Online Shopping is one such invention to shop from comfort of home. Shopping online has become convenient and user friendly ever since it came into practice. There are plenty of online stores across the web. Every store is unique in and tries to woo maximum users. You name it and we have it is the new statement for promotion. It seems right also because lots of options are there for a single product.
Whenever we see a discounted price on the product of our choice online, we immediately navigate to the concerned website. Every store promotes its products by offering discounts and offs. It is quite visible during sale period when maximum selling is noticed. The promotional offers are cherry on the cake. Heavy offs and easy payments are a big plus. Moreover, delivery at our doorstep is what every shopper considers before choosing the online stores.
There are various facts that a shopper takes care of while shopping online.
AUTHENTICITY OF THE STORE
There are numerous stores that have registered their presence across web. But there are certain bad guys among the good ones. These stores are not legitimate and are busy duping the online users of their hard earned money. There are many tools available that shoppers should use to check for authenticity of the online store that they intend to buy from.
ONLINE IDENTITY
After an online shopper confirms the credibility of the website, it should also takes into account the transparency factor. It confirms whether the site is the same as it shows. Cybercrime is a huge problem today and it cannot be completely eliminated from online business. Therefore a user confirms the online identification of the website before buying anything. If a site shows any discount or coupons they should be readily checked. One can definitely trust Flipkart discounts coupons when talking about transparent and credible offers.
SECURE PAYMENT
Data breach is a serious issue. One of the most popular social platforms like Facebook was under political scrutiny for data leakage. Moreover, our financial transactions are a prime target of unethical elements of society. A user while shopping online should definitely check for secure payment methods which are well protected against threats and scams.
SHIPPING
It is very important to check the online store for product shipping and return policies. Many times a user pays for a product that is unavailable or goes out of stock. We should definitely check whether we will be getting a refund or not. Moreover, we should know the refund time and channel also. It is also possible that we need to replace a product. This time we are not cancelling the transaction. One must take notice about the pick-up of the product and its shipping to the warehouse. One must know about the cost associated if any with it.
CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Customer reviews are very important to make a decision about online purchasing. A user to definitely look for user ratings and reviews that can play an instrumental role while shopping online. But one must also take care of paid and fraudulent reviews as well. It is very difficult to differentiate between them but an alert user can do so.
PAYMENT FAILURE
Certain times when we select the product and reach the payment gateway, inspite of entering correct details we encounter payment failure. This failure raises many concerns. The user while shopping online must take care of policies regarding refund of such payment where the money is deducted from account but payment to online store fails. It should be taken care about the time period when the amount deducted gets refunded back into the customer's account.
ADDITIONAL CHARGES
An alert user does not fall prey to this problem. Many online websites have hidden charges that are deducted from user's account while shopping. The user is not aware of this as the online website either does not mentions it completely or certain times the test size is very small that is ignored by the user. A user should definitely take care to save itself from such problems.
