Christmas is coming, I was out last night enjoying the christmas lights and eating turkey with all the trimmings. Whilst all that feels a bit early in mid November you can be sure the retailers are ready and whatever is happening on the high street there is certainly another big uplift in online sales.
According to the IMRG christmas statement 27 million of us will shop online during the festive season and we will spend £13.8 billion!
Elsewhere I read that despite all the recent headlines about house price concerns and trouble in the financial markets spending to date this Christmas is up 7% on this time last year. Apparently consumers expect to spend on average £706 per person compared with £662 in 2006 so there is little sign of cutting back.
The fact that we are doing our christmas shopping online isn’t surprising when you think about it. Very few homes are not online now and so many of us are plugged into broadband so it’s just so much more convenient to sort out our christmas list at home on the web. In fact that’s exactly what I did this morning in the comfort of home rather than the battle in town.
How will you shop this christmas? If you’re looking for inspiration, try the gift ideas generator www.giftgen.co.uk
And take a look at IMRG’s top 10 safe online shopping tips;
1. All of your usual shopping rights apply online: see www.consumer.gov.uk
2. Know who you’re dealing with: get the seller’s landline phone number and postal address
3. Be aware of terms and conditions: check payment and delivery details
4. Keep records of what you order
5. EU Law protects you against fraudulent use of your payment card in EU transactions: credit cards give you extra protection
6. Only give your payment card details over a secure connection, and never by email: never disclose your PIN number to anyone, and never send it over the internet
7. You usually have at least 7 days to cancel an order and request a refund from an EU retailer
8. Check your payment card statement carefully: you have at least 90 days to report a suspect transaction
9. When you buy goods online from outside the EU you are an importer and may be liable to pay any Customs Duty and VAT and you should err on the side of caution as it may be difficult to seek redress if problems arise
10. If you have a problem, contact the seller then, if you need to, the payment company, local Trading Standards Office and any ‘trustmark’ organisation the seller is registered with
