Advantages of Shopping Online

You probably know someone who grumbles that there are NO advantages of shopping online, but you are not sure how to respond? Do you need to be convinced yourself?

Let me arm you with a whole bunch of advantages of shopping online!

(See below this list where you can enter your most FAV advantages!)

Advantages of Shopping Online (summarized)

Much broader selections available to us - order from exotic countries if you can communicate and arrange shipping.

By smart research - we can find the exact items we need and want - or even something better than we had in mind!

By smart research, and price comparison sites, we can find the very best prices possible.

No high pressure sales pitches from attendants that hound you to buy their favourites.

No driving, parking expenses or bother (a boon for the handicapped or frail, or elderly!)

Online shops are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Shop at night if you like, or when it's convenient for you.

You can find remarkable warehouse and liquidation sales online that are not in your location.

Actual purchase time happens in a matter of minutes, no standing in line.

No embrassment if you change your mind at the last moment. No one is watching.

Some stores' specials are ONLY available from their online shopping site.

Some stores offer tracking of your purchase, so you can follow it (online) to your door.

Many online merchants offer free email notification of their sales. No need to comb the malls for good sales.

More online stores now have "live" attendants to answer your questions by chat

Some sites waive taxes and shipping costs to win you as a regular customer (See? it pays to check around).

Digital purchases such as software, e-books, graphics - can be downloaded and used immediately. No delays.

Send gifts anywhere, and have shipped directly from the online store - no standing in line at the post office.

No/little pressure to buy, depending on how much site banners and popups and emails bother you.

Some personal items can be purchased discretely, with no one watching you.

Online Shopping Guide:

1. Sign up for two or three Rebate Shopping portals like BigCrumbs or Ebates, and if in Canada at Great Canadian Rebates
2. Research online the product(s) you need or want.
3. When you find the site to shop at, switch to another tab and login to your rebate portal, to see which has that store on their list, with the best discount. (eg. 10% back is better than 4% or 2%).
4. Click from the best rebate portal (while logged in) to the store of your choice and make your purchase.
5. About 6 weeks later, you'll get money back!

What do you love best about shopping online?

Have you discovered some other advantages online shopping not mentioned? Would you share those with us? I will use the best ones here, giving you credit.

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More & Deeper

Shopping Guide BLOG - keeps you up-to-date with the most recent pages and information added to this site, check it each time you visit for what's new here. Bookmark it.

7 Steps to Shop Online - Here are more detailed steps for how to shop online, simple enough so that if you can read and follow instructions, you should be able to do it easily enough. You'll gain confidence as you shop online more and more often.

Advantages! - besides the many obvious advantages, here are suggestions for how to turn the disadvantages into your most favourite advantages.

Dis-Advantages? Transforming disadvantages of shopping online into real advantages of shopping online? Yes, you can!

Research First! - find out about the product you want to purchase and also the online stores or shops that offer it - to get the best deal possible.

Stores & Shops - before you start shopping wildly online - there are places to avoid - and there are places that are excellent. Learn to find out which a prospective shopping site is before you use it.

Comparison Shopping - An introduction to Comparison Shopping sites or engines, and how to use them to find the best deals for your online shopping.

Christmas Shopping - Did you know that one out of four consumers now says that Christmas shopping online beats doing it on your feet in the stores? According to eCustomer Service from eDigital Research, another one out of four who do their shopping online, say that it is a much better experience than being physically in stores at Christmas.

Books Online - If you have never bought books online, or anything else online, you may be a bit nervous. You are in the right place here! On this page, I'll lay out simple steps for finding a specific book online, or browsing for new books on topics you like, and how to buy books online. I'll show you how to use book comparison search engines, and for sure, - I'll even suggest sites for finding good book deals.

How to seek out Christian Books online - One of the first sites for Christian books that I discovered, I still turn to it first. I'd like to use that one as an example and show you how to shop and make purchases. Then, perhaps I can add a list of other similar sites that you can explore on your own.

Finding Christian Bookstores online - As I have been shopping and browsing for more Christian bookstores online, I've started a list of the ones that look best to me, and I'm ready to share that with you. My favourite one gets a special page of course - but here are some more that may appeal to you for various reasons and become your favourites.

Best Deals by Seasons - Wait, if you can, until the time of year when that item has the best discount sales.

Deals for YOU! - Time Sensitive Deals are shown here just for the their duration.

Consumer Reports - is a resource for choosing the best products to buy in North America.

Handling Payments

Secure Online Shopping criteria, and good habits to form that will keep you safe as you enter the exciting world of online shopping.

