Shopping online can be a truly wonderful experience (no driving! convenience of home! super-fast turnaround!) or it can be something more distasteful than cleaning out the stopped-up toilets at your local sporting events (online scams! credit card stolen! shoddy merchandise!).

Doing due diligence will certainly increase your chances of having the positive experiences rather than the, well, icky ones. So let's start by:

Before You Begin - Making The Safe Purchase

The first think you want to ensure when buying online is that the connection is secure - ie, the address bar shows an "https:" at the top, and a locked padlock appears at the bottom left of your browser.

Now, keep in mind, this doesn't automatically guarantee you a great shopping experience - you have merely increased the probability that your credit card number is more secure than not. But that's a technical aspect of buying...you also want to make certain that the merchant delivers on what is offered. That leads me to:

Step 1 - Research!

Are you considering buying from an individual seller (like a mom/pop entreprise, an eBay seller, an Amazon marketplace seller) or are you thinking instead about using the big huge stores like Walmart or Home Depot? If it's the latter, you have the satisfaction of knowing a big-name online store will handle your transaction with positive outcomes. But if it's the former, you should first research how other people view the merchant as well.

It's easy enough to do that. eBay allows you to view all customer reviews (called feedback); always make certain to read the comments. Bunches of negatives should make you wary from buying from a seller.

Additionally, you can research online. Search on the name of the seller plus the keyword "message", "review", "comment" etc. This should help you pull up any discussions of the merchant on various bullentin boards or forums.

Remember, your final price isn't only the cost of the goods itself! You also have to factor in shipping costs, the time to arrive (if you need something tomorrow, you might have to pay extra for faster shipping) and also rebates (Amazon.com, for example, will offer free shipping on some orders over $50).

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:

Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Feature: ... 8.0-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 16x 22-inch prints; 4x optical image-stabilized zoom; 2.5-inch LCD screen; Face Detection; New Easy Mode simplifies operation; Captures images to SD memory cards (not included); powered by AA batteries ...more
Customer Reviews — [1] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-11-28 Summary: Excellent camera ... This is my first digital camera and I am not sorry for the purchase. There are SO many features that I'm still using the default selections except that I did select the highest quality for the photos and it takes EXCELLENT photos! I purchased a 4gb 133x card as the included 32mb would have only held about a dozen high quality images and there's no way it could have held the video's I've been taking. The fact it only comes with a 32mb standard card is no by no means any fault of the camera so no points lost there as ...more
[2] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-11-27 Summary: Best As Can Be! ... Because I am a professional photographer, I know people like reading reviews they can understand. I'm going to make this as simple as can be...the Canon Powershot A560, in my opinion, is probably the best digital camera anyone could get. That's if you're a normal person that wants a really good digital camera. Professionals should stick to some of Canon's higher lever cameras that are more sophisticated. I say that the A560 is the best for many reasons. For one, it's price is as reasonable as can get. Another reason ...more
Editorial Reviews — ... Product Description | The PowerShot A590 IS will astound you with its power-packed performance and impressive value. It's got 8.0-megapixels, a 4x optical zoom, an Optical Image Stabilizer and a large 2.5-inch LCD. A range of shooting modes - from manual to automatic including Canon's new Easy Mode - make picture taking carefree. A DIGIC III Image Processor with Enhanced Canon Face Detection assures natural-looking results, while Motion Detection Technology reduces blur. For added creativity, attach wide or...more

But wait! Shopping.com will show you more than 40 stores in which the prices range from less than $299 to more than $429!

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:

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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