When it comes to Christmas shopping, many of us approach this annual chore with dread. There is all the stress and strain of trying to find an convenient gift for relatives and friends plus the hassle of the shopping itself. No wonder that online, internet shopping has seen such growth in the last few years.

However, shopping online can be fraught with problems, as an experience online retailer we have compiled our ten top tips to help internet shoppers avoid some of the pitfalls and hopefully help guarantee shoppers a hassle free Christmas shopping experience.

1. Start Early

The best way to avoid any last minute rush to purchase gifts is to start thinking about your gift ideas as early as possible. Most diaries and other note books have a couple of pages at the back of them for notes and other such items. Reserve a page in your diary for writing down Christmas gift ideas. A double page spread is best. Simply write the name of the person on the left-hand page and on the right-hand side make a note of any possible gift ideas and suggestions that may come up. Always leave a space at the bottom as you may want to add new people to your gift list, remember colleagues at work and have you accounted for all your nieces and nephews?

2. Take Time to Listen and Observe

You have at least 365 days a year to consider potential Christmas gifts. Listen out to what a loved one might say, have they commented about something they saw in a magazine, did you over hear them saying how much they enjoyed reading a book by a certain author, did they mention a TV series that they liked in conversation? All good grist to the mill, when it comes for searching for gift ideas. Books, DVDs and such like can all be purchased online. Don’t forget to write down these potential gift ideas on your special Christmas list diary page.

3. Ask parents about Children’s Gift Ideas

Abstain getting the wrong thing at Christmas for fickle children by having a quite word with their parents, before hand. You can learn from them what to buy and what to avoid, especially helpful when looking for clothing or educational toys. You would not want to give the child something that the parents might object to. This can always be a reciprocal arrangement and one that can reduce the hassle factor for both sets of parents. You may also agree a budget for the gift purchases.

4. Split your Shopping Up into Online and High Street

Conscious Christmas shoppers split their Christmas gift shopping list into two distinct categories, those items that can be purchased online and those that could be purchased from the High Street. Usually Christmas presents can be bought via either medium, if you start early enough you can find the items are interchangeable. Nevertheless, items like books and toys may be purchased online more conveniently, especially if there is a danger of a especially popular Christmas gift item becoming out of stock on the high street.

5. Online shopping at Night – Hide from the Kids

One of the benefits of Christmas shopping online, particularly when you have young children of your own is to do your shopping online in the evening. Your kids can be safely tucked up in bed whilst you surf away to your heart’s content looking for Christmas presents. Also, if you are permitted to do so at work and you have a pc, it can be helpful to have a quick look in your lunch hour. No chance of you being caught out by your partner if you surf when they are not around. Do notbe tempted to purchase online whilst at work, your server may be Internet Explorer Six or older and this internet package can have problems coping with more modern online shopping facilities.

6. Choose a Reputable Retailer

Unfortunately it is all to easy to get caught out when shopping online. Ask family and friends to recommend sites that they have used and try to find out a little about the company you wish to buy from before you start parting with your credit/debit card details. Have you heard of the company?

Clues that can give you purchasing confidence:

(a) Can you contact the company, not just by email but are business address and telephone numbers provided?

(b) Is there a customer service helpline, not just a “contact us email”, but can you talk to a real person?

(c) What security is offered for purchasing online, how secure is the website?

(d) Are customer testimonials provided and are they genuinely from previous customers?

7. Contact the Company Before you Buy

Try contacting the company before you make a purchase. This is always handy if you want to check the suitability of a product, if a phone number is provided, try a quick telephone call, if not email the company, monitor the time for a response to come back to you. How helpful and knowledgeable was the reply?

8. Beware the “Stocking Monster”

Unfortunately many companies are interested in getting your cash rather than fulfilling your order. As a result, items are shown online and made available for purchase, even though they may not actually be in stock. Keep a couple of addresses of websites you want to purchase from handy in your notebook, does the site change over a few days, are new products added? These are all clues to whether the company is very active in managing its stock and inventory. You can always enquire about a product and request that they reserve one for you, chances are if it is a reputable company they will do this for you, without any fuss.Do not add the websites to your “favourites” as this is a sure fire giveaway to anyone else using your home pc. You don’t want to spoil the surprise.

9. Use the Blogosphere

One way to check on the reputation of a company and how hard they work is to to check out any blog sites, there may be adverse comments about them on a blog and a quick check on Google blogs, can reveal all sorts of information. You may also use blogs to research product reviews, these can provide a variety of useful insight and advice such as product reviews, user comments etc. Also, if the online shop has a blog, take the time and trouble to visit it. A blog can usually tell you a lot about a company and their attitude. Is the blog frequently updated, does it contain a variety of articles? A company blog that has not got any fresh articles for 6 months or more, should be avoided. After all, if they can’t be bothered to update their blog, how reliable are they going to be when despatching your present?

10. Check Postage Terms and Dates

After your research and careful product selection it would be such a shame to order an item only for it not to turn up in time for Christmas. Check the company’s delivery terms and conditions. How quickly for example, do they despatch goods? If you want something for Christmas the golden rule when shopping via the internet is to shop early and buy early. Christmas means that postal services are stretched and last day postal service announcements are there to act as a ready reckoner to help avoid disappointment. Do not forget, just because a website has a dot.com address it does not mean that it is based in the United States. Not knowing the country from which the item is being despatched can lead to serious misconceptions about posting and delivery times.

I hope these ten simple tips will help online shoppers enjoy a hassle free and straightforward shopping experience.

WebShoppingBag.com: Worldwide Online Shopping for Computers, Electronics, Apparel, Books, DVDs & more. Check out our top Christmas deals today!