Online Shopping Basics

Online shopping explained: To get the best deal when you are shopping online and help you save money, learn the basics. Online shopping is the process consumers go through to buy products or services over the Internet. An online shop, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, webshop, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer (storefront) or in a shopping mall.

The metaphor of an online catalog is also used, by analogy with mail order catalogs. All types of stores have retail web sites, including those that do and do not also have physical storefronts and paper catalogs.

Online shopping is a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.

Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly, or do a search across many different vendors using a shopping search engine.

Once a particular product has been found on the website of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust quantities, by analogy with filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a conventional store. A "checkout" process follows (continuing the physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a permanent online account so that some or all of this information only needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an e-mail confirmation once the transaction is complete. Less sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail their orders (though credit card numbers are not accepted by e-mail, for security reasons).

Online Shopping Payment

Online shoppers commonly use their credit card for making payments, however some systems enable users to create accounts and pay by alternative means, such as:

Debit card
Various types of electronic money
Cash on delivery (C.O.D., offered by very few online stores)
Cheque
Wire transfer/delivery on payment
Postal money order
PayPal
Google Checkout
Moneybookers
Reverse SMS billing to mobile phones
Gift cards
Direct Debit in some countries

Some sites will not allow international credit cards and billing address and shipping address have to be in the same country in which site does its business. Other sites allow customers from anywhere to send gifts anywhere. The financial part of a transaction might be processed in real time (for example, letting the consumer know their credit card was declined before they log off), or might be done later as part of the fulfillment process.

While credit cards are currently the most popular means of paying for online goods and services, alternative online payments will account for 26% of e-commerce volume by 2009 according to Celent.

Product Delivery

Once a payment has been accepted the goods or services can be delivered in the following ways.

Download: This is the method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images.
Shipping: The product is shipped to the customer's address.
Drop shipping: The order is passed to the manufacturer or third-party distributor, who ships the item directly to the consumer, bypassing the retailer's physical location to save time, money, and space.
In-store pickup: The customer orders online, finds a local store using locator software and picks the product up at the closest store. This is the method often used in the bricks and clicks business model.

In any event understanding the basics of online shopping is easy and helps you make the right decisions whn you know how it works. And knowing how it works will help you get the best deals online and save you money