Why in the world would you shop online? -- actually, there are three good reasons. One, convenience. Two, selection (you can usually find exactly what you want). And three, and probably the most important, bargains. You can find incredible bargains online and over time save yourself a lot of money.



But of course there's a catch, a small one. To get the most our of online shopping, you need to do some preliminary research to find the online bargain shopping sites that offer the best quality, the best service, and the best bargains. I've done some of that research for you and I hope it will save you some time and aggravation. The results follow.

A Few Preliminaries Considerations

You're probably aware that Internet bargain shopping is relatively safe. Nothing, of course, is completely safe anymore -- even eating out at your favorite restaurant entails a slight risk that somebody will steal your credit card number. But if you deal with a reputable Internet shopping site, you're about as safe as you would be using your credit card in a bricks-and-mortar retail store.

There are some important rules to keep in mind, however:

First, you should never enter your credit card number in a web site except to purchase something.

And should you have any doubts about a website, move on. Trust your instincts. Naturally, you can also check with sites like the Better Business Bureau, ScamBusters, Complaints.com., the National Fraud Information Center, and BizRate.

It's best to always pay by credit card, because then you're protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act and can get your money back. But make sure the shopping site's order form is secure. (Look for a little lock icon in the lower part of your web browser window.) You should never shop or place orders from pop-up windows or email spam.

Keep accurate records of your online transactions. Print out the email confirmation and if possible also print out the final checkout page from the merchant's web site.

Research Your Purchases

Would you buy a car without checking it out on Consumer Reports to see if it's reliable? You shouldn't. Since that information is easily available, why not use it?

The same is true of virtually any other big ticket item you may think of purchasing. There are now innumerable web sites which provide solid data and reviews on nearly anything you may want to buy. The best are: Epinions, ConsumerReports, ConsumerREVIEW, and ConsumerSearch.

As you probably know, Amazon, once only a bookseller, now sells just about everything, and just about all pages on the site now contain product or editorial reviews of the products for sale.

Another thing to worry about is getting a good price. For this I suggest that you use one or more price-comparison sites. These sites enable you to enter a product's name and then scan many Web retailers to see who's charging what. The most comprehensive, in my opinion, are Yahoo (go to shopping.yahoo.com), BizRate, PriceGrabber, Froogle, and Shopping.com.

Unfortunately, there are no sites out there which compare the price comparison sites, but if you want to pick just one site, I suggest Froogle, owned of course by Google. The reason is simply that Froogle is known as one of the more objective of these sites -- it doesn't charge the manufacturers for listings like some do.

Online Bargains: How to Find Them

There are quite a few ways to go about bargain hunting on the Internet. For example, you can search for coupons, rebates, used merchandise, discounted or clearance merchandise, or merchandise sold by wholesalers.

Rebates are one good strategy. The idea is simply that you buy a product, submit a claim, and get some money back. Rebates are available online for just about everything, but how do you find them? Start with rebatesHQ. Just enter the product (or manufacturer) and a list of available rebates will appear. Then click for more info on whatever interests you. Two additional good sources are MyRebates and RebateCatcher.

What about coupons? You don't usually get actual coupons online, instead you get coupon codes. Then you just enter the code when you fill out the online retailer's order form to receive your discount. To learn about coupon deals, go to MyCoupons or to any of the following sites: eSmarts,

Bargain-Central, RefundSweepers, and SpecialOffers.

A Word About Internet Malls

If you're a serious Web shopper you probably already know about the online malls. A lot of people don't. The big advantage of online malls is that you can scan the merchandise offerings of many merchants at once for a particular item. Try doing that in person at your local shopping mall!

There are two types, namely general interest malls and specialty malls. The former has the advantage that you can group purchases from several stores, entering your purchases on a single shopping-cart order form. To get acquainted with this efficient way of shopping online, visit WebSquare.. SkyMall, or InternetMall.

Specialty malls bring together merchants that offer similar products or that appeal to niche markets. Use Google to find specialty malls offering products you're most interested in. A few examples are WiredSeniors, JewelryMall, and CraftIreland.

Overstock and Wholesale Websites

Wholesale and overstock shopping sites are where you can really save some money.

These websites offer new or refurbished products that for various reasons manufacturers are trying to move fast. Often these are perfectly good products but the manufacturer has overstocked them or maybe decided to supplant them with newer designs or other types of merchandise. Whatever the reason, the seller wants them to get rid of them to make room for other products.

First, overstocked items. There are two ways to buy overstocked items, in bulk or as single items. Obviously you can save more if you buy in bulk but you may not need a hundred toasters or microwaves or watches. Then again, if you're an eBay entrepreneur, bulk overstocked items (also called bulk liquidation opportunities) may be a good source of merchandise for you.

For bulk liquidation opportunities, I suggest these sites as a basis for exploring this type of buying, though there are of course others: Closeouts, AmeriSurplus, and Liquidation.com (the largest).

Incidentally, if you purchase from a bulk liquidator, be sure you know the terms and the brand you're getting -- bulk liquidators often sell off-brand merchandise. You should know exactly what you're getting and how much it will cost you, including shipping.

Most likely, though, you're interested in buying just one item at a time. There's definitely some online bargain shopping to be had. Try Overstock, Closeouts and SmartBargains,. For more upscale merchandise closeouts, go to LuxuryBrandsllc.

Finally, what about buying wholesale? This allows you to bypass the retailers and purchase straight from the wholesalers. Of course, most wholesalers don't sell to the public, only to retail outlets, because they sell in large lots, not individual items. A few do, however, and in these cases, prices are rock bottom. To explore this option I suggest you visit a directory of wholesale distributors. This type of directory lists sites that offer specialized wholesalers like CKBProducts (luggage and sporting goods) and ShirtDistributor (which specializes in shirts of all kinds). The major wholesale directories are: Wholesale Central, Buylink, and WholesalersCatalog.