| Brief Guide to Online Shopping |
|
Shopping on the Internet is the fastest-growing sector in the British retail market. 'E-tailing' now accounts for something like 9% of all retail commerce in the UK, and is set to continue its meteoric rise. This is particularly astonishing given that the phenomenon of Internet shopping began only in 1994, little more than a decade ago.
Now people regularly use the Internet to buy books, CDs, DVDs, food, wine, concert and theatre tickets, travel tickets, insurance - in fact, just about anything. |
| Real advantages |
| With online shopping, you can do your shopping from the comfort of your home, any time of the day and night, any day of the week. You can find just about any product you can wish for, anywhere in the country, or even abroad, and see there and then if it is in stock. You can research products by looking at what other users have to say about them. You can go to price-search shopping sites (which compare prices from a broad range of suppliers) to look for the most competitive prices and deals. And these prices are often considerably better than those offered by conventional 'bricks-and-mortar' shops and other outlets. |
| The disadvantages |
|
Online shopping works well when you know exactly what you want to buy. But it is not so good for buying consumer products that you need to see and handle, to test their quality. Try buying a ripe melon on the Internet! This caveat also applies to a wide range of products from fresh fish to clothes, cameras and cars. Here traditional bricks-and-mortar shops have the edge, and they also present similar hands-on advantages for browsing. In addition, with conventional high-street shopping you can buy a product there and then, and walk away with it. With online shopping, you have to pay for it to be delivered, and then wait for it to be delivered (often the cause of much frustration). Lastly, online shopping cannot replace the human contact and social experience of high-street shopping - if you like that kind of thing, and it is available to you.
Predictions suggest that, although online shopping is growing apace and competes strongly with many forms of conventional shopping, it is unlikely to replace it altogether. |
| The procedure |
|
Most online shopping sites are structured like real shops. They are, in effect, 'virtual shops'. You enter and inspect the goods, and you put the ones you want in a 'shopping basket' or 'shopping cart'. When you have found all you want, you review your basket/cart, then 'proceed to check-out'. Here you choose how you want the items delivered, and enter a secure online connection to carry out the transaction, normally by using a credit card or debit card. In a bricks-and-mortar shop you hand over your card and sign the authorisation, or key in your pin number; with online shopping, you type in your personal details (name, address, telephone number, email address, and card details). Good sites will give you plenty of opportunity to confirm your order and check your personal details, before finally…Click! It's done.
The webtrader will then email a confirmation of purchase. Print this for your records: it could be vital if you need to chase the order, or complain. |
| Online security |
|
Many consumers are - quite rightly - nervous about doing financial transactions over Internet. They fear that their payment cards and personal details may be abused, hijacked and used fraudulently. This concern has played a major role in inhibiting the development of e-trading - and is something that webtraders and financial institutions have fought hard to allay.
As a result of their efforts, it is now as safe to use payment cards on the Internet as in any other card transactions (over the counter, on the phone). It may even be safer. But this is only if you, the user, take the trouble to ensure that your transactions take place in a secure online environment. All responsible webtraders will provide this secure online environment. As soon as you begin the process of paying for items that you have selected on screen, the website will tell you, in a pop-up 'dialog box', that 'you are about to view pages over a secure connection.' The website names thereafter will be prefixed by https (s for security), and the symbol of a closed padlock will appear on your status bar. In this secure online environment, all information you send (and are sent in return) is scrambled into code by highly sophisticated encryption, so that no one but you and the webtrader can see it or use it. The standard software used for this is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). When you leave the secure online environment, another dialog box will pop up to tell you this. Webtraders may keep your address details on file as a customer (and you will need to use a password to reactivate them), but most will erase your payment card details as soon as the transaction has gone through. You will have to insert them again next time you buy something from that webtrader. Those webtraders that don't erase your card details should have the means to keep them secure. So the moral is: never conduct a transaction unless you are sure the webtrader is offering you a secure connection. Otherwise, do not send all your personal and card details. Certainly never send your personal and card details by email. And never reveal your pin numbers on the Internet. |
| Privacy policy |
|
You may also be worried that your personal details could be used by the webtrader for other purposes, or passed on (or indeed sold) to other traders and organisations. However, all reputable webtraders will have a privacy policy that guarantees that your personal details will not be put to any use to which you have not consented.
