Shopping on the Internet

The volume of transactions taking place on the internet is growing by leaps and bounds.   Projected figures for internet sales in the coming holiday season are in the billions. 

The true advantage to shopping on the internet is the connection to smaller companies and indepently owned websites.  A conscious consumer can safely and easily find the best possible prices, anywhere in the world, right from their computer.  There are also a large number of promotional coupons available for larger sites like Barnes and Noble.com™, CDNow.com™, Amazon.com™ and Etoys.com™, to name a few.  These companies discount their online inventory, via single-use coupons and banner ads, to draw traffic to their sites.

SHOPPING ON THE INTERNET IS SAFE, but you have to be careful!

Never submit your credit card number to a site that does not display https:// in the URL.  The "s" indicates a secure server.

Read the customer service agreements and guarantees of sites you are unfamiliar with.   Send an email with a general inquiry to companies that you have not purchased from before.  If they do not respond to this, it is likely that they will not respond if you have a problem with their product.