Online Shopping from About.com Safety Practice Safe Online Shopping Consumer Resources Consumer Law Resources Paying for your Online Purchase Better Business Bureau Help with your Shopping Tracking your packages Smart Bots Sales Circulars Top problems shoppers encountered during last year's holiday season, ranked in order of frequency: Slow Web sites Product not available (status provided) Late delivery Product not available (not notified until days later) Unable to track order status Web site outages Long wait for customer services Product not available (wasn't notified) Order never arrived. SHIPPING Beware of how online retailers fulfill your order - that is, locate your product, then package and ship it to you - is a major weakness that many are striving to overcome. read the shipping information carefully - if not clear, email them or call their 800 number. make certain you obtain a tracking number from the retailer allowing you to monitor the online status of your package good merchants will send e-mails enotifying you that your product is in tock and the date it will ship - make a printout of this. Shop early - merchants should tell you when to order by to receive by Christmas. December 14 is a good rule. If you need to make a last-minute purchase, some bricks and mortars stores such as Circuit City connect their online and offline invetory. Type in your ZIP code and the product that you want, then go retrieve it the old-fashioned way. RETURNS Sometimes this can be difficult - check the policy before ordering. Some offline retailers that also offers online services (lilke KB Toys) will allow you to return items purcahses online directly to stores. Some retailers make it easy by allowing the returnee to put a special sticker on the box and the retailer pays the shipping costs Some retailers don't take returns or charge a restocking fee. Evaluate Past Experiences http://www.bizrate.com http://www.bbb.com http://www.cpawebtrust.org The Plain Dealer Evaluates Shopping Sites Target http://www.target.com Launched: September 1999 Improvements: Number of products online increased to about 14,000, from 800; clothing added for the holiday season. Site being redesigned in November to simplify navigation. Last day to order for Christmas delivery: Dec. 22 Comments: Very clean design. Offers conveniences such as in-store registries that allow you to register, check others' lists and buy select items online. You can view weekly sales circulars by region, too, but you can't buy the items online. Even during this quiet period, the site was slow at times. Nordstrom http://www.nordstrom.com Launched: October 1998 Improvements: New brands offered in clothing, shoes and jewelry. Search tool added; navigation improved with tabs for quick clicks to categories such as trends, plus sizes or specialty shops. Last day to order for Christmas delivery: Dec. 23 Comments: Appealing site includes a wish list you can fill out, then e- mail to friends or relatives with choices including size and color. Lands' End http://www.landsend.com Launched: July 1995 Improvements: More staff added to gift-boxing area to speed up shipping. Last day to order for Christmas delivery: Dec. 21 Comments: Not very attractive, but fast and easy to use. Helpful interactive tools such as "shop with a friend" and "your personal model." However, it's short on some basics: no gift registry; color swatches are often weak (but Lands' End will send swatches to your home). One big drawback is that you sometimes lose the navigation bar, and it's hard to find your way back home. Analysts predict more shopping problems this season. eToys http://www.etoys.com Launched: October 1997 Improvements: Warehousing and shipping facilities are now run by the company itself. Site's technology upgraded. Last day to order for Christmas delivery: Undetermined (last year it was Dec. 18, but eToys hopes to offer a later date this year. Comments: A better experience than you can usually find in a mass-merchandise store. "Stop by age" and "wish list" features are great for people who don't have small children but need to buy for nieces or nephews. "Out-of-stock" indicator is a plus, along with an email feature that allows eToys to contact you when the product arrives. Loaded with fetures, including narratives describing toys and customer-provided product ratings. Macy's http://www.macys.com Launched: November 1998 Improvements: Improved site navigation, more products, increased customer servie. Just launched a real-time ordertracking feature. Last day to order for Christmas Delivery: Dec. 15 Comments: Don't be put off by the wordy homepage; you can get infomration about fetured products quickly with a click of the mouse. Easy to navigate with a good gift registery; site's programming will retain items in yhour shopping cart even when you move to another site and then return. Does not offer a size guideline. Bluefly http://www.bluebly.com Launched: September 1998 Improvements: Greater automation, including email updates from confirmation to shipping, plus notification when returns are received. Last day to order for Christmas delivery: Dec. 24 Comments: Nicely laid-out site makes it easy to find by designers or categories, price and color. Has fashion tips and a vast selection. Drawbacks include lack of features such as a gift-wrapping service or a wish list. YIL's Best and Worst Online Shopping Sites Winter 2000 THE BEST Best Overall Amazon.com Best Book Site powells.com Best Food Site Chefshop.com Best Sporting Goods Site fogdog.com and rei.com best apparel site nordstrom.com best music site checkout.com best gift site redenvelope.com best toy site etoys best home improvement site cornerhardware.com best electronics site 800.com best movie-rental site netflix.com THE WORST bluelight.com furniture.com jcpenney.com macys.com sears.com wal-mart.com priceline.com