Wish List

The continued success of e-commerce according to experts is as a result of consumers engaging in online shopping and use of online wish list which offer a safe online shopping experience, who then share those positive experiences with friends and family.

According to industry expert Michael Norton, who works for PayPoint, customer feedback is much more likely to influence others to use a particular online retailer rather than traditional marketing methods.

Mr. Norton added that online retailers need to balance the need for robust security against the convenience demanded by an online shopper. Fraud preventions through the collection of all relevant details from the customer every time they approach checkout is one example of this conflict of interest.

Consumer trust however migrates via osmosis from one individual to the next, with satisfied customers much more likely to recommend sites and services to the people around them, which in turn generates much more business for a particular company, since it instils trust through proxy.

Online fraud continues to remain a major problem in Britain, though over the last two years, there has been a decline in the number of cases that have been reported. Recently it was reported that consumers may be in for tough times as cyber criminals step up their efforts to make their moolah.

By 2015 it is anticipated that online fraud will cost the UK economy around £200 million, which is an 18 per cent increase compared to the current annual figures.

Nearly £500 million worth of clothes bought online that are part of people’s online wish list are sent back every year, because consumers tend to hedge their choices by buying multiple sizes of each item.

As many as two thirds of online shoppers say they find the lack of standardization in sizing across retailers baffling, and that this means they usually order a couple of sizes of each item every time they purchase something online, with nearly one in ten admitting they bought three sizes.

High Street sizes vary wildly and this causes the trend of ‘buying before you try’ which is responsible for nearly a third of all returns online, and costs a combined half a billion quid.

Wildly varying high street sizes are blamed for ‘buying before you try’, responsible for almost a third of online returns, and worth a combined £500million.

According to a recent study of 12 retailers who sell women’s garments, discrepancies of as much as 3 inches exist. H&M garments, whilst New Look clothing were as much as three inches larger across some sizes.

This follows last month’s survey in the Daily Mail which found high street brands varied clothing by up to five inches to flatter overweight women.

The average person spends £25 a year on wasted shipping fees after returning unwanted extra sizes, at a total cost of £19million. And 351,000 people never get around to returning the extra sizes, with £5.6million worth of unworn clothing languishing in their wardrobes.

The BBC reckons that online shopping, and gift wish list could be transformed as a new phenomena takes hold which it calls “social shopping”

According to the Beeb, the trend of social shopping could burst the myth that online shopping will never be as much fun as brick and mortar shopping.

The trend included a number of ideas that are primarily centred around social networks, making use of search engine results that themselves are based on friend recommendations.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are creating online communities of customers and retailers, all exchanging information.

“There is a ton of data that people share about themselves that the retailer can use to make more relevant offers. It is far more a personalisation tactic than about getting or retaining customers,” Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said.

A new study conducted by researchers at London’s Kingston University which was recently published in the European Journal of Marketing, analysing the spending habits of online grocery shoppers, suggests that individuals who make the switch from visiting physical stores to digital stores, often do so only temporarily.

Online supermarkets such as Ocado, or the digital store fronts of traditional chains such as ASDA Grocery Online or Tesco are considered amongst the sophisticated online supermarkets in the world, and have clocked up impressive sales growth over the last few years.

For people who work long or irregular hours, the online grocery shopping option comes as a boon. The researchers however say that most people who choose to do their grocery shopping online do so because of specific lifestyle triggers.

These triggers can be anything from the birth of a child or the breaking of a leg, or moving to a new area. However the switch to digital seems to be temporary according to the results of the study, as personal situations tend to change.

Delivery wait times and substitutions of products that are out of stock, over time begin to weigh more heavily on the consumer. The study’s result suggest even the most committed internet shoppers rarely ever completely abandon brick and mortar, with many finding themselves in supermarket aisles.

“When someone starts buying books or music online they don’t normally stop and go back to bookshops or CD sellers but that’s exactly what is happening with many online grocery shoppers,” said Dr Chris Hand, one of the researchers.

