4. Most "safe shopping" instructions say that one should read each store's Privacy Policy and other documentation, to ensure that they respect your privacy and don't sell or share your information. In theory, this is very legitimate advice. But personally we never read all these papers, because from our experience, no business in it's right mind shares it's customers info with anyone. If everything else looks good, we rush to order, without wasting time on reading endless legal papers. Usually just check that these pages exist. But you may think in a different way, and read these documents more carefully.

5. Take a look at the return policy. For tangible items, a normal store that stands behind it's products would offer at least a 30 days m-oney b-ack g-uarantee. Of course, for software products all sales are usually final, for understandable reason. In this case, appropriate guarantee for technical support is more than enough. Also, if a company sells software - see if there is a downloadable Demo version. Many companies offer 15 to 30-day demos and evaluation freebies, to let you see the level of their software products. Like our free designs archive.

6. Be sure to check that product delivery information is clearly stated, and fits your time-frame needs. Some shops even gift wrap, so if you want to mail a gift directly to a recipient - consider buying from a merchant that offers gift-wrapping.

7. Of course, price is important. And for most mainstream products, like electronics, you can easily compare prices from multiple on-line stores with a single click of a button. There are many sites offering price comparisons. Personally we use the good old Froogle.com (it's a division of Google). Try it. You'd love it. Of course, avoid being too greedy. It's a good idea to pay a few extra dollars and purchase an item from a store with a great reputation, even if the same item is available from a worse store at a slightly lower price. Avoid unrated stores whenever possible, and RUN AWAY from ones with bad ratings...

8. If you've come as far as to the page where you enter your credit card number - MAKE SURE that the order form is SECURE:

You should see a picture of yellow lock on the bottom right hand side of your screen. This lock symbol means that the order form uses SSL encryption, making it impossible for hackers to steal your credit card information. Another way is to check the web address of the order form. It should begin with "https".

ALWAYS, ALWAYS send credit card information over the Internet ONLY using a s-ecure o-rder f-orm. Never send credit card information by email, or using NON-encrypted forms.

9. If your order was processed successfully, you should understand this at once. First, you should be redirected to some kind of "Thank You" page, telling you that the order was processed. Second, you should receive a payment receipt by email almost instantly.

If you don't receive email notification, it is possible that your email box just didn't let that message inside your mailbox, thinking that it's "spam". Yet, make sure that everything is OK by contacting the store to verify that they received your order successfully.

Good luck!

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