Guide To Online Shopping

You can't get away from it. Companies are advertising online shopping in magazines, papers, on TV and radio -- even on other Internet sites! If you're interested in becoming one of the estimated 15 billion (almost double from last year) that will be enjoying the convenience of Web shopping this holiday season, here's a primer to help get you on your merry way.

Department Stores

You'll find all of your traditional brick and mortar department stores online as well. Macy's, Nordstroms, Sears, J.C. Penney and more all have a dot-com presence on the Web. The only difference is that they often have close-outs/overstocks sections or online only offers and coupons.

Discount Retailers

Target, Kmart and Wal-Mart will all be competing for your online holiday shopping dollars. According to The Industry Standard, this is the year for the established offline retailers who were criticized for missing out on the success of the Internet to make for stiff competition for the Internet shopping leaders, such as Amazon.com, eToys, CDNow and others. Target recently re-launched its site with 15,000 items and doubled its distribution capacity to accommodate an increase in business. As far as the nation's number one retailer, Wal-Mart.com was temporarily down while they redesigned their entire site. It was recently re-launched just in time for the holidays.

Adweek reports that Kmart has met with success by getting rid of the Kmart.com name and by also becoming an ISP provider, which although it is free, subjects its users to Bluelight.com ads. Bluelight.com will sell around 300,000 items, and many of these products will be available exclusively online. Look for new home goods lines from Martha Stewart.

Direct Mail Catalogs

Spiegel, Fingerhut, Harriet Carter, Lillian Vernon, and most all of the popular mail-order catalogs have found it an easy leap to go cyber. If you still prefer to mail order your merchandise, you can always order their catalogs from their sites. However, odds are you will find a better quantity and selection of products on their Web sites.

TV Shopping Sites

Even TV shopping has gone cyber. Check out Home Shopping Network online and QVC.

Retail Stores/Catalog Hybrids

L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Orvis, Lands' End, JCrew, Banana Republic and REI are all online with well-designed, user friendly Web sites for all your recreational and sporting clothing needs.

Toy Sites

Here's a list of direct site addresses of the most popular online toy shopping sites: eToys.com, SmarterKids.com, FAOSchwarz.com, ZanyBrainy.com, KBkids.com, Amazon.com, ToysRus.com, FamilyWonder.com, WalMart.com, J.C. Penney and Target.

Malls/Traditional Stores & Boutiques

There are a multitude of online "shopping malls." These sites are your best bets for finding both traditional mall stores that you'd find in your local mall as well as specialty stores and boutiques.

Mall.com offers mall stores such as Barnes & Noble, Victoria's Secret, SharperImage, Gap, Express and many more.

Shop4.com says they have 500,000 of the best products available at 10 to 60 percent off of Manufacturer's Suggested Retail on their site.

24Hour-Mall.com states that they were designed to make shopping easier on the Internet. They carefully select only family friendly quality stores to be included in their mall. Among many others, they have stores like FTD, Staples, Avon, eToys, and Hickory Farms.

2001Stores.com has an impressive listing of popular name brand stores. Shopnow.com is a shopping network and directory featuring over 60,000 merchants. For designer clothing fashions look no further than FashionMall.com. And finally, All-Internet.com is a shopping directory that offers listings and links to thousands of shopping sites and online shopping malls.

Search Engine Shopping Sites

Yahoo!, AltaVista, Excite, and Lycos all have their own shopping sites. Yahoo!'s is probable the biggest and best of its kind. AltaVista lets you comparison shop over 700 stores across the Web. Both Excite and Lycos have large category listings and product reviews.

MSN's Comparenet.com lets you search for items by price range and by merchant. And, of course, service provider AOL has their own shopping site.

Bargain Sites

Andy's Garage, Fingerhut, Redtagoutlet, Damark (you must become a member to shop), Heartland America, Service Merchandise, Overstock.com and Netmarket.com all offer a multitude of products at economical prices. Buy.com specializes in computers, CDs, DVDs and books "at guaranteed everyday low prices." For extra great deals on closeouts, visit their clearance section. Discount.com offers a comprehensive list and links to online discount stores.

Comparison Shopping Sites

Comparison shopping Web sites have smart search engines that seek out many online stores to find the lowest prices on the products you want to buy. Some people call these sites shopping bots, because the technology they use works like a robot that goes out and finds just what you want. How they work varies. Some sites will have a keyword search; others will have you select the shopping category (e.g., toys) and then search within that category.

BizRate.com offers super find-it comparison shops at hundreds of stores, organizes the results for you and shows you special offers. BizRate is well known for its non-biased consumer store ratings. Shop here, then rate your store experience!

