High-Tech Sewing:
Safe Online Shopping
Safe, smart shopping
---online!
Research
Shipping, Fulfillment & Returns
Secure Servers
Recognizing Secure Sites
How does a secure site protect you?
Maintaining Privacy
Cookies
Keep Track!
Resources
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High-Tech Sewing: Safe Online Shopping |
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| L I S A C A H O O N | ||
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Safe, smart shopping ---online! |
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Introduction Research Shipping, Fulfillment & Returns Secure Servers Recognizing Secure Sites How does a secure site protect you? Maintaining Privacy Cookies Keep Track! Resources |
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| Introduction |
If "she who dies with the most fabric wins" is your motto, you'll be happy to know that thousands of fabric and quilting retailers, of all sizes, are now online. No longer do you need to shop until you drop for that fabric fix. With a computer and Internet connection, shop from home until your coffee grows cold, it's time to take the dog for a walk or the cat falls asleep on the keyboard!
Some sites are geared to bargain hunters, while others offer quality selections of exclusive fabrics. For people who have to see and touch fabrics before buying, there are many other sewing-related products to be purchased--everything you can imagine. All these Web sites have something available online--hard-to-find notions, books, patterns, sewing and quilting furniture--and for your ease nearly all take credit cards. The mass media has made much of the online shopping dangers, but how risky is it really to send a credit-card number into cyberspace? Are cybercriminals lying in wait behind every Web site to steal personal information? Will you find a bargain only to pay a fortune in shipping? Will you get what you pay for? And what about returns for faulty or damaged goods? Statistically, sending credit card information via a secure connection to an online retailer is actually safer than handing your card to a stranger in a restaurant or store, and it carries about the same risk as giving a credit-card number over the phone. The only thing that will be in real danger as you explore the treasures of the Web is your budget. Like any shopping, online shopping simply requires common sense. Avoid unnecessary risks with credit and personal information by following a few simple guidelines. |
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| Research |
Who are you dealing with? In addition to an e-mail address, a Web site should display contact information, including a phone number and street or mailing address. Web sites with their own domain names are safer bets than Web pages hosted on free services such as Geocities and Angelfire. To verify domain name ownership, simply go to the Internic site at http://www.internic.net. Click on the "Whois Registry Search" page and type in the domain name to find the name of the domain reseller or registrar company through which the site has been registered (Network Solutions, for example). Go to the alphabetical listing of registrars on the Internic site and look for the name and Web address. Next go to the registrar's site and use the "Whois" database to search again for the domain name. The result will include the domain owner's business name and address, along with server and technical contact information.
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| Shipping, Fulfillment & Returns |
A Web site should have its shipping costs, estimated order fulfillment, delivery times and delivery service posted. Shipping is usually a flat fee or scaled up according to the number of items, purchase price or weight. Expect to pay at least the cost of a priority envelope for shipping smaller items (under one or two pounds). When bargain hunting, be sure to factor the shipping cost into the product price to see the real cost.
Buying several products at once can save you money because retailers often extend price breaks on shipping for larger orders, or even free shipping if the order exceeds a certain amount. When the total shipping cost is unknown, total the order in your online "shopping cart" before finalizing the sale. If you decide not to continue with the purchase, save the contents of the shopping cart for a later date, or delete unwanted items. Expect to wait at least a week to ten days for delivery (the average time for a USPS or UPS ground-delivered package) unless the order is being delivered by priority mail or rush shipment. Did you know that no sales tax is applicable on a purchase made from a retailer outside your state? This fact might offset some of the shipping cost. When ordering from a retailer outside the United States, however, expect to pay duties and/or customs fees. Many Web retailers offer a "satisfaction or your money back" policy. If there isn't a specific policy listed, contact the retailer by e-mail or phone before making a purchase. Find out if there are restocking fees or if some items cannot be returned, such as cut fabrics. Expect a response within a reasonable time (say 24 to 48 hours), but bear in mind that many smaller Web sites don't have a large staff and they may be busy running the shop and filling orders, not just answering e-mail. |
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| Secure Servers |
Be sure the site offers secure shopping. Most fabric- and sewing-related Web sites are built by small, offline retailers with minimal Web design budgets. Many sites aren't secure yet. If the business doesn't have a secure site, place orders by phone or fax. Don't send credit-card information via e-mail; it's not secure. Instead, e-mail the order along with a daytime phone number, and ask the merchant to call for the card number and expiration date.
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| Recognizing Secure Sites |
How do you distinquish whether a site is secure? Most Web sites only change to secure mode when asking for sensitive information such as your name, address and credit-card number. They may display notices that their shopping carts are secure. To make sure, check the following:
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| How does a secure site protect you? |
A secure Web site will use technology called secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption to encrypt any sensitive data submitted. Browsers within the United States and Canada can use up to 128-bit encryption--technology so strong that it has never been broken. Because of national security concerns, it's illegal to export 128-bit encryption technology. Most international Web sites use 40-bit encryption. Note: To shop on a secure server, your browser must support SSL (all versions of Netscape since 1.22 and Internet Explorer since 2.0 do).
