BizRate.com Offers Tips for Smart Online Shopping During the Holiday Season.Business and Lifestyle Editors LOS LOS Length of stay, see there ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 2000 BizRate.com today offered the following tips for smart online holiday shopping: Review a merchant's Privacy Policy statements -- Make sure you're you're Contraction of you are. you're you are you're be comfortable with what personal information they collect, how they collect it, how they plan to use it, and who will be allowed to access it. Read the return policies -- Many sites charge hidden fees like restocking fees and most require you to pay the return shipping & handling charges. If in doubt, contact Customer Support -- If you're not sure if a product is in stock or if your package will arrive in time, contact Customer Support, explain all of the details of your transaction, and get their assurance (and name) before making a final decision. Go to an online marketplace that offers more choices -- BizRate.com offers an open marketplace where shoppers can choose from 19 store categories, more than 1,200 consumer-rated e-tailers, and millions of products. The BizRate.com marketplace is based on the voices and experiences of millions of online buyers, allowing the buyers, not the retailers, to determine which product and merchant best meets their needs. Look for discounted shipping and special deals -- Many merchants will be offering discounted shipping and special deals to lure lure the skin-covered object which runs on a monorail on a Greyhound racing track and which the dogs are schooled to chase. The lure must be kept 30 to 40 ft ahead of the leading dog so that the field is stretched out. new customers during the busy holiday season. But don't don't 1. Contraction of do not. 2. Nonstandard Contraction of does not. n. A statement of what should not be done: a list of the dos and don'ts. let price be your only guiding light. Also look for things like free gift wrapping that will add a special touch to your holiday gift. Service is the name of the game for Holiday 2000 -- you deserve it, you should demand it! Check on state sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. policies -- Make sure you understand whether you will need to pay state sales tax on your order. If the merchant has a physical location in your state, it's it's 1. Contraction of it is. 2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its. it's it is or it has it's be ~have likely that you will have to pay sales tax. Consider the full purchase price including shipping & handling and sales tax before placing an online order. Ask friends or relatives to recommend good sites -- Referrals, whether from friends and family or from trusted online rating guides, are the way to go this holiday season. Merchants are constantly changing their sites, and the same site today may have been very different just two months ago, so make sure to ask if your referral has visited the site recently. Or, check for the date that a site's ratings were updated. Confirm what types of Customer Support contact methods are offered by the merchant -- Does the merchant offer the contact method you prefer? If so, what are the hours of operation? It may not seem important when you're placing an online order, but you'll you'll Contraction of you will. you'll you will or you shall you'll will want this information on hand in the event that the item ordered is faulty fault·y adj. fault·i·er, fault·i·est 1. Containing a fault or defect; imperfect or defective. 2. Obsolete Deserving of blame; guilty. or doesn't does·n't Contraction of does not. arrive on time. Also, keep confirmation of order placement -- this will make it easier for Customer Support to track your order. Order early and allow for at least 2-3 extra business days. There's nothing worse than being disappointed during the holidays. If you're in doubt, pay a little extra for express shipping & handling. You might try contacting Customer Support to see if they can authorize To empower another with the legal right to perform an action. The Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce. authorize v. to officially empower someone to act. (See: authority) special discounts like Next-Day Courier services that are defined as being delivered on the next day within a country. Next day deliveries usually fall into service categories depending upon the time that delivery is able to be guaranteed. shipping for the price of regular shipping -- you never know until you ask! Did You Know....(a) -- Online sales during the 2000 holiday shopping season are expected to reach $6.21 billion. -- Online sales for 2000 are expected to more than double from $16.2 billion in 1999 to $33.9 billion. -- 36% of this year's online sales are forecasted to occur in the fourth quarter. -- Convenience and avoidance of crowds are the top reasons people shop online during the holiday season. -- Food & Wine, and Home & Garden will experience the greatest holiday season increase over last year. -- Females are expected to make up just over 50% of online sales this holiday season. -- Late delivery and lack of product availability dominate pre-holiday concerns among online shoppers. -- One in four online orders were delivered late during the 1999 holiday season. -- The peak buying day for online shopping during the holiday season and the entire year is December 13. -- Toys will reach sales of $300 million between November 24 and December 26, 2000. -- The majority of online buyers use the Internet for pre-purchase research and know what they want to purchase before going online. (a) Source: BizRate.com |
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