Cyber Shopping Tips – Buying Books, Airline Tickets and Anything Online

It’s a cocooner’s dream. You can now shop around and buy anything from a leather bomber jacket to a bottle of Bordeaux without ever once stepping outside the confines of your home. While somewhat slow to take off, the Internet is fast transforming the nature of shopping as more and more retailers set up shop on the World Wide Web. Some advantages are readily evident round-the-clock access, virtually unlimited shelf space, and the sheer convenience of being able to select and order an item with a few clicks of a mouse are transforming the Internet into a veritable shopper’s Mecca.

But what makes the Internet a genuinely valuable tool for consumers really has nothing to do with those elements of buying and selling we would normally identify as advantages. For instance, the most immediate question one might ask is whether it’s really cheaper to buy something on the Internet. Well, that depends there are some instances (such as airline tickets, as we’ll discuss later) where the Web’s capacity to let shoppers compare and shop around can, in fact, mean lower prices.

But there are also scads of items that cost you just as much and, in fact, likely even a bit more than they would have had you gone to the mall to purchase them yourself. Take, for instance, a book you order online. The price may be a dollar or so less than what they’re charging at your neighborhood bookstore. But add on a couple of bucks for shipping and handling charges, and that purported bargain is so much dust in the wind.

Therein lies the first rule of cyber shopping: When comparing items, particularly with goods that you can go out and buy on your own, be sure to add on every pertinent charge so that you have a clear picture of what all this wonderful convenience is going to cost you. Here, online shopping outlets differ considerably. Some are very forthcoming about shipping and handling charges and even include an online chart to let you figure those expenses to the penny. Others, however, are something less than up front, even going so far as to add on taxes, shipping, and handling after you’ve placed your order and logged off. So check around a merchant’s Website to determine the true overall cost of what you’re buying; if you have any doubts, you may do well to look somewhere else to get what you need.

So, while the Internet isn’t necessarily any cheaper than more traditional means of shopping, it does offer an unparalleled source of consumer information and guidance to help you make intelligent shopping choices, no matter how you eventually lay out your money. As we pointed out earlier, buying or leasing a car through an Internet-based service lets you establish a competitive environment in your favor that would have taken hours or days of legwork if you pursued it the old-fashioned way.

The same can be said for shopping for airline tickets online. Not too long ago, travelers had to choose between working through a travel agent and buying the tickets directly from the airline. In either case, important information, such as seat availability and surcharges not to mention alternate flights and routes that were less expensive were kept from the traveler. Now, there are a number of online sites where ticket shoppers can go to research and book airline reservations. While details vary from one service to another, it’s simple to get comparative data on any number of flights, and not just on fare alone; for example, with one service you type in where you’re traveling to and from and when, and the system presents you with every conceivable carrier and itinerary that matches your plans. Departure times, type of plane, meals, estimated travel time, the applicability of any sort of pre purchase plan, and even the likelihood that the flight will arrive on time are all there for comparison details and nuggets that can all enter into your eventual choice of carrier and flight.

Naturally, that doesn’t mean that the fares and prices these systems give you are necessarily the cheapest to be found; there are any number of other services that probably stand at least a chance of offering you a better deal. But what it does illustrate is the investigatory muscle of the Internet the World Wide Web is giving consumers the opportunity to research and analyze almost any purchase they make more comprehensively than our predecessors could ever have imagined. Whether you explore the intricate details of competing airline fares or simply compare prices of pullover jackets, the Web is a limitless source of consumer information, comparison, and, ultimately, power. And whether or not you decide that actually buying something on the Web makes better financial sense than going down to the corner store, that kind of information can only help make your hard-earned shopping dollars stretch that much further.