#5 Ways to Order Smartly from E-commerce Websites Today, the process has gone completely online with a variety of brands and stores available to us with just one click.

Over the years, shopping process has changed a lot. Earlier, it was a long tiring process of visiting crowded markets and stores, and then comes the mall culture; making monthly trips to favourite malls in the city and purchasing all the small and big things to fulfil the daily needs.

Today, the process has gone completely online with a variety of brands and stores available to us with just one click. The 24/7 availability of stores, freedom from the traffic jams, no fear of the dreary air pollution, different payment modes, delivery at the doorstep, frequent sales and discounts are some of the advantages that an online customer enjoys while buying the stuff from online marketplaces.

To make the online shopping experience more delightful and dissonance free, below are the 5 genius steps that can help every online customer to shop safely and smartly from the wide range of e-commerce websites:

Adopt the Shop to save mantra

The first and the foremost thing that compels buyers to go online is the saving technique involved in the process. Be it time or money; the resources are being constantly saved while the crazily fast-paced human race is busy enjoying their favourite pastime activity on their best preferred online portals. Shopping and savings are said to be the river end that can never meet. But with e-shopping, you have a chance of striking an excellent deal and saving those hard earned pennies. The regular sales, cash back offers, discounted gift cards, etc. offer you a way to maximise your savings even while shopping.

The 24x7 availability of wide varieties of choices on the online portals is just amazing. One being an avid shopper can try on the latest international brands and shop from retailers in other parts of the country or overseas without being limited by the geography. Saving might be the prime motive for the buyers turning online, but mostly while surfing and selecting products this motive gets sidelined resulting in huge pile up of unnecessary expense. To save oneself from unnecessarily flowing those hard-earned pennies, one needs to be well aware of their budget and immediate needs that they can afford.

Value the reviews available

Pay proper attention to the product details and specifications and never ignore the comments and feedbacks of the people. Whether from the expert's side or the fellow customer's side, product reviews contain immense value and are not to be ignored at any cost. These reviews give you pre hand knowledge about the product's performance. This will help you take smart buying decisions as you are well aware of the actual quality and performance of the product. At times, people complain that reviews available on e-commerce sites are quite entertained & influenced and are not true to the fact. With many review sites and blogs widely available online, this is not an issue anymore. One just needs to make sure that he/she is making adequate efforts in researching and comparing products on all the reputed e-com portals. The advice of online shopping geeks and bloggers can also make this task easy and fruitful.

Go incognito while you browse

Smart online buyers always do online purchasing either in incognito mode or a private window. Besides, choosing a reliable e-commerce site that also has a good web ranking, always try to make the purchase in incognito mode. Every e-com portal has a Recommended System, and when one visit the site, it can track the online activities of the prospective buyer like what sorts of products one is looking for and what other online places he/she has explored to meet the requirements. This way, a customer avails best prices and offers.

Ensure safety in every possible way

Before adding an item to the shopping cart, a buyer should check that whether the website is safe to make payments or not. The thumb rule of online shopping is that the URL of the intended site must start from https://, not just http://. It is the simplest way to make oneself ascertain that the website is safe and carries a secure sockets layer. Secondly, if a prospective buyer is unable to find the padlock image in the address bar, it is better to leave that site and for the one which features that image in the address bar. Finally, one should remain very cautious while furnishing the person information. If the portal tries to acquire the information of one's debit/credit card or social security number in addition to the basic information of a person, then one should restrict oneself from shopping such suspicious sites.

Check the shipment tracking criterion

A purchase completes when a customer receives the product in good condition. Hence the alliance of the e-commerce portal with shipping/courier companies also matters a lot. No one wants damaged consignment or the late delivery of the product. So, a customer must check in advance that whether the e-retailer has tie-ups with reputed shipping/courier companies or not. And, if he/she faces any difficulty, then the site has any proper shipment tracking system or not. Lastly, if one receives a damaged product then what are the return policies and procedures of the portal are?