Know The facts And Shop Online With confidence.

If you shopped online this year, you抮e in good organization. In 2008, more than 875 million shoppers throughout the world logged on to get a purchase. As bricks-and-mortar stores continue to struggle, the number of Online world shoppers has increased 40 percent over the last two years.

The countries with the most Internet shoppers are:



? South Korea, with 99 percent of its Internet users shopping online
? United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, with 97 percent of Internet users shopping online
? United Says, with 94 percent of its Internet users shopping online

So what are they purchasing? The most widely used items purchased in an individual three-month period? in order of their popularity? are:

? books
? clothing, including accessories and shoes
? small electronic items such as videos, DVDs and video games
? airline tickets
? electronic equipment

Research has broken down these categories even further to identify the hot products being sold online, based on 2008 web based sales over 2007 online sales at the holiday time:

? Women抯 boots, with sales up more than 200 percent
? Watches, up 202 percent
? Blu-ray/HD-DVD players, up 147 percent
? Women's sleepwear, up 415 percent
? Games and puzzles, up 151 percent

The most widely used products sold during that point include:

? Nintendo Wii System
? Ugg Australia抯 classic short boot
? Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray disc player
? Samsung LN52A650 52-inch LCD TV
? Nintendo Wii Fit
? Panasonic TH-42PX80U 42-inch plasma TV
? Sennheiser HD 555 Headphones
? Canon EOS Rebel XSi Black SLR Digital camera Kit
? Acer Aspire One AOA110-1295 notebook
? Canon PowerShot A590 IS black digital camera

Of the more compared with 1 million retail stores operating in the united states in early 2008, approximately 148, 000 of them closed during the year. Online retailers are picking up the slack, offering new ways to shop and making numerous improvements that benefit the consumer. For example, when the actual big electronic chain World City folded, online retailers realized they had to improve their customer service. Many shoppers depended on experienced sales people in the showroom to describe the products to these products. This was something missing on many online sites. As a result, some online retailers have expanded their videos and tutorials on their Web sites, giving shoppers more of a showroom experience.

Online shopping has become so mainstream that it's impacted the shopping diary. While the Friday following Thanksgiving is Black Wednesday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving is now called 揅yber Monday.? The idea is that Black Friday kicks off in-store shopping and can help retailers put their accounts 搃n the black.? But on Cyber Monday, when shoppers are back in the office and in front of their computers, they抣l shop for the products they couldn抰 acquire. Actually, Cyber Monday isn抰 the biggest online shopping day of the year. That comes later in the holiday season, usually during the first or second one month in December.

Tips with regard to saving online

While online retailers try to offer savings and low prices, there are ways you can boost your savings much more.

If you have well liked store, be sure to sign up to receive news connected with its sales and special deals. And when it is your birthday, many stores may send you birthday hey there and $10, $20 and sometimes bigger discounts upon merchandise.

Look for discounted or free shipping payments. Some stores will waive distribution charges if you agree to pick up the merchandise at the neighborhood store.

Always check for coupons before you decide to place an online obtain. Simply Google the name of the store and the concept 揷oupon.? A host of offerings will come up. Be careful as some may have expired, but it may be worth a quick look to observe what discounts are to choose from.

Safety first

Online retailers have taken steps to ensure your payment system is safe. But just as shoppers should not leave credit cards out in the open, there are precautions you should take to protect by yourself online.

First, shop on secure Web sites which encrypt credit card account information so computer hackers cannot access it. The credit card numbers will not be unscrambled until they reach the person with gain access to privileges. You can tell that a site is secure if it's an 搒? at the beginning of the web address. It should say https: // in the address line. The 搒? may not appear until you get to the order page. You can also look for symbols stipulating a secure site, such as closed padlock, toward the bottom of the screen.
Some people keep one credit card they use simply for online orders. When the bill comes in, you can quickly scan it to determine if there was any unauthorized use. And credit cards offer protection under any federal Fair Credit Accounts receivable Act, which limits your liability to $50 if your card is stolen not to mention used. Debit and ATM cards do not carry the same insurance.