Reasons to Shop Online
Choose and order from your home
Saves rushing around the shops, saves petrol costs to the Shops, saves Parking, you don’t have to queue, avoid the stress of milling around loads of people (most of which are going to give you a Cold or some other Virus !!).
Items are often cheaper
Many items ordered online are less expensive than in the Companies actual Shop, even with a delivery charge if there’s one.
More Choice
Many Companies sell a bigger selection from their online Site as this saves space in their shops.
Competetiveness
The internet enables you to shop around more, saves the leg work down town.
If you have Google as your home page, type the product in and click on ‘Shopping’ to see lots of comparitive prices from loads of Companies.
More Information
Most online stores have all the info on the product, so saves you trying to find that elusive Salesperson. Most have a helpline number should you have a query and a tick list of what an item does and doesn’t do, does have or doesn’t etc.
Order and Collect
This is quite new. You can order and pay for your item online, then collect it from the local Store. Argos and PC World do this (unless stated otherwise)
Delivery
Most are pretty good and live up to their delivery statements. Amazon has the facility to pay a bit more to get ‘next day’ delivery. Argos even give you options of dates with AM or PM
TIPS
When you have decided upon what you want, before you purchase ie. ‘Freds Washer Model D474′, do a google for a review of the product, even the Company from which you are purchasing from. It’ll give you peace of mind.
Some have tick boxes somewhere along the order process ie ‘Do you want details of our latest special offers’ ‘ditto, but from third parties’ etc. Most of these have the ticks actually in the boxes. If you don’t want another 20 emails a day, make sure you’ve ticked or unticked accordingly.
Keep all confirmation, invoice and delivery notification emails for at least one year should there be any comeback, you can ‘XXX’ out any card details.
I do probably 90% of my shopping, other than food and small bits, online and have dealt with loads of Companies. To date I’ve only had one let down, which was a DVD Player which ‘went missing’ at a Delivery Depot, but I got a replacement OK albeit after a bit of shouting !
On items such as PC Parts or Camera’s, it’s sometimes cheaper to order from America. I’ve done this a few times; the goods have arrived in about five days without any worries.
Finally, maybe another blast from the past, but there is an air of excitement waiting for the sound of a Delivery Van stopping outside the House and opening up your ‘new toy’ on the Kitchen Floor ! It kind of makes it a bit more of a special occasion rather than fighting through the Shop queues, gettying held up at the lights, arriving home and bringing the shopping in whilst it’s pouring hard with rain !