Shopping Online with Credit Cards does not have to be scary; if you are informed and ethical, and conscientious you can safely shop with your credit card online.

Shopping Online with Gift Cards - there are serious pros and cons to weigh before you start shopping online with gift cards.

Shopping Online WITHOUT credit cards - I can assure you from personal experience that there are several ways to shop online without credit cards at all; and I may not even have found all the ways.

Shopping online with PayPal - Reassuring facts about shopping online with PayPal to give you peace of mind.

Download your purchase of e-book, software, membership - here are detailed instructions for downloading your e-book, software, or membership access, and some extra security notes for protecting your purchases.

Invoice Troubleshooting - It's good to know what to do about receipts, or online invoices - troubleshooting when things go wrong. Even though we all hope it never happens, it sometimes does, and knowing what steps to take can make a world of a difference.

Need Shopping Money? - Here are two potentially profitable ways to get it through a small business effort on the side.

Grocery Shopping Online - Discoveries about Grocery Shopping Online in the UK, USA and Canada, including short reviews of the first flush of such sites found.

Grocery Shopping Online in Canada - with some basic information on the online grocery stores listed here to get you started.

Grocery Shopping Online in USA with descriptions and reviews of some national and regional grocery shopping sites that can deliver groceries to your door.

Grocery Shopping Online in UK - and the results of my search for such online grocery sites in that country. At first I thought they had a corner on this novel idea.

Nutritional Supplements - If you have not yet been buying supplements online, you may feel a bit overwhelmed, so I'm offering to guide you through the basic research, and then steps to buying your supplements online in a way you can soon make your own.

How to Store Food for Survival -Would you like to know how to store food for surival in a time of disaster? There are people and companies which have worked through these questions and come up with some excellent solutions.

Mothers Day - In early May do you get frantic, looking for good Mothers Day gifts to make, or to buy, and of course, the Mothers Day card? This brings me to my first suggestion to help you celebrate Mothers Day in a way that will thrill your Mom best. Simply Plan Ahead.

Chocolates - I'm seriously thinking about chocolates. Come with me; we'll do some research together. Of course, we may look like friends rambling through a mall, sampling chocolates, and calling it 'shopping.' However, we'll learn many things as we go.

Discovered Chocolates! - I've discovered chocolates on my own while researching chocolate sites online recommended in Consumer Reports. You can be sure I've been all over these sites thoroughly!

Toner Cartridges - You can find much better deals on toner cartridges if you shop online for them; your local suppliers has trouble keeping all possible toner cartridges in stock, never mind offering competitive prices, so sooner or later you'll need to shop online for a toner cartridge, even if you support your local businesses.

Need to send a Personal Shopper for your groceries? - Tips to either arrange for a personal shopper to do it for you, or for you to offer to be a personal shopper for others.

A Power Shopper, - and how to become one in several stages as you develop your online shopping skills.

Suggestions for setting up your own personal shopper business, - where you use your skills on behalf of those who do not have time or otherwise cannot shop for themselves.

How to Budget and Do Your Personal Bookkeeping with "Color of Money." This is a great accounting book for a family's bookkeeping, written by my sister, Elsie. You may order it here!

How to Budget is really setting down on paper how much money you can expect to come in, and when, and how much you need for your lifestyle. It's a blueprint, a plan. Then if you stick to the plan things balance out nicely and you don't have to be afraid of bill-collectors.

Personal Bookkeeping - Later in life I learned that personal bookkeeping is basically a carefully thought out plan for how I will get money, how I will spend it, and recording it so that I can see my progress. You can start small-scale, but once you see the value in it, you can expand and develop your personal bookkeeping system.

Color of Money - My sister Elsie, designed and prepared a simple, easy to understand and use accounting book, and she named it The Color of Money, mainly to encourage those who fear that budgeting and recording your in and outs of your money, and to show them that they can be in control after all."

Site Basics

About the Owner - You want to know about the owner of this site to help determine how much to trust the information found here, right? Well . . . I think what I can offer you is integrity and persistence - yes, tremendous tenacity.

Reach Ruth - Looking for how to reach Ruth Friesen, the owner of this website? This is the page and the best method.

Layout Map - An outline to act as a map of this site if you should get lost.

G---o-----s---h---o---p---p---i---n---g!

Home - Online Shopping Guides is especially for the reluctant and those new to shopping online; I want to show you that it is not that hard, and you CAN shop securely online. 'Home' is the default entry point and index for this website.