The researchers say the online supermarket offerings could try different methods of tying their customers down by adapting their business models, i.e. opting for a monthly subscription fee instead of charging for delivery, or making some special offers online discount coupons only.

If you are one of those people who do a lot of grocery shopping online, then you should think about setting up a online wish list using a tool like boxedup.com. boxed up is free of cost and lets you save any item you see online to your wish list using a single click, and offers a quick and easy way to access to all items on your online wish list

According to new research by consulting firm IMRG Capgemini, consumers in the UK spent more cash shopping safely in May this year than they did in May last year, which according to the results of the survey, equates to a year on year increase of 18 per cent.

UK shoppers shelled out approximately £5.3 billion online during May, which is 2 per cent more than they spent during March. The big difference between March and May however, is that during May, shoppers spent money buying cheaper items in greater quantities than they actually did on expensive items.

According to the research firm, shoppers in Britain during the current year have spent just under £26 billion online.

During the month of May, consumers were using the internet or purchase cheaper fashion items, and alcohol, as they sought to moderate the impact of rising prices on the high street.

Alcohol sales have risen by a whopping 25 per cent year on year. A similar increase in sales of clothing and accessories was reported as part of the latest e-Retail Sales Index report.

e-commerce analysts believe that should the trend continue, it strongly suggests that consumers in Britain were increasingly abandoning the high street in favour of the internet, which more often than not provides a better prices coupled with more convenience.

Of course many well known high street chains have made inroads into the world of online shopping and so those who are benefitting most are multichannel retailers.

If you are and online shopping fiend, how about using an online wish list on a tool like boxedup.com. The account is completely free of cost, and a very convenient way to window shop online. When you see something you like that you can’t buy immediately for whatever reason, you can save it to your online wish list with a single click.

A study of UK internet shoppers who use online wish list and engage in safe online shopping has found that of all the large internet shopping sites, Amazon is the most trusted and regularly used site, drawing more praise than any of its nearest rivals.

Approximately 3000 shoppers were polled as part of a survey commissioned by Verdict Research, the results of which say that nearly 20 per cent of all e-commerce transactions carried out by consumers over the internet were on Amazon.

eBay, the online auction site came in a distant second capturing 7.6 per cent market share, just ahead of Tesco which holds a 5.8 per cent share of all UK e-commerce transaction.

Matt Piner, a spokesperson for Verdict said that Amazon is miles ahead of its nearest rivals when it comes to attracting new customers who regularly purchase smaller products such as books music and video games.

This is the second survey of its kind in the same number of weeks which suggests that safe online shopping is becoming increasingly competitive with a battle for market share between well know high street retailers intensifying. Many are leveraging their reputations to capture customers who may have previously visited the physical stores, but now prefer the convenience of e-commerce.

If love online shopping, why not use an online wish list tool like boxedup.com. The account is free, and its a very convenient way to window shop online, and when you see something you like, but can’t buy immediately for whatever reason, you can save it to your wish list with a single click.

Despite pessimism over the state of the UK economy, online retailing in the country continues to grow the BBC reports, citing the results of a study conducted by Verdict Research.

According to the results of the survey, total online spending by Britons in 2010 rose by a whopping 35 per cent to £14.7 billion. The growth rate – the fastest in six years – is about 10 times that of the UK’s retail market as whole.

For those of you who love to do online shopping, why not use an online wishlist tool like boxedup.com. Setting up an account is free, and its a really convenient way to window shop on the internet, and when you see something you like, but can’t buy immediately for whatever reason, you can save it to your wishlist with a single click. All your items appear as part of list with links for easy access to the page on the retailer site you saw the product. What is even better is you can share your online wish list with family and friends, ensuring you never receive the same gift twice, or get those pair of socks you will never use.

A new research report suggests that consumers have begun using online comparison sites and wish lists for their internet shopping, and regard the former more useful than even search engines, online marketplaces, and retailer websites, when it comes to shopping on the internet.

Getprice a comparison shopping website released its Shopping report for 2011 which polled 3,000 consumers who visit its site on their online shopping habits and behaviour.

