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Now that I got that out of the way, let me continue in a calmer, more stately fashion -
Product reviews are wonderful wonderful wonderful for the most part!
Why "for the most part"? Because sometimes in the smaller ecommerce shopping arenas, you'll stumble across negative reviews that put there solely to drive traffic to competitors' products.
Alas, it happens. But for the most part,
Product reviews are wonderful wonderful wonderful!
Let's learn more by starting with:
Before You Begin - Finding Customer Reviews
There are many ways to uncover customer reviews. Let's say you're considering buying an iPod like so:
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See all those cool reviews?
You can find them by searching for the product at Amazon. Simply search for the product in question, click on the results, and then read the reviews.
You can also find reviews at:
- Shopping.com - scroll down to the bottom and type in the product for which you wat comparisons/reviews.
- ePinions.com - bunches of customer reviews from all over.
- Consumer Reports - neat discussions, reviews and more.
Visiting the well-known sites are only one method of finding reviews. Let's now dive into:
Step 1 - Research!
Let's say you're considering a new car, oh, say, a Dodge Grand Caravan. You can go to a search engine and type in:
and possibly see:
which is all very well and good, but those reviews aren't from actual buyers. So! Let's revisit your search, and instead of just searching on the product, tack on the word "considering" like so:
considering dodge grand caravan
Ah hah! The results are a wee bit better - you might see
- Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan 2005+ - Forums
- 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan User Reviews
Depending upon the item you're considering, you can slap on quotation marks to make your query more targeted and put your search in first person like so:
"i am considering" buying "dodge grand caravan"
Why does the above search work well? Because when people post to forums, they generally will write as they talk (and include phrases like, I am considering buying a .....).
Nice, huh? That's one great way of finding targeted reviews. Next, let's consider:
Step 2 - Comparison and Discount Shop
I'll cover more of this here. But let me first intrigue you with the following idea....some companies can afford to sell you items cheaper than others.
It's true! Some places might offer an item for $7 less than others, simply because they view getting you to their store/site to be more valuable than the $7 loss (they might gain marketing leads from you). Other places might offer online rebates or similar means of saving money.
Thus, when you have a yearning to buy online, you're not limited to the first site you discover!
Let's take an example of a Canon Powershot - that's a digital camera, btw. You can find it at Amazon like below:
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As you can see, prices can differ depending upon the place you actually shop.
And don't forget online auctions - while I'll cover it in more detail here, a brief description is in order now - many many many people will offer excellent new products as well as used via that site. For example, consider a Blackberry PDA like so:
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Visit the items above. Notice the different prices? That's because of the auction mentality - people will bid up and up depending upon how much they really want the item.
Step 3 - For More Information
As always, it's the educated consumer who is the best (and in this case, safest!) customer. Enjoy the following useful resources.
- Shop Safely Online - from the FTC
- Holiday Shopping Tips - also from the FTC
- Internet Fraud Complaint Center - brought to you by the FBI
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