Online shopping is a double-edged sword. You will find products online that you may not find in the regular shops. You will also find a lot of fraudulent activities online when you are shopping through e-commerce sites. Except that e-commerce is the future and we all have to develop the nerve to buy things online without actually going to the shops and personally inspecting the products. So here are a few tips for you to know that will explain how online shopping can be done in a safe and productive way:

Secure Connection

A secure connection will have ‘s’ after ‘http’ and if it is not an ‘https’ website then it is not secure at all. The credit card information that you provide them will, most certainly, be stolen. So order cash on delivery and pay at home. If that option is not available then leave the product here and find something else somewhere else.

Reputation

Before you start buying from an online merchant, try adding them on social media and follow their progress online. If they are fake or fraudulent, someone will surely come out and talk about it. Also, try not to order an exceptionally expensive product from the e-commerce store when you are ordering for the first time. Start with smaller products that are cheap and you will not be in too much loss.

Too Good to be True

If it looks too good to be true then it probably is. The fact is that if an offer seems like it may not be real, then it probably isn’t. Products that are expensive, being sold at one-fourth of their market rice is an excellent example of that. You will need to make sure that the product they are selling is authentic and the ones that are too inexpensive rarely are. Also, if you are paying an extremely high price for any product then make sure that you buy from the manufacturer and do not let a third party conduct your negotiations.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are a great gift in themselves but the gift cards are usually coming with many restrictions themselves. The best way to manage that is by reading the regulations on using the gift card carefully before you pass it on. You will be able to tell if there is a clause in the gift card that makes it not very usable. It is no good to give a gift card that is not really worth much to your friends.

Information Sharing

Information sharing should be limited to online shopping. The only thing they are allowed to ask you is your credit card details, IBAN number or the PayPal account name. Anything else, they ask, is not really a good idea to share with them. Never even think about sharing your social security information, health care information, bank details, driver’s license number or any other similar content. Read the privacy policy to make sure that you are not giving your information to an entity that is selling that information.

Password

Just because it is a password to an eCommerce site does not mean you can be dismissive about it. You will need to make sure that the password is different. Otherwise, the password will not work for your safety, because anyone can log into your account and as your credit card is already safe on the website, they can spend your money.

PayPal

PayPal was created exclusively to save individuals from identity theft or credit cards being stolen. That is why it is a great idea to make sure that a PayPal account is available. It is a good idea to make sure that the bank account and credit card details are not shared with every website that you are buying from. That is a dangerous culture; we do not know why it is followed. It is a better idea to use your PayPal account.

You should make sure that the online buying culture is something you have figured out as we are all going to buy online from now onwards and eCommerce is only going to grow as a culture.