Monday, December 05, 2005

Christmas Online Shopping Tips

Online sales are forecast to grow between 18 and 25 percent over last year, according to a couple of new studies. (from Kopytoff, Verne. “Online retail growth forecast :2 studies see sales accelerating as much as 25 percent.” San Francisco Chronicle 1 Nov. 2005.) If you want to join the stampede, read on:

I do a lot of shopping online now. You can check professional reviews of products at Consumersearch.com (http://consumersearch.com/) or personal reviews at Epinions.com (http://consumersearch.com/), both sites recommended in an article from the November 10, 2005 issue of Newsweek.
I like using comparison shopping sites when I’m doing online shopping, like BookFinder4U (http://www.bookfinder4u.com/) which searches 130 bookstores, Pricegrabber.com (http://www.pricegrabber.com/), or CNet (http://reviews.cnet.com/) for computers and peripherals.

Make sure to purchase from a reputable online business. If you aren’t sure that they’re reliable, check them out at the Better Business Bureau (http://search.bbb.org/search.html). I’ve decided against ordering from many different online companies, based on their BBB record.
In my experience, merchandise is received within a couple of days from major online companies like Lands End and L.L. Bean. Amazon is fast with new books, but if you purchase a used book, it depends upon the supplier. Some suppliers are very fast, others take their time.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Money)

2 comments:

Rachael said...

I have started my Christmas shopping online already and I intend to get it done as soon as possible. I have been using several websites such as 24ace which have some fantastic deals and some great Christmas ideas available.

Cuesta College Library said...

From the blog owner:

This is a blatant ad, but Blogger changed its settings on me while I wasn't looking, and disabled my ability to delete the ad. I have fixed that, but am unable to delete this particular ad. Just ignore it!

Tina Lau
North County Librarian