Top Tips to Shop Smarter Online

Information Technology Press Releases Friday November 8, 2013 16:24

Bangkok–8 Nov–Spark Communications

Did you know that less than 25% of us can claim to have shopped online without regrets?

A recent Rakuten Smarter Shopping survey of more 2,000 consumers across Taiwan, Indonsia, Thailand and Malaysia showed that the majority of online shoppers are dissatisfied with their purchases. Meanwhile, less than a quarter of us even bother to even complete our online purchases.

Isn’t part of the beauty of online shopping the efficiency and convenience it offers? Yet, we’re spending hours online researching products, that we either don’t end up buying or end up being unhappy with.

Here are some top tips to to how you can Shop Smarter online to save time and disappointment.

1. Get to know your shop and shopkeeper. The Rakuten Smart Shopping survey found that over 40% of consumers rarely or never interact with merchants when they shop online. Yet we all love to frequent boutiques and stores that give us personalized service. So when you’re online shopping, look for sites that offer different options for communicating directly and easily with online merchants so that you can engage and ask questions about products up front. These can be social media sites tied to the merchant shop, in-mail, and live chat options.

2. Look for great product photography and specs. A site that enables merchants to post realistic product images and detailed informaiton on, for example sizing and fit, will help you easily and quickly determind if those pair of jeans are the ones you want.

3. Keep an eye out for sites that promote merchant reviews and ratings, both positve and negative. Other buyer reviews are some of the best ways to gauge the reliability of the product and the online store before you purchase.

4. Go to the ‘online mall’ for the broadest selection. You’ll have more choice and a one-stop shopping experience, saving you time and hassle releated to having to browse multiple sites. It also means that you can make multiple purchases and check out in one go, for even greater time savings and efficiency.

5. Seek collective discounts, specials and incentives. One-stop sites tend to offer additional special sales and savings, or rewards which you can apply to save money on purchases from more than just one shop.

6. Check for a variety of established payment options. Being able to choose your preferred payment method means you’ll be less likely to get leave your things in the shopping cart without making that final purchase. Also ensure that look for recognized signs like the VeriSign Norton Secured Seal.

7. Warranty Policy Order (Buyer protection program) – looking for stores that have return policies which guarantee to refund the money if customers did not receive the product. Usually the amount of money refunded depends on each individual merchant’s return policy. Return policies are another important issue you should consider before shopping online to ensure that you will receive your order and also reflects a conscious effort to show that merchants pay attention to each customer and that every order is insured.

8. Asking for account identity. If you purchase products online through Instagram, Facebook or any other social network you should ask for the merchant’ online ID in order to verify their identity and to make sure that the merchant is authentic so that you can complete your order securely.