by David R. Chase

Created on: December 30, 2007   Last Updated: December 31, 2007

ShopNBC.com is, perhaps, the most innovative new way to get television viewers to spend money.

Here's the idea behind ShopNBC.com: When you're sitting on the couch watching NBC, you see a commercial for an interesting product. The phone rings, and you answer it; immediately, you forget all about what you were watching. Later, you head to ShopNBC.com, where they've got a constantly-updated list of all of the products that their advertisers were showing - and they'll sell them to you on the spot.

When you visit ShopNBC.com's home page, you'll see a large box right away; it's got a product that's being advertised right now on the left, and a product that just aired recently on the right. You can also check out the categories and archives, which have comprehensive lists for almost everything imaginable. They showcase things like Tag Heuer watches and Serta Perfect Sleepers - and absolutely everything in between.

ShopNBC.com even tackles auctions. Similar to other online auction sites, bidders compete to get an item at the lowest possible price; however, you won't find used items on this one! Everything is new and most of the items' prices start out at deeply discounted retail prices. They've only got four categories in the auction section: jewelry, gold, watches, and house and home. While the selection of categories isn't wide, the items in each category are plentiful. If you don't want to wait for days to see if you've one, check out the section on one-hour auctions - instant gratification at it's best.

The site makes it easy to spend, too. They accept PayPal and all of the major credit cards (even Discover), and they even offer an application for a ShopNBC credit card. On top of all that, they accept debit cards online and paperless checks by telephone - they don't give you any reason not to spend!

ShopNBC.com's customers can sign up for e-mail newsletters that highlight up-to-date recall notices, sales, and new advertisers. They even offer to remind you when your favorite NBC shows are about to come on so you won't miss a thing. It seems that they've got all the bases covered.

As far as shopping websites go, this one has one of the most varied groups of products I've ever seen. The nice thing about it (in comparison to others) is that you don't have to deal with pop-up ads or miscategorized items. Since it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for - and the feature showing what's just aired on television is really cool - ShopNBC.com is a great resource when you're shopping online.

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