All reputable webtraders will declare their privacy policy, and their security guarantee, on their webpages. If they don't, or if their guarantees seem inadequate, your suspicions should be aroused. |
| Trust in your webtrader |
|
Webtraders need your trust - and there are many out there who do not deserve it. You should bring all your suspicions to bear. It is best to shop only with webtraders you know, or who have been personally recommended to you. However, this is not always possible, so check out the essential details.
Not only should webtraders provide a secure connection for any transaction, and publish their security guarantee and privacy policy, but they should also provide a proper postal address (not a P.O. Box number), and a telephone number and fax number. They should also state a clear policy for refunds. You can also look to see if they have a trustmark (or hallmark, or certificate of approval) issued a recognised webtrade approval scheme. A number of such trustmark organisations provide reassurance to customers by enforcing strict codes of practice on their members (security, privacy, refund policy, delivery times etc). One of the best-known in Britain is TrustUK, a non-profit, government-endorsed organisation; see www.trustuk.org.uk |
| Compare prices |
| The power of the web to research and compare prices for the same product has transformed retailing across the board, both online and off. You can easily summon the price-search shopping sites by going to a search engine and typing something like 'toaster compare price'. Many price-search shopping sites not only show you the best prices around; they also rate the suppliers, by taking note of customer responses, and they constantly grade and regrade the suppliers' ratings according to the changing levels of customer satisfaction. Shopping has never been more democratic! |
| Delivery |
|
This is the fly in the ointment of online shopping. If the goods purchased are physical things (as opposed to insurance or e-tickets, for example), they have to get from a warehouse to your door. Reputable webtraders will make it quite clear how they are going to do this, give you a schedule, and keep you posted if there is a delay. With less reputable ones, this area can be a black hole.
Be sure you know the cost of delivery when you buy online. Packing and postage (or courier delivery) may account for a considerable percentage of the total cost. What looked like a competitive online price for your motor mower or electric guitar may end up being more expensive than the price you would pay in a local store, where you can take the thing home that same day. |
| Consumer rights |
|
Most of the consumer rights that apply generally in the UK also apply to online shopping. There are even additional rights attached to 'distance selling', such as the customers' right to cancel an order (without any reason) within seven days of delivery, and the right to demand delivery within 30 days (if no other date was agreed).
If you use a credit card, and spend over £100 in a transaction, you also have the right of refund from that credit card if the product is faulty, or the webtrader goes out of business. This is by virtue of credit law, so does not apply to transactions using a debit card or cheque. Credit and debit card issuers are also obliged to refund any losses if your card is used fraudulently on the Internet - provided that you have not compromised its security in some way. |
| Buying from Internet auctions |
| These consumer rights do not apply to purchase through Internet auction sites, unless the seller is a trader. However, the seller is more likely to be a private individual, so you have only the same kind of rights to a fair deal as you would if answering a personal advertisement in a newspaper. In other words, you have to do your own risk assessment. An Internet auction site usually does not take responsibility for these transactions - but it will be interested to hear if any individuals using its site are behaving dishonestly, and may reflect this in user-ratings. |
| Buying from abroad |
|
UK shoppers are covered by European Union consumer laws when shopping at websites of companies registered within the EU. But such consumer rights diminish further afield, including the USA. In all cases, you have to assess the risk carefully - and make your own judgement about Internet security, the delivery of goods, refund policy and so on.
Note that when buying goods from outside the EU, you are essentially importing. Therefore the goods may be subject to customs duty and VAT, which is your responsibility (not the seller's). |
| Complaints |
|
If you have reason to complain, take the matter up first with the webtrader, by email, phone or letter. If problems still persist, complain to any trustmark organisation that the webtrader may belong to. You can also complain to your Internet Service Provider, and to your credit card company (who will have licensed the seller). If the matter is still unresolved, UK shoppers can seek the advice of their local Trading Standards Office; see www.tradingstandards.gov.uk. Or they can contact their local Citizens Advice Bureau; see www.citizensadvice.org.uk
For general advice and guidance about online shopping, your rights and the law, see the website of the Office of Fair Trading: www.oft.gov.uk/consumer For details of your statutory rights as a consumer, see www.consumerdirect.gov.uk |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
|
Comments on this brief guide would be welcome. Also, please let us know if you do put in a link to this guide from your website and we will try to reciprocate with a link from us to your site.
Copyright: these pages are protected by copyright and reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. Copyright belongs to Giant Games Limited, owner of the briefguides.co.uk and onlineshopping.co.uk websites. © 1997-2006 Giant Games Limited, but you are welcome to have a link to this webpage. |