Shop the Web: A Practical Guide to Buying Technology Products Online

Posted April 1, 2007 By Mike Wisian |

Let’s say you have a PC at your office that proudly wears a “designed for Windows 98” badge and its only feature is that it accepts two types of floppy disks.  Assuming you’re not going to load up Oregon Trail any time soon, it’s time for an upgrade.  So what do you do? Take a trip to the nearest electronics megastore and try to convince with the guy in the computer department that you don’t need to add the 3 year extended warranty for the “low” price of $500? Or do you shop online?

Purchasing computer/electronic products online has its advantages:

  1. It’s cheaper – There are many vendors all competing for your business. This translates to lower prices than many of the retail stores.
  2. Bargain finding is much easier – You don’t have look at local newspaper ads and drive around town to compare prices. There are many deal-finding services online that make it easy to locate the best prices in just a few minutes.
  3. No more dealing with sales reps – Sales representatives have product knowledge and can help you find what you need, but they are also there to convince you to buy before you get a chance to shop around.  Buying online separates you from this pressure so you can take as long as you like to make an informed decision.
  4. The product is delivered to your door – Don’t hassle with going to the store to pick up your purchase when it could be shipped right to you.  Most of the major online stores have inexpensive or free shipping options to entice buyers to go the online route.
  5. Get feedback – Many online retailers offer user reviews for each product.  Also, the web offers countless Web sites dedicated to reviewing technology-based products. Find out what others are saying about the product before you buy.

Okay, so hopefully you’re convinced at this point that buying online is a wise decision for your business.  Where do you go next? The first step is finding out exactly what you are looking for.  If you already know what you want, that’s great! Just move on to the next step.  Otherwise, you’ll probably want to do some research and find the best brand and model to get for the features you want and the price range you have. The best way to do this is to browse online product review sites.  Resources such as CNET.com offer research, reviews, and end-user testimonials on various technology-related products – all free to the consumer.

Here’s a list of some of the popular product review sites:

Now that you’ve narrowed down that list and armed yourself with product knowledge, it’s time to find that deal. Noting the brands and model numbers of the products you’re interested in, visit some of the following sites that will find the best prices the web can offer:

Now you’ve found a juicy deal, but before you purchase from that low price retailer, make sure you’ve checked them out.  Are they reliable? Do they have a good return policy? How quick is the shipping?  Most good online stores have a store policy section that informs the customer what type of service they should expect. It should cover topics such as return policies and shipping information.  If a store doesn’t have this information you should probably take your business elsewhere. There are also some good sites that allow users to rate merchants based on their experiences. Some of my favorites are Reseller Ratings and Epinions.com. However, many of the deal finding sites that I listed above will have a merchant review section.

After years of buying for TradeMark, I’ve found that there are some online stores that I can always trust.  For me, it’s not just about low price, but in total customer experience.  Some of the qualities I look for in an online store are:

Now that you’ve done your research, you can click that “checkout” button with confidence!

TradeMark approved online merchants:

« Return to current issue

Let's get the discussion going. Please comment on this article.

About the Author

Mike Wisian is TradeMark Media's Technology Director. He uses his XHTML, CSS and programming skills to create Web sites and rich Internet applications.

Learn More about Mike »

Leave a Comment