The survey results suggest that 99 per cent of consumers shop online an 96 per cent research their purchases online. One in six engage in their research or shopping online at least once a day, and just under half of respondents accessed the internet using mobile devices.

Many users who access the internet through their mobile devices do so for social media purposes, and very few use social media to interact with brands.

Separately online wish list tools such as boxedup.com are becoming increasingly popular with online shoppers doing window shopping on unsecured computers. Online wish lists enable users to browse a product and save it to a list with the click of a mouse, with all its details and location included. This means people can either purchase the item at a later date, from a secure computer, or share their list with friends and family, ensuring that they never again receive a gift they do not want, or indeed receive the same gift from two different people.

If you haven’t already set up your account today, it’s completely free of charge.

Over the holiday season, including Christmas and Boxing day, a whopping 86 per cent of British consumers logged on to the internet, representing an increase of 10 per cent from the previous year.

The data from market research firm eDigitalResearch also suggests that 22 per cent of all internet users accessed the internet using their smart phones which largely confirms the trend of continued migration to the mobile internet and the increasing importance of mobile commerce as the behaviour of consumers continues to evolve.

30 per cent of those online engaged in shopping online during Boxing Day as a result of poor weather conditions and Sunday trading regulations. 62 per cent of online shoppers used the two days to find items on sale or at discounted prices and a fifth of all consumers polled said they intended to spend more in the after Christmas sales in the lead up to the New Year, given the impending rise in VAT.

The safest way to shop online is to do so at home on a secure internet connection, rather than from a public internet connection such as coffee shop Wi-Fi or from work. If you are out an about, and are doing some browsing for gift buying, the easiest thing you can do is set up an online wish list on a tool like boxedup.com, where with a single click you can save the item along with all its details including where you found it to a list, which can be used to purchase those items when you get back home and are in a safer environment.

Not only that, but wish lists can be shared with family and friends, so once you have set up an account with boxedup.com, you can set up personal lists of items that you would like to receive as gifts, ensuring that you never again receive a gift that is of little use. More importantly with the reservation function of the tool, your friends and family can easily see who has committed to buying you a specific item on your list, preventing them from duplicating the effort and wasting money. All in all it’s a neat way to organize your internet shopping, either for yourself, or for others, and allows you to do your online shopping in a safe way.

More Britons are shopping online than ever before, and online shopping tends to be at its greatest during the holiday season, which means on the information super highway it gets increasingly crowded and dangerous.

For those of you surfing the web for your holiday shopping, then here are five scams to watch out for.

1. Phony iPad Offers Scams have begun appearing which beseech consumers to purchase items using their credit cards, and receive a free iPad for their efforts. Of course victims of this scam never receive the promised iPad or even the item they agreed to buy, and end up having to report stolen credit card details to their card issuer. There is even a Facebook version of the scam which asks people to answer questions in a quiz in return for a free iPad, and provide their mobile phone number for the privilege. Instead victims find themselves signed up to a mobile phone service which costs them £10 a week.

2. The “Help! I’ve Been Robbed” Scam This is a scam that has emerged recently where fake distress messages to an individual’s family and friends. Criminals hack e-mail accounts and then send the phony message to the victims entire contact list, asking recipients to transfer money so that the person can get home.

3. Fake Gift Cards. Many cyber criminals have started using social networks to offer fake gift cards, with the sole intention of stealing information and money of hapless consumers. The information collected is then sold onto marketers or worse still used for identity theft.

4. Holiday Job Offers People who are in need of additional funds for their Christmas shopping are most vulnerable to the Twitter scam, where dangerous links are posted for allegedly high paying work from home job that require the victim to provide personal information in order to apply which can be used by criminals to hijack the victims identity.

5. Smishing This is perhaps the latest technique employed by fraudsters to extract information. The criminals send phishing text messages that seemingly originate from your bank or an online retailer which suggests that there are problems with your account, and request you to contact them to verify your information on a fake phone number. What ends up happening is victims of the scam end up handing over valuable personal information to the criminals who then use that information to steal.