Online Comparison Shopping

Online shopping is a great way to save money, especially when you're buying something expensive like a computer, but if you're not careful, shipping costs can kill the deal.

Comparison shopping sites like shopping.com, BizRate, PriceGrabber, and Yahoo Shopping make finding deals easier than ever, but shoppers new to e-commerce may forget to think about shipping costs. Be aware that the store advertising the cheapest price may not actually be your cheapest purchasing option. Make sure to compare the total purchase price for an item (cost of item + shipping and handling) when choosing your online vendor. Better yet, look for stores that offer free shipping.

Here's an example to prove my point:

I compared the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N2 Digital Camera on Yahoo Shopping.

The first two stores listed in my search results were butterflyphoto and B&H Photo. Yahoo Shopping listed B&H Photo as offering the cheaper price at $309.95 for the camera compared with butterflyphoto's $312.

I clicked on the links to each store and discovered that they both display an easy "calculate shipping" button. The cheapest shipping option B&H offers would cost me $9.40. Butterflyphoto ships the camera for free. Therefore:

My total cost at B&H Photo = $319.35 ($309.95 for camera + $9.40 for shipping)
My total cost at butterflyphoto = $312.00 ($312 for camera + $0 for shipping)

In the end, it would be $7.35 cheaper for me to buy the camera from butterflyphoto than to buy it from B&H Photo, even though my Yahoo Shopping search results made it look as though B&H Photo was offering the best deal.

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