How many times has this happened that you buy a product and then realize that it lacks some features which might be important to you or has some minor flaws which would have been obvious had you done some market research?
Well, we all have been in such situations at least once, especially when we are shopping on the internet which makes the things all more difficult because of the choice of options that it provides on click of a mouse.
There are even several hundreds of websites, where you can find the best mobile phone deals online easily. Also make sure that you are dealing with right website, tonnes of phishers out there.
Here are 5 things you can do before buying online which can make your life easier. Simple 5 things that you should keep in mind.
#1 Know what you want: This is the most important part of any purchase. Before you log in on any online retail site for shopping, you should have a clear idea about what is in the product that you want. For example if you are planning to buy a digital camera, you should know if you want a point and shoot camera or a DSLR, if you want it in a compact size or are you willing to go for a bulky one for some extra resolution. You do not need to be an expert in technology to figure out what your requirements are. Answering few simple questions like when are you going to use the product, how often are you going to use the product etc. can help you in this.
#2 Know your budget: You should know beforehand how much you are willing to spend on the product. The more you spend the more features you will get. For example if you spend $100 extra, you will get a faster processor and more hard disk space for your laptop. You need to decide on the trade off between the numbers of features against the price. Again, depending on what your requirements are the budget can vary accordingly. You need to have an idea of the range of price in which your requirements for the purchase can be fulfilled.
#3 Read reviews from the experts:You can visit sites specific to the product you are looking to buy, to read the detailed description and specifications of the product. However, it is not always possible to get such expert reviews for all sorts of products. The reviews may be limited to products like cameras, automobiles, phones, laptops etc. Product review sites like Cnet can help you get reviews from the experts but for small products like a laptop battery for example, you might need to ask your friends for better options.
#4 Compare prices: You might want to compare prices of different products in the same category before deciding which product to buy. Let’s say if you want to purchase a digital camera of 10 mega pixels, you would like to know what all brands are available in the market, what their offerings are for a 10 mega pixel camera and how do product offerings of different brands compare among each other. Instead of sifting through reams of information on online review sites, you might prefer asking your friend’s network on Facebook and Twitter through sites like ShopSocially and get a relevant feedback regarding your purchase.
#5 Get reviews from friends: This is the most important and easy source of information about the product. Such reviews can be from your friends on your social network on Facebook, Twitter etc. Sites like ShopSocially provide an easy way of sharing your purchases to your friend’s network through conversations and by asking direct recommendations from them. Your friends can provide you a better context for your purchases than anonymous reviews. Let’s say you want to buy good headphones online and you decide to get reviews from your friends. If one of your friends is using or knows about some good headphones, you can get a quick review which might play an important role in your purchase.
Your online shopping can be a lot more fun and you can get a good deal if you pay due diligence before buying and get some good feedback about the product before making a purchase.
Great tips, I just want to add another important point while daling with such offers.Use ‘Virtual Credit Card ‘ its my highly recommandation for everyone for safe shopping 🙂
Nyc article… well would keep these in mind while i buy stuff online 🙂
The greatest risk I think on buying online is making sure if the seller is legitimate or not. I know a lot pf people getting scammed, losing lots of money. Giving feedbacks or asking question isn’t enough, how can we be sure that who we are talking to isn’t scamming us?
If you are purchasing from credible sites like Amazon, ebay, IKEA then the risk is very low. Moreover sites like ebay provide individuals selling their credibility ratings. Selecting a vendor from whom to purchase is an entirely different issue as compared to getting product reviews. But there also asking form online friends can help you in making a sound decision.
thanks for the tips..mate…and it wont be tat much applicapable wen we purchase a product on ebay
Well…you can look for reviews for products purchased from ebay as well….new sites like ShopSocially are still in the developing phase to capture the entire online retail market.
Buying stuff online is so easy these days. Almost anything and everything can be bought online! My most recent purchase was a cloth from http://www.irenelim.com and I am very impressed with the quality of the item at such a low price!
The website Shopsocial.ly looks pretty impressive and I am going to share my purchases there!
great post
maybe i will need the tips later sometime
Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated. 😀
These days more people are shopping online, because of the comfort of buying from home. And also because of the extra information as you have mention above which they can easily get on the internet. Nice Article. 🙂
But We should not go for Online Buying because if something goes wrong with product then it will become difficult for refund or any similar thing..
its better not to buy online , the refund and return procedure is not so quicl and easy as they claim
Thanks for the tips . will keep in mind all these thing if i will buy something on line
The Review about the website and product is really important. We can read reviews about the product and website in Google.. Thanks for sharing these information. 🙂
Well the first two points are pretty obvious but I like the way you present them…
I always compare prices before buying stuff
thnks for the tips
I didn’t know these thing should also be know before you buy any stuff online. 😉 A month or so ago i purchased one book or we can say novel from internet it was 30rs less from market price so i think online deals are much better then these offline deals. 😀
Online deals are most of the times better than offline deals…but since you do not get the actual touch and feel you might feel disappointed sometimes after you open the shipment. So it is always better to get second opinion about the seller.
Yeah i also agree with you but in few stuff it doesn’t matters at all as for my book who cares if book was damaged inside the packet as the company owner is in contact with you. 😉
Emerging new sites in the area of social shopping apart from swipely is ShopSocially. It has done away with the security risk of giving away your card information and yet sharing your purchases with friends.
http://shopsocial.ly/
Nice info for the people those who want to purchase products online but hesitate to buy….
Nice info though….
Nice Post, I also provide latest prices on my website. 😉