It’s nothing new, and happens to all of us. Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy everything without leaving the comfort of your home? Or office? That’s what online shopping is all about. The online shopping wave is already in full swing in most developed countries. It has hit India recently, and online shopping malls, superstores, and markets are popping up at a dime a dozen. We checked out most of them in this issue, actually buying at many.

How do you reach a site that has the product you want? You could do a search for that product at a search engine, or you could look through the reviews in this issue to find out the shop you want. Indian e-com endeavors are relatively new, and haven’t done a good job of getting listed at search engines. Also sites like Everbest.com (earlier Dealpilot.com) that specialize in sniffing out the best prices from online shops don’t cover Indian online stores.

Not all sites deliver to all places. Check whether the site you are at delivers to your place. The site would indicate the delivery time they require.

Once you’re at the site, you can search for the products you want to buy. You could look through the categories at the site or search at the site’s search engine. Many sites let you search according to your budget or category or brand.

If you want to buy a product, add it to the shopping cart. The shopping cart is nothing but a small part of the software that tracks the products you’ve chosen to buy and their price. The shopping cart does the job of totaling up your bill for you. Most sites let you remove products from the shopping cart before the actual order is placed. So, the golden rule here is, if in doubt, put it in your shopping cart. You can go on adding products to your shopping cart, as you would have done if you were at a supermarket.

At a supermarket, there are no hidden costs – delivery charges, for example. Many online sites add a surcharge for shipping. And these vary from site to site, and could even be more than the value of the goods you ordered if your total bill is small. So ensure that you understand the terms of the site. Most sites display this information prominently. If you can’t find it, ask over e-mail.

When you’ve decided on what products you want to buy, it’s check out time. Most sites will ask you to register to make the transaction trustworthy. You’ll be asked to give your e-mail address, mailing address, and so on. Never give your credit card number, if asked to do so while registering. Once you’ve registered, you’re ready to place your order. The site would give you a login name and password (most likely, you selected them yourself). The next time you come to the site, you don’t have to register again. Use your existing login name and password. Once you’ve registered, you have to indicate your preferred mode of payment—usually, it’s a credit card. Ensure that you’re on a secure connection when giving out your credit card number. You will most likely not be on the secure portion of a merchant’s Website, until you begin entering your credit card information or logging in or changing your profile. So don’t expect every page on the site to be secure.

Once you’ve ordered, the site will send you a mail confirming the order. Now, it’s your turn to wait for the purchases to arrive.