once you pay for your purchases, the company will begin to process them. When they are done processing it, they will send it to a courier carrier for delivery. As soon as the item is booked for shipping, both the company and the courier carrier will notify you and give you the tracking number. You can use the tracking number to follow up on the movement of your parcel until it is delivered.
- Check the parcel to be sure the item delivered to you was what you paid for. If you find any reason to return it, contact the company’s customer support team to begin the process of returning the item for a refund or an exchange.
Let’s Conclude This
As you can see, it’s easy to shop online if you know how to go about it. Whenever you want to buy things online, you should remember to take measures that can keep you safe. But as long as you know how to shop online, you won’t have problems with your shopping experience.