Safety: We hear a great deal about credit card fraud, but if you
take sensible precautions, it is now common to buy online.
Check that you can see a padlock symbol at the bottom of your screen
when you start typing in personal details (you will usually be warned
that you are visiting a secure site), and make sure you save or note
down full details of how to contact the organisation, and your order
number, for future reference if there is a problem. |
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Searching: Where do you begin? If you follow these simple steps, you should be able
to buy anything you want with the minimum of fuss. Let’s
imagine you want to send a Christmas hamper to your cousin in another part of the country:
Step 1:
Do you know any companies that sell hampers? If you do, you can type their address straight into
the Address box at the top of the screen and visit their Website directly. To replace www.laterlife.com
that will already be showing in the box, click the name once (it will
turn blue) and start typing straight away. You
will replace the address with the new one. Then
press your Enter key to open the page.
The address will probably follow the convention:
1. www. To show it is on the Web
2. name. Such as waitrose, tesco, sainsburys etc.
(type in lower case as it is not case sensitive)
3. co.uk when you know it is a British company, (or com if International).
If you don’t know any hamper companies, you need to
open the page for a Search Engine – a site
that helps you search the web using “key words”.
My favourite is www.google.co.uk,
so replace the Laterlife address with this one and press Enter.
Step 2:
What should you type into the search box you will find
on the site?
Ideally, you need to be as specific as possible, to cut
down on the number of Websites that are offered to you that contain your “key”
search words. Here are the results of my
searches, showing how varying the words and adding punctuation can reduce the number of
Websites offered to you:
Hampers
resulted in a list of 590,000 possible Websites to visit. Many
were American, so next time I clicked the radio button next to the “pages from the
UK” choice to limit the results. I could
have typed the letters UK into my key word search box as an alternative.
Christmas hampers
found 45,800 sites.
Christmas hampers
under £30 resulted in 2,210 sites, but
many mentioned the word “under” and number “30” separately
Christmas hampers
“under £30” reduced the number to 771, as the speech marks linked the words
into a phrase that made more sense.
“Christmas
hampers” “under £30” found 686
sites, as the speech marks prevented any sites containing just the word
“Christmas” appearing in the list.
Step 3:
Scroll down the list of Websites that appear once you
have made a search, remembering that the most relevant will appear at the top. If the first 10 addresses are not helpful, click the
Next or Page
2 link offered at the bottom of the list. Read
each description carefully, then click a Website link (blue, underlined text at the top of
each paragraph) to open the Website. Now use
the index and click pictures or underlined text to explore the site and find your
preferred hamper. New pages will only open if your mouse pointer displays a hand or
you click an actual button.
Step 4:
When ready to purchase, you need to “go to the
checkout” by clicking this link. You will
usually be shown your bill and must register with the site or complete personal, address
and credit card details. They usually send you confirmation by e-mail, so you will need an
e-mail address to order online. Then a final click and you will see what the delivery
costs are! If you are happy with the final
price, complete any extra boxes such as an alternative address if the present is to be
sent direct, and confirm your purchase. Make a
note of the order number etc. for your reference, or print out the final page showing all
the details.
Happy Shopping.
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