Know the seller
Sites such as eBay.ca or amazon.ca serve as worldwide markets where merchants sell everything from electronics, to toys, to power tools and everything in between. “The same rules apply online as they do offline," says Andrea Stairs, country manager for eBay Canada. "If you don't know who you're buying from make sure to do some research."
Shoppers can evaluate and rate other online sites and products on comparison sites, like epinions.com or bizrate.com. On eBay, you can read comments and feedback from previous buyers and directly talk to the seller by clicking on the 'ask the seller' link. Search results are also sorted so that sellers with the most positive feedback are ranked higher. Stairs says she likes to ask the seller how they came to own the item and doesn't recommend buying from anyone with less than a 99 per cent positive feedback rate.
Stick to stores you know
A number of discounts are offered exclusively online and shoppers should feel comfortable taking advantage of them provided they are from a trusted store or shopping site. If a deal seems too good to be true, Stairs recommends checking the site for a logo from a Secure Sockets Layer or SSL. These encrypt personal and financial information so it can't be stolen. A VeriSign logo appears in the bottom right-hand corner of the eBay login page. TRUSTe is another logo to look for to ensure a site is secure.
Page 1 of 2 - on page 2: tips on making the purchase!
