"Goods I Bought Online were Confiscated by the Police!"

Online shopping has grown in popularity over recent years, as consumers have become familiar and in many respects dependent on the convenience and simplicity of buying goods over the internet. At Christmas, the urge to buy gifts online is encouraged by discount prices and fast delivery options, whilst the current winter cold snap has also driven many people away from the high street to the relative warmth and comfort of their computers. However, shopping online continues to pose a significant risk to consumers in a number of ways. Credit card theft and rogue traders are among the most pressing concerns, which is why some consumers have failed to take to internet shopping as many others have done so. The decision of these apparent Luddites is occasionally vindicated when major online retailers are compromised by hackers, but by far the most worrying aspect of shopping online is whether the retailers themselves can be trusted.

A friend of mine bought his wife some Ugg boots before Christmas.  They were her main present, so he was extremely disappointed when they didn't arrive in time for Christmas.  He couldn't get in touch with the retailer at all, and was starting to get worried when a letter form the police arrived.  It told him that the goods he had bought were couterfeit, and they had been destroyed.  And there was no chance of a refund.

As we now inow, police in the UK carried out the biggest operation of its kind in order to crack down on rogue online traders. In total, the Metropolitan Police shut down 1,219 websites that were either fake, fraudulent or dealt with counterfeit goods. In many cases, customers who had purchased products from the rogue websites either received nothing at all or had their credit card details stolen, whilst the more unfortunate consumers experienced both. The Metropolitan Police decided to close down the sites at the start of what is traditionally seen as the busiest shopping period of the year, just a few weeks ahead of Christmas.

Working with Nominet, which is the organisation responsible for issuing and managing domain names in the UK, many illegal websites were closed down that were actually based in foreign territories. In particular, networks of criminal gangs in Asia and Russia, who are estimated to generate millions of pounds from fraudulent websites in the run-up to Christmas, were thought to be behind many of the websites closed down by police. As such, tracing and apprehending those in control of such websites is anything but straightforward, so consumers who have lost out to them must rely on their credit card providers for refunds; although, as most victims of credit card fraud and rogue online trading will testify, the route to redress is far from uncomplicated.

The Metropolitan Police's e-crime unit shut down domains such as Australiaugg4shop.co.uk, hotlinksshop.co.uk and etiffany-shop.co.uk, which hardly have the appearance of respectable traders but were evidently convincing enough to fool many shoppers. It is always important to note that, before buying from a website, its security and authenticity ought to be clearly demonstrated. In this respect, only those sites that offer secure transactions (SSL), clear returns policies and customer contact details should be used..

Among the 1,219 fraudulent websites closed down by the Metropolitan Police, more than 400 advertised the popular and fashionable Ugg boots. However, in many cases the boots on offer were counterfeit items, whilst other sites simply lured customers in with too-good-to-be-true discounts without ever supplying the boots (genuine or otherwise). In fact, during the past 12 months, customs officers have seized around 20,000 pairs of counterfeit Ugg boots and, with the January sales approaching, this figure is expected to rise substantially.

I asked my friend if he'd found the site on Shopsafe.  Of course, I already knew the answer, so when he said he hadn't, I reminded him to make Shopsafe.co.uk his starting point for online shopping.

Valentines Day Newsletter

We sent out our Valentines Day newsletter this morning, with gift ideas, offers and voucher codes. If you're not receiving it, make sure you register, and you won't miss out.

Which Online Shops Have Benefited From The Cold Weather?

High street retailers and supermarkets have been hard hit by the recent cold weather with fewer people venturing into town centres and retail parks, preferring instead to pop out to the local corner shop for essentials. Some smaller high street retailers have even had to close for short periods, partly because of customers staying at home and partly because of branches having to close due to staff absences. John Lewis reported a drop in high street sales of 30% during the week ending 9th January this year. In the same week their online sales increased 56%! Tesco Direct reported a 50% increase in the six week period to 9th January with online sales growth of almost 20%.

Some online shops, or etailers, have admitted that in spite of overall record sales in recent weeks they did experience a drop in sales during the worst of the weather. Tesco.com reported a drop of 0.5% over a six week period and Ocado experienced a 5% dip in sales during the worst week. These online grocers will nevertheless have impressed many new customers forced by the weather to shop online instead of doing a supermarket run.

In the early days, consumers' experience of online shopping was disappointing with complaints of poor delivery and returns policies. Since then, etailers have taken up the challenge and made huge improvements in these areas, such that consumers are now rating the online shopping experience more highly than department stores and supermarkets. Many consumers forced by the exceptional weather to sample etailing for the first time, will have had their low expectations met and exceeded by the online shops' ability to get their deliveries through. There are reports of some Tesco.com staff using their own 4x4 vehicles for deliveries in Glasgow, whilst staff in Hereford actually walked through the snow to get to disabled customers! Ocado Chief Executive Officer Tim Steiner said: "Whilst we did cancel a small number of deliveries due to snow in the lead-up to Christmas, our staff worked tirelessly to contact customers and we were able to offer all of them a re-delivery before Christmas Day."

Many online stores took advantage of their exemption from the legal ban on opening on 25th December and launched their sales on Christmas Day, or even Christmas Eve, instead of the more traditional Boxing Day. IMRG, the industry body for global etailing, reported that shoppers spent £102 million on Christmas Day last year and the total is expected to be even higher this year.

Resistance to e-commerce has been highest amongst older consumers who tend to have a natural suspicion of cyberspace, in some cases with good reason; high profile scams in the guise of "Web loyalty" programmes perpetrated by marketing companies were the subject of a Senate hearing only last November. "Safe-shopping" has become a priority for the big name sites, however and coupled with antivirus software and greater consumer awareness of the dangers and how to avoid them, this means that cybercrime is much less of a worry than in the past.

First-timers to online shopping will have found directory-type, market place and price comparison sites making it easy to pull together details of etailers. In some cases these sites offer money-saving voucher codes for the produce and services offered. Once the weather improves, many of these new customers will remain.

Get Your Valentines Day Flowers Delivered on the Sunday

This year Valentines Day falls on a Sunday and getting flowers delivered on a Sunday can be a tricky service to find.

Clare Florist have told us that this year they will be using a specialist courier delivery company and can now guarantee a Sunday delivery for your flowers.

So whether you're sending a beautiful bouquet or some classic red roses, use Clare Florist and have a happy Valentines Day.

Prezzybox.com - winner of the Shopsafe Customer Service Award

It gives me great pleasure to say that we've awarded Prezzybox.com the Shopsafe Customer Service 2010 award.

This award recognises the superb levels of customer service given to Shopsafe customers over the last 12 months. In particular, the levels of service given to customers over the busy Christmas period were second to none.

We've never given this award before, but felt the high standards set by Prezzybox deserved some recognition.

If you've not visited the site before, Prezzybox.com has a terrific range of gifts, it's ideal if you're stuck for gift ideas.

The site is simple to use, and packed full of things you'll be dying to get your hands on yourself.

Congratulations to Prezzybox from everyone at Shopsafe.