Gomez.com helps you find the best e-commerce sites and rates online retailers as well as banks, insurance companies, pet stores and more. ActiveBuyersGuide.com call themselves "the ultimate consumer guide." They also provide comprehensive unbiased product recommendations with an automated decision guide to recommend the best products for you. MySimon.com says they are the largest comparison shopping site on the Web, with over 2,00 merchants in categories, such as computers, books, music, electronics, fashion, flowers, sporting goods, toys and more. DealTime.com has buying guides to help you learn what to buy and compares prices at thousands of stores.

Imandi.com, Respond.com and LiquidPrice.com offer a slightly different twist on the comparison shopping sites. You simply submit a product request with description and they send your request on to the appropriate sellers who compete for you business. The sellers will e-mail you with offers that you select from.

Rewards Programs: Shop & Earn At The Same Time

Rewards program sites are sites that offer you incentives for shopping with them. MyPoints.com lets you earn points for not only shopping online, but also for visiting Web sites. You can redeem your points for airline miles, dining, service and merchandise with partners like Barnes & Noble, Hilton Hotels, Macy's, Sprint and hundreds more.

24K.com lets you earn gold points that can be used either toward travel, entertainment, physical retail stores or online at more than 1,500 locations worldwide. CoolSavings.com offers electronic coupons, loyalty points, rebates, samples sales notices and much more. Cool Savings incentives can be redeemed at over 120 e-commerce or brick-and-mortar stores. WebMiles.com program is a free travel program that allows you to travel on any airline or flights with no blackout dates and no limited seating. You earn miles by shopping online with their retail partners, by using their Master Card, or by referring friends to the program.

Similarly, ClickMiles.com Click Rewards Program allows you to earn miles by shopping online with their extensive network of top sites, including CDNow, Barnes & Noble, Gap, Macy's and PlanexRX. Click Miles are redeemable for miles on 10 major airlines or for merchandise from their online rewards catalog.

Shop And Give Back At The Same Time

GreaterGood.com is a shopping portal where you can shop at over 100 leading online merchants, including Amazon.com, PriceLine, Nordstrom, Land's End, Dell, Office Max 1-800 Flowers and more. Up to 15 percent of every purchase you make goes to the charity you select for free. Choose any charity from Big Brothers to World Wildlife Fund. GreaterGood makes it easy and convenient to not only give gifts to loved ones this holiday season, but to those in need as well.

At Shopforschool.com you can support your school just by shopping online. Simply shop at the site's high quality stores with proven customer service records, and a percentage of each purchase you make (up to 25%) will be donated to the school of your choice. You pay nothing for this service. If your school is not on the site, you can register it online. They'll add it to the database and make sure your school receives its check. It's a "smart" new way to shop and make a difference.

Specific Holiday Gift Shopping Sites

Santa.com offers you everything for the holidays you can think of, shopping, decorating, cards, holiday activities, cooking and entertaining, you name it!

Women.com has a shopping gift guide with a lot of big name stores. Fingerhut.com has been completely redesigned just for the holidays. Use their extensive Gift Giving Guide or buy everything you need to decorate, cook and enjoy the holidays yourself. IVillage.com not only has great shopping but planning advice and lots of helpful holiday tips, from finding this year's most popular toys, planning a budget, and returning gifts to keeping your New Year's resolutions.

Surprise.com offers some of the very best gift ideas on the Web. However, here's the difference -- they're not trying to sell you anything! They're not a store, but are a gift guide created by real people who have submitted gift ideas. The winning ideas are posted on the site. Choose the gift recipient, the occasion and a personality trait to help you find the most appropriate gift.

PresentPicker.com is a store that sells products, but they also offer a complete gift search decision guide. The sites states that the best results are usually obtained by selecting between 15 and 30 values across six categories! They say they also carefully evaluate each of their stores for trustworthiness.

Gift Certificates

For those on your list that are hard to buy for, there's always gift certificates that let your recipient pick exactly what they want. GiftCertificates.com lets you buy gift certificates to over 500 popular merchants such as Macy's, Gap, Sam Goody, Crate & Barrel, Marriott Hotels, AT&T, Museum Company, JCrew and many more.

DirectCertificates.com offers gift certificates for, among others, Orvis, Red Lobster, Wine.com, or if you're not sure what to pick, they offer a Direct Gift, which is a certificate to all of their merchants. WebCertificate.com is the only gift certificate that lets you shop anywhere online. These certificates are only for online shopping, not for physical stores, service or restaurants. You select the design, create the certificate and send it instantly.

Flooz.com offers a new twist on gift certificates. Flooz.com is online currency that you send by e-mail to your recipient. It is just like money and your recipient can use their Flooz.com to buy from their online stores.

If you haven't found what you're looking for in this article, you can always search for particular stores or products with any search engine. In fact, there are sites out there that allow you to search multiple search engines at the same time. For a list of these sites, visit here.

Lastly, don't forget to check out this site's online shopping section.