Save Gas, Shop Online Part 1

With the steady rise in gas prices, “brick and mortar” stores found in suburban areas are slowly starting to lose their appeal. Customers are now turning to the internet to satisfy their wants and needs. Described below, are the best online shopping websites for these tough economic times.





What’s good about it: Website is easy to navigate, free shipping on weekly deals, speedy budget shipping, product tracking, and customer service reply within 24 – 48 hours.
What’s bad about it: their merchants don’t have to honor the rebates; shipping costs are relatively high on items not on sale, ordering/returning during the Christmas shopping crunch can be a hassle.
Insider Tips: Only take advantage of rebates from known trustworthy companies such as Logitech; avoid shopping here during the holidays.
Did you know? Buy.com carries no inventory of the products they sell.

Bottomline: Buy.com has almost everything you need for a good price. Also, they usually have a substantial amount of deals per day. As for the holiday shopping season, what retailer keeps everything moving smoothly?




What’s good about it: Potentially offers the most products because of its business model, good services, free shipping with orders over $25, site caters to each person’s previous search queries; accurate product information including customer reviews; offers used versions of an item; Gold Box and other deals; customer service
What’s bad about it: shipping fees for orders below $25; customer service around the holidays
Insider Tips: Visit their Gold Box often and their Friday deals.
Did you know? Amazon is one of the survivors of the “dot com” disaster.

Bottomline: Amazon has the largest collection of *NEW* items for sale on this list. There are rarely any complaints about them during the rest of the year and the free shipping on orders over $25 really helps sweeten the pot.





What’s good about it: Unless you’re into purchasing illegal items or highly unsafe items, eBay has everything you could possibly want. Also has email notifications, it’s international; feedback feature
What’s bad about it: There are certain items that are forbidden to be sold; magnet for scams; paypal; shipping costs; customer service
Insider Tips: use a lot of good quality photos of the product, offer a detailed product description, read the fine print carefully,
Did you know? eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar is now worth $7.7 billion according to Forbes' Billionares list.

Bottomline: eBay has taken measures on protecting both the buyers and sellers over the years. Additionally, it still has the largest collection of items in their database. With the possibility of getting what you want at a fraction of the price, this is definitely one of the better websites out there.




What’s good about it: as the name implies, items on sale cost half the MSRP. It’s an ebay website so you can use your eBay account,
What’s bad about it: For the consumer, the occasional misplacing of orders around the holiday shopping season. For the seller, things could get dirty. Customer service is only available via email.
Insider Tips: For the sellers, make sure you follow the rules; they will suspend your account if suspected of failing to follow their terms and conditions.
Did you know? College students prefer sites like half.com for their textbook needs.

Bottomline: This website is good for the consumer, bad for the seller. Consider selling on other websites instead.





What’s good about it: Great deals on magazine subscriptions.
What’s bad about it: Magazines take a while to arrive, your contact information gets distributed.
Insider Tips: Even though this rarely happens, wait for the expensive magazines to go on sale. Also, try to take advantage of additional offers attached to their current offer. Finally, make an alternate email address when ordering from this site, to prevent the overload of spam that you may receive.
Did you know? Best Deal Magazines make their money by selling your contact information to other companies.

Bottomline: If you must have your magazines arrive two weeks earlier then look elsewhere. Otherwise, this is one of the best magazine deal sites out there.