To use encryption technology, an online merchant must apply for a digital-ID certificate, or use one pro-vided by its Internet service provider. The company will undergo a background check before receiving its digital ID. A digital ID is like an online business license. It tells customers' browsers that the merchant is who he says he is, and provides the merchant with both a public and a private encryption key. The public key encrypts the information as it's sent from a person's computer to the merchant, and a private key decrypts the information. Because the merchant is the only one with access to the private key, no one else can decrypt the data, even if it's intercepted en route to the merchant. |
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Maintaining Privacy
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Online purchases require personal information such as your name, mailing address and credit-card number. Many merchants also collect other optional information about buying preferences, so they can send additional marketing or customer-service information after the sale. If there is a concern about how this information will be used, look for a privacy statement or an option to opt-out of ("unsubscribe" from) the merchant's mailing list. If no privacy policy is listed, don't jump to conclusions--it could simply be an omission on the retailer's part. Contact the merchant directly about their use of personal information and, if preferred, ask to be taken off the mailing list.
If you receive "spam," or junk e-mail, don't assume that the online stores have sold your e-mail address. Bulk e-mailers often collect e-mail addresses from bulletin boards (Web sites displaying publicly posted e-mails, newsgroups and online mailing lists). Once an e-mail address lands on one list, it's sold many times. The U.S.government is still trying to figure out how to regulate spam. Replying or asking to be removed from these bulk lists doesn't help--it just tells them they have a live one. For the most part spam is simply annoying and can be deleted or filtered. However, it can include attachments containing viruses. Don't open e-mails or attachments from unknown senders. Be sure to have up-to-date versions of antivirus software running at all times. Update the virus data files weekly to be sure it catches any new viruses. Usually this can be done from the software companies' Web sites at no charge. |
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| Cookies |
We're not talking about the chocolate chip variety. Web sites use small bits of text called cookies to store information on a computer's hard drive. Cookies can help customize your shopping experience by saving a login ID and password, information about which pages are visited on the site, the shipping and billing addresses, and previous purchase records. When returning to these Web sites, the browser looks for the cookies stored on the computer and retrieves the information to save time.
In most cases, cookies don't violate your privacy or expose you to any malicious intent. Sensitive information such as credit-card numbers are rarely stored on cookies. If you're still concerned, set the browser to decline cookies or give a warning notice when a site attempts to place a cookie on the computer. (To do this, select "Preferences" under the "Edit" menu in Netscape or select "Internet Options" under the "Tools" menu in Internet Explorer). When the browser is set to decline cookies, many Web-site features may be unavailable, and some shopping sites won't be accessible at all. If so, contact the retailer and ask for other shopping options. |
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| Keep Track! |
Print and keep copies of all correspondence with the online retailer. Keep a copy of the order-tracking number and shopping-basket contents, and contact the retailer if the order is slow or incorrect.
Review credit-card statements and reconcile any payments made to online retailers. If there are conflicts between your records and theirs, phone or e-mail the retailer. Further, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recommends sending notice by certified mail, especially if there's no immediate response or an unsatisfactory one. Contact the credit-card provider to dispute the charges. The card provider can request authentication of the sale amount from the retailer and revoke the charges if the merchant fails to provide proof of the sale. The future of online shopping is still shaping up, and newer options will soon make it even safer for online customers. Last fall, American Express launched a "disposable credit-card number" that expires the first time it's used online. Visa is working on an authentication password system for credit-card use on certain sites (equivalent to the magnetic strip on the back of credit cards) to prevent fraud. There's also new privacy software in the works that will allow shoppers to cloak their identity, credit-card number and shipping address, by scrambling the information submitted to the merchant and allowing only the bank to decode the credit-card number and only the Postal Service to decode the shipping address. Plenty of reputable, recognized businesses offer products for sale on the Web, including Sew News magazine. If you're ready to explore the world of online shopping, type the name of a favorite fabric store or mail-order company into a search engine and see if it's online. Search using "fabrics," "sewing supplies," "patterns" and other sewing-related keywords. In addition to sewing supplies and fabrics, sewing and quilting retailers offer other creative purchasing options such as fat-quarter collections, block-of-the-month clubs, fabric-of-the-month clubs, swatch services and more. One retailer even has an "I-Want-it-All" club. If you really do want it all, look online! Lisa Cahoon is an Internet marketing and Web-site design consultant and an enthusiastic sewer and crafter. Lisa also publishes GetCreativeShow.com (a resource for crafting, sewing, quilting and needlework enthusiasts) and writes for a number of craft and sewing publications. |
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Safe-shopping Resources |
Check out these sites for more information on safe Web shopping.
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