8 Tips to Safe Online Shopping

Posted on | October 31, 2009 | No Comments

by NejroN

Are you hesitant about shopping online because you wonder if it is safe? I will be sharing with you 8 Tips to Safe Online Shopping. You might like to consider these before you purchase something online.

#1 You can try using a pen name

Sometime you are not comfortable with sharing your real name till you get to know the owner of the online shop or blogshop better. It is perfectly ok to use a pen name.

Having a pen name allows me to differentiate who this people I am in contact with are. I am usually known as Shanetta online. Therefore, if I received an email or a call who addressed me as Shanetta, I know that the person met me through online avenue.

#2 Use a different email address

Do not use your business email, or email with very important and confidential emails. By using another email account, you not only get to filter where the email comes from, you need not worry that much about your emails being infected by strange spam emails or viruses.

#3 How long have the online shop or blogshop been around?

Is this online shop or blogshop set up yesterday? A month? A few years? The longer the online shop or blogshop exist, the least risk it may be, because others would probably have tried it.

#4 Check for reviews or feedbacks about the online shop or blogshop

Word of mouth is very powerful. To check the reliability of the online shop or blogshop, sometimes all you need to do is to go to your favourite search engine and check if there are any reviews about them.

If they are reliable, people will review or feedback about it. If they are not reliable, people will also talk about it.

#5 Enquire about the item you would like to purchase before jumping straight to the buy button

Send the owner an email. Enquire about the item you are interested to purchase. You will get a sense for yourself if their customer service is good, whether they know their items well or if they are reliable. To give them a benefit of doubt, if they do not reply within 3 days, send them an email again, stating that you are just wondering if they have missed your email.

If the online shop or blogshop takes a week to reply your email, don’t bother buying from them. I would suggest you go somewhere else. What kind of customer service is that?

#6 Does the online shop or blogshop allow you to pay by PayPal

PayPal does not reveal your credit card number. Therefore, paying your item by PayPal decreases the risk of allowing the other party to know your credit card number.

For many online shops or blogshops in Singapore, internet banking transactions seemed to be more common. Remember to keep a copy of the transaction that you have done for verification purpose.

#7 Are you willing to part with the money?

Truth be told, as much as we try to decrease the risks of online shopping, the risks will still be present.

For example you are purchasing an item that cost SGD$30. Would you be willing to part with the money should it be a scam? If you are willing, go for it.

Personally, whenever I purchase something from an online shop that seemed unknown, I asked myself, “am I willing to part with the money?” if my answer is yes, I will go for it.

#8 Take some risks

If you have considered the 7 tips above, take some risk. If you really like the items from the online shop or blogshop, and the deals are really good, try taking some risk.

At the end of the day, you may gain and benefit from it. You get to know whether the online shop/ blogshop is reliable and you get your good deal. Isn’t it best of both worlds?

I hope that these tips are useful for you. Do share with me your comments about this post. Thank you!

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