Safe and Secure Online Shopping for Christmas Gift Baskets and Flowers

There’s no doubt about it, shopping on line has become the way to go, especially around the Christmas holidays. Most of us prefer the ease and calm of selecting our gifts in the comfort of our own home, foregoing both the maddening crowds and the line at the post office or UPS. A good example; Shopping for Christmas Gift Baskets and flowers. Leaving the details to the retailer gives us more time to enjoy the holiday and the closeness of family and friends. In 2008, online retailers pulled in approximately $27 billion in the United States alone. Interviewed just as the season’s shopping got underway, fully 75% of survey respondents said they intended to do at least some of their Christmas shopping on line.

Not surprisingly, one of the most popular on-line gifting is happening on the Christmas Gift Basket and Christmas Flower scene. No longer simply a bastion of ordinary floral arrangements or cut bouquets, many online retailers offer Christmas Gift Baskets featuring gourmet chocolate, wines, coffees, champagne, spa products and even whole hams or turkeys. Christmas Flowers, wreaths and centerpieces are also offered with personalized accents.

Prices for these baskets range from the very affordable (something increasingly important in slow economic times) to the extravagant, so you’re sure to find something you like. When deciding which to choose, consider the recipient, of course; the container in which the gift will be housed (it’s much better if the recipient will use it again and again, even after the holidays are over); the amount of true contents in each Christmas Gift Basket versus packaging materials; and the dependability and reputation of the seller.

Understandably, some people are rather nervous when it comes to shopping on the Internet. Online shopping, however, is now a far safer purchasing method for the consumer than doing so the traditional way, at a local store or the mall. Because the Internet eliminates the personal handling of your private credit card, debit card or check information, it also protects you from easy identity theft. When an individual processes your information in the store, it is much easier, for example, for an unscrupulous worker to retrieve and record your information from the carbon copy of your charge in the waste basket.

That said, there are some guidelines the savvy online shopper should observe whenever making a purchase on the Internet.

Make sure that the website from which you plan to purchase is secure. An icon will usually appear near the Privacy and Fraud policies link. You can also enter “https” instead of “http” at the beginning of the web address. If the website is not secure, a message indicating this will appear. Secure websites encrypt all the information you enter, so it cannot be obtained by anyone other than the person for which it is intended.

It is best to shop online with companies whose reputation is already solid, one that you know. If you find a website offering a product at a good price, but you’re not sure of its reputation, you can check them out with the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Reports, Trust-E, or WebAssured. You can also enter the company name on a search engine such as Google. Reports from other consumers like yourself can be obtained here.

Be careful to select a password that has an unpredictable combination of letters, numbers and symbols. If at all possible, pay with a credit card. Thanks to the Fair Credit Billing Act, purchases by credit card can be disputed if need be. Payments by check or debit card cannot.