Retailers have officially closed the book on Black Friday. Now it’s on to “Cyber Monday.” “Cyber Monday”… you’ve never heard of it? The Monday after Thanksgiving, is also known as “Cyber Monday,” one of the year’s biggest online holiday shopping days, as people return to work and shop online using their office computers.
The theory is that most holiday shoppers spend the weekend hitting the malls and other major retailers to shop for door buster items and to see what else is available. Then they ask the question: “I wonder if I can do better?” To get the answer they search the Internet.
I must confess I did brave the Black Friday crowds for one single item. No, it wasn’t a plasma TV, or a digital camera, or a laptop computer, or even a TMX Elmo. I braved the masses for a simple Crayola Arts-and-Crafts Center from Toys R Us (my 2-year-old has wanted it for about a month now). The price was slashed from $25 to $9.99 (every penny counts, right). And, no, I didn’t get up at 2:30 a.m. to stand in line for it, I got there closer to 8 a.m. picked it up (they had zillions of them—I really could have probably waited until Sunday afternoon to pick one up) and then was sentenced to stand in the check out line for 35 minutes… for one item that I saved $15 on (actually, I also picked up a Fisher-Price doctor’s kit that was on sale for $4.99, down from $12.99) but, I digress. Back to Cyber Monday.
If you plan to take part in the Cyber Monday deals your best bet is to visit a site like shopzilla or gottadeal.com. Those sites do the shopping for you. It scans 35 million products, over 80,000 retailers, including ones you haven’t heard of. Then you get a list from lowest price on up.
However, shopping online does come with some risks. If you log onto to one of the aforementioned sites and are suspect about the retailers that appear on your list you can go to the Better Business Bureau and search for “fraudulent shopping sites.”
Another tip: To be certain you are shopping on a secure website, check the address bar on your Internet browser. When you go to the top and you are actually making the transaction in the browser box, the box at the top, you will literally see a change from “http” to “https” as in “secure.”
Also, pay with a credit card, because according to experts the way a card’s encryption is transmitted online is “tremendously secure” and is unlikely to get decoded online.
Finally, beware of sites that over-promise on shipping. They may say “free shipping,” but when you total the order, the offer is applied to some but not all of the items. Also be careful about the “guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas” promise. A company may promise free shipping until a certain date (say December 21st), if you place an order after that date and they have to use FedEx, you can bet you will be charged for it.