Ecommerce has established a reputation for delivering value for money when shopping, some high street retailers are even using comparing with e-retailers prices to try to convince customers how competitively priced their services are.
In 2007, shoppers spent over £10.7 billions online between November and December. This year, despite the credit crunch, consumers are expected to spend 15% more over last year spending. The trend of increased spending online continues year after year.
Despite the phenomenal growth of online retailing, some consumers are still sceptical about inserting their credit card information into a website, though all online retailers implement the necessary security to ensure customer’s credit card details are protected, there are some basic tips consumers could implement to ensure their cart details are information on their PC is secure.
Some basic security tips for consumers follows:
-
Keep your PC software up to date . The older a pice of software is, the more likely that it is vulnerable to intrusion, ensure you are using the latest version of the software that comes with your PC, update you PC software with the latest patch released by the manufacture as soon as it is released.
-
Anti Virus and Anti Spyware . Install the latest version of your anti virus software on your computer, if you anti virus software does not come with anti spyware, obtain and install anti spyware as well.
-
Dedicated Shopping PC. If you share your PC with your children, especially older children who download and install all sorts of software, consider having your own dedicated PC, do your online shopping from your own PC. Children tends to download lots of software, some of this software contains so called trojan which could compromise the security of your computer.
-
Secured site. Ensure the padlock symbol shows at the stage of your shopping where you need to input your personal details. Part of a website that collects personal details and the part where you insert your credit card information should be on secure server, if you look at the address of the site, it should begin with https and the padlock symbols should appear on the bottom right hand corner of you browser, for some browser it appears at the top.
-
Passwords. When you are required to create password for the shopping site, create a complex password that you can remember easily, create a password that includes words and numbers, capital and lowercase words.
-
When buying from a site that is not a household name, ensure the site has contact information including address and land line phone number. Call that number on the website for additional peace of mind if you have any doubt about a website.
-
Keep evidence. Always keep the confirmation email send to you after a purchase or the information the webite advises to print.
-
Register your card with Verified by Visa or Master Card, this provides additional security when shopping online.
-
Consider using and temporary credit card such as the one issued by Cahoot just for online shopping.
As the Christmas rush goes into top gear for the final week of shopping, spare a thought for those who have a disabled child to buy for: many of the hi-tech toys available are unsuitable – or at least they were until now.
AbilityNet – a charity whose mission is to make technology accessible to people with all sorts of disabilities – has launched a range of toys suitable for children whose motor skills and dexterity are limited.
They range from a collection of soft toys that sing songs and move in time to the music to a head-mounted controller for games consoles and battery-powered cars and boats.
There is also a range of arcade-style computer games that can be played using a single key or an external switch.
Inclusive Christmas
AbilityNet has formed a partnership with Excitim Ltd – a company that uses technology originally created to help a young boy who was paralysed from the neck down in a car accident.
The Dream-Products range is being marketed through the charity’s website, and it uses any money it makes to subsidise its free services for disabled people.
“For many children, play options are severely limited by their condition,” said AbilityNet’s development director, David Banes.
“Play is critical to the social, psychological and educational development of our young people, as well as their well-being and self confidence.”
Mr Banes – a former special school headteacher – says that he hopes the toys will create “a truly inclusive Christmas for disabled youngsters”.
The soft toys – which cost just under £40 – are brought to life by using an external switch.
full story
For many people, shopping online is a relatively new experience. Even though the technology has been around for awhile, they have still not taken that step and decided to make a purchase online. This often happens because people are afraid that their personal information could be stolen and manipulated by hackers. The truth of the matter is that this rarely ever happens. In fact, if you are dealing with a reputable site, they will work their hardest to make sure that your information remains as private as possible because they obviously want to keep your returning business. Just like any other store, they rely on you wanting to come back to them for your purchasing needs in the future and they will work hard to make sure that this happens.
Once you decide to take that leap and shop online, there is actually a wide range of ways in which you can save money. First of all, many retailers are seeing the benefits to putting items online at a discounted price. This way they can entice people to their sites and boost their annual revenue. To take advantage of this, sign up for the email offers from stores such as Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and others. In the emails there will be listings on internet prices and availability. Sometimes you can get an item with no shipping costs, reduced shipping costs, or some chains even offer you the chance to pick up the item in the store at the online price if you pay for it online.
There are also exclusive online dealers like Overstock.com, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, who can be considerably cheaper than a traditional store. This is because they do not have to pay large wages or set up shops in different cities to operate. They can sell their items from one central location, and instead of relying on their own shipping fleet, they can use UPS. This makes their overhead significantly cheaper and they pass those savings onto you.
If you are not from the technology driven Millennial Generation, then you may have only recently discovered the interesting online format of blogs. In recent years blogging has become a world wide phenomenon and many people have started diving into the waters in order to better find out what this blogging thing is all about. If you are one of those people who would like to start a blog, then you’ve come to the right place.
One of the first things that you will need to do to start a blog is to join a site that offers a blogging format. There are plenty of these on the internet, from blogger.com to myspace.com, and any of them will work for your needs. You just want to make sure that it is set up in an easy to understand format and that you are able to access and understand the website. The idea for a blog is to allow you to have a format where you can write and express your feelings from day to day. It is not important that you understand everything that is going on with the technology, just that you are able to write down whatever it is that you want to share with the world.
Many people have chosen to turn to blogging as a means of keeping up with family and friends that are far apart from them. The internet is a wonderful way to keep connected on a regular basis without having to pay the high price of postage, and by blogging you can say everything that you want to at once without having to send out a host of emails. You can simply send the link to your blog site out in one email, and then post the information to that one blog and let people come and read it on their own.
