Internet shopping guide - a guide for complete beginners

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The first step to internet shopping is to find a website that sells the goods you are looking for. If you have a specific online store in mind and you know the URL (the address of the website), then enter this into the location window of your browser (the program you use to look at the Internet).

So, for example, if you want to do your supermarket shopping and you usually shop at Tesco, type in the URL for the Tesco online shopping website (www.tesco.com).

If you do not know the address then you will have to use a search engine or portal. There are many different search engines but they all work in a similar way...you type in what you are looking for and they will point you in what they deem to be the best direction. Some manually view sites submitted to them before including them in their directory; others crawl the web, indexing web pages for reference. These turn up random results as they are not checked, but cover more websites.

The best way is to try out a few search engines and decide which one works best for you. Type in your search term, for instance Tesco supermarket shopping and see if the site you want turns up in the results. The more specific the search term, the more specific the results. If you want to search for a phrase then use quotation marks, for instance "Tesco supermarket" if you need the two words to appear next to each other.

If you want a range of goods and don't want to shop from a specific store, then try an online shopping mall or directory which has many different products across different brands and makes arranged by category.

Different sites work in different ways but should have instructions on what to do. Check what their returns policy is for non-perishable goods. Do they allow you to return items for free and who pays delivery in this case? Check how much delivery will be, and when the items can be delivered. Is VAT, or other taxes included?

Some sites will ask you to register online and then log in when you want to shop with them in the future. They will save your personal details such as delivery address and credit card details. Check the store's delivery policy, ie that they will not pass on this information to anyone else. It is considered reasonably safe and secure to pay by credit card online. At the end of the payment process, there should be a confirmation page which you can print out as a receipt, or they will email you a confirmation email. Keep any paperwork until you have received, and are satisfied with, the goods. If there will be no one at home to receive goods, consider asking for items to be delivered at work.

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