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Everything we do obviously has its upside and its downside. Online shopping is no different. The question is does the upside outweigh the downside?

The advantages to online shopping are obvious and need no real explanation. The deals are usually better. You save on gas as the product shows up on your doorstep. If you purchase the item from an out of state vendor, you avoid sales tax. You can shop on your own time not only when the store is open. etc. etc.

On the other hand, there are some pitfalls that you should watch out for.

#1. You must make sure that you are dealing with a reputable vendor. Although it is not as common as you would think, there are some vendors who would use the information you provide against you, or at least without your permission. There are a couple of simple ways to avoid this. The obvious one is to shop using company's you know, and type in their web address rather than following links to it. Paypal also offers you some protection. There are far to many credit card processing companies out there to keep track of them all, and most of them run in hidden form underneath a companies website. Fortunately many smaller businesses are now also offering the option of checking out using Paypal or Googel Checkout. As you know these companies, and you know that your creditcard information is not being provided to the vendor, you can use them safely and have an avenue of recourse if the transaction doesn't go as well as you planned. Another interesting tidbit that you may take for what it is worth, is that there is a lot involved in getting yourself to the top of a Google Search ranking. A site that consistently ranks high in your google searches has probably been around a while and is less likely to be a scam artist.

#2. If you are not familiar with the product, it is sometimes difficult to know exactly what you are getting. For example I recently bought a scale on e-bay, and just assumed that it would come with a plug so I could plug it into the wall. Had I read the information a little closer I would have seen that the plug was an option rather than included, so it is my fault for not reading carefully. Had I bought it from a store I probably would have caught that little tidbit. (The scale does run on a 9V battery, so it is not unusable, just annoying). The deals that you get online are created by that fact that the vendor is not paying salespeople to sell you stuff. For this reason you have to be prepared to be your own salesman and suck it

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