ONLINE SHOPPING RISKS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

The comfort in online shopping is the main reason behind its immense popularity in the recent few years. With the introduction of online shopping facilities such as home delivery, people are able to get rid of long waiting in queue and long-distance driving for any purchasing. With that being said, the process has some loopholes too that one should be alerted to. One needs to be cautious about the scammers that internet is flooded by today. A heavy increase in identity thefts, especially those due to the online frauds, throughout the world is a warning for the individuals to take some steps if they really want a safe and secure online shopping experience.


How will you check that the company you shop from is secure and reputable?

Out of the jungle of websites, it?s pretty difficult to choose the sites that can be entrusted as most secure shopping sites. Here I present a few factors that can help you judge the reputation of an online shopping company to help you in further decision making:

1. Go over customer testimonials.
   
   
2. Ensure they have an active customer help center for after-sale services.
   
   
3. Check sites for secured server: A shopping site with secured server can safeguard your personal data such as credit card number, which is necessary as sensitive personal and financial information should not be compromised at all through the payment gateway. A padlock symbol on the address bar of the browser is indicative of a secured page.
   
   
4. Look for ISIS accreditation: ISIS accreditation is reflective of registration of a shopping website with a specific program that insists ethical dealings. ISIS (Internet Shopping Is Safe) is run by the e-retail industry body IMRG. A site has to undergo monitoring and review by their regulatory board for accreditation. An ISIS logo will take you to an online business? verification page.
   
   
5. Check for SSL Certificate: The site should carry SSL Certificates on the pages where you enter your private information such as billing and credit card data. SSL or secure sockets layer encrypts the sensitive data transmitted from the internet to make it unreadable by any unauthorized third party. Therefore, check the URL of the page to read https, not http, before feeding any personal detail into an online shopping site.