Essential online shopping tips

Shopping

These online shopping tips will help you get what you want, faster and cheaper
Photo by CC user intelfreepress on Flickr

Since 1995, when the first Internet retailers attracted 16 million shoppers, online shopping has been a growth industry. Innovations such as payment services, coupon deals, and apps are everyday to us, but have made a huge impact on the numbers of online shoppers. While countries around the world have varying levels of online shopping, some estimates put the online shopping population at 1.75 billion people.

Why is online shopping so popular?

Most of you probably shop because of the convenience of shopping at any time of day from the comfort of home. You can buy everything from avocados to refrigerators online. It saves time, travel costs, and sometimes taxes. Add delivery to your front door and it’s a wonder anyone goes out anymore!

Online shopping is also helpful for pricing items. You may end up going to a physical store, but doing some research beforehand can save you going from store to store to find the best price.

The relative privacy of online shopping is another of its attractive features. Sometimes, you just don’t want to be seen purchasing items that are either personal, such as prescription drugs or lingerie, or that might open you up to theft, such as jewelry, electronics, or artwork.

If you hate crowds or the pushy techniques of sales associates, then online shopping is the perfect way to complete your wish list.

Online shopping has also opened the doors of the world to shoppers. You can buy hand-made finger puppets from China, premium chocolate from the Skelligs in Ireland, leather pumps from Italy, or an antique armoire from New Zealand.

Sellers up their game

As great as online shopping is for buyers, it has many benefits for retailers as well. Perhaps the greatest is the exposure of products and services to a worldwide marketplace. It doesn’t matter what size your company is – for the price of web hosting, you can open your sales potential exponentially with an online presence that is open around the clock.

With omnichannel, retailers can offer their products in the format most accessible to customers. Omnichannel selling uses brick and mortar, catalog, television, and whatever else you can imagine to reach customers. Adding online to this definitely increases sales potential.

Of course, more exposure also means more competition. Online retailers need to offer shoppers a reason to pick their product or service. A sampling of services includes allowing customers to order items online and pick them up from a brick-and-mortar store, virtual mannequins for clothes shopping, and selling via smartphones.

Online shopping tips

With all this online activity, you need to be aware of ways that your shopping experience can be maximized. These tips will help you get the best deals while shopping securely.

For convenience and safety, you should use and bookmark your favorite sites. For example, when you decide to purchase a DVD, a winter coat, and a juicer, you want to avoid an online search for those items because you could end up with malicious sites in your results. Go to a reputable, trustworthy site such as As seen on TV, which attracts shoppers because it can offer you all the items on your list and more. You know that you’ll get a great price as well. Bookmark the page so that you can return to it easily and safely in the future.

If it’s too good to be true, pass it up. Getting ads in your email with requests to click on a link should be ignored. If an online ad is offering huge discounts, you may face a threat to your computer if you try to check it out. You can block fake sites with up-to-date security software.

Companies will sometimes base prices on your spending patterns, so you can end up paying more than other shoppers. The companies do this by saving cookies. You can avoid this pricing tactic by erasing cookies on your browser. While shopping, use a private window, and log out of your account when you are finished.

You can use social media to find deals. Facebook, Twitter, and email subscriptions are great ways to get notice of sales. Many retailers will offer special discounts to their followers and subscribers. You can also compare the prices of different retailers with an online comparison website such as Bizrate, and look for coupons on sites such as RetailMeNot.

You can find more variety and flexibility than ever before with the growth of online stores. You can feel secure and get great deals, so start shopping!

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Is a Long-term Lease or a Serviced Office Best for You?

Business

A Serviced Office might be a solution that makes sense for your business at this point in its evolution
Photo by CC user jnyemb on Flickr

The time has come to leave the garage and find office space for you and your business. However, it’s not as simple as just finding a convenient location and signing on the dotted line. There are some considerations you need to make before you make your choice.

Are you a start-up?

There’s been a huge rise in the numbers of start-up businesses since the crash of 2008 and all these enterprises need a home! It might seem best to find somewhere secure and long term, but short-term offices may be best.

For a start, office space is expensive and hard to find and so can cost a lot. This, combined with the fact that start-ups may fail, makes a serviced office a better option. It’s much easier to pick up and leave that short-term office space in Brentford with a month’s notice than to get out of a five-year lease.

Additionally, serviced offices have all the utilities a small business will need included in the monthly fee – internet, phones, cleaner, business rates and insurance. It’s cheaper and easier for a young business to pay for these as a package, without even having to look for them!

Do you plan to expand?

If you hope to employ new people in the next 12 months or so, then you need a space in which you can expand and serviced offices can offer this. On the other hand, if you need to downsize, you can do that too, probably with just a month’s notice.

How many people do you have currently?

If you employ fewer than 10-15 people, it can be hard to find long-term premises that small, especially in London. A shared office is the ideal solution here, especially when you consider the utility packages.

How long do you want the office for?

If you’re confident that you can meet the five-year commitment, then you may be better off in a long-term lease. The business world is unpredictable right now, so flexibility is essential – you may need to move back to your garage or garden room and you certainly don’t want to have to buy your way out of a fiddly lease.

How quickly do you need it?

Setting up a conventional lease can take up to three months, whereas finding a suite or a room in a serviced office space can take anything from a few days to a week.

What’s your budget?

This is a big deal, and like most things, it’s not as simple as it seems.

Conventional office space is cheaper by the square foot, but there are many, many costs on top. There’s telecoms, furniture, buildings insurance, business rates, cleaners – all the things that are taken care of by a serviced office fee. There’s also the not inconsiderable cost of drawing up a lease agreement and the crippling costs of early vacation.

So a serviced office space will look more on paper, but this is because you’re looking at the price per desk.

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Where Will Your Career Take You?

Education

Where Will Your Career Take You?
Photo by CC user geralt on Pixabay

Do you know where you career will take you?

Some individuals have just about everything laid out to a tee. Others, meantime, pretty much go with the flow, not knowing where they might be working a year or even six months from now.

No matter where you might fall in this mix, it is important to not overlook the importance of your career, especially in a day and age when jobs have become tougher to find for so many individuals.

That said focusing on where the job market in general is headed, which industries expect to continue to see growth in the coming years, and what strategies workers will have to employ to stay relevant are all important matters.

So, where will your career take you?

Educate Yourself Often

One of the ways to stay relevant in the job market now and in the future is of course education.

That education comes in two forms; the education you learn in the classroom and the education you get each and every day watching the world around you.

For the former, it is important to note what level of education you have up to this point and time, especially as it pertains to your current career.

Do you need more education to further yourself in your current industry? With added education, will it put you where you ultimately want to be? Lastly, do you have the available resources (time, effort, money etc.) to go back to school while still working?

When it comes to the education you can receive from watching the world around you, this can be just as important as any coursework you undertake.

For example, if you currently work in the healthcare industry, you know that technology is always changing how things are done in most instances. What is being used today to treat diseases, operate on patients, offer hope to those who likely did not have hope just a couple decades ago, these things are for the most part progressing.

With that in mind, how will your healthcare career be impacted now and in the years to come?

Whether you are looking at careers as a medical technician, surgeon, gis careers, working in mental health, you need to stay abreast of the changes going on around you. This is important whether you have been employed for many years in healthcare or are just beginning to get your feet wet.

Going Online for Education

If you decide at this point and time that you will require more hands-on education in the classroom, be it possibly a master’s degree, the options today for the most part are better than what was available even a decade or two ago.

Now, many in the healthcare industry can turn to online studies to better their skills and knowledge. By taking the required online courses for their healthcare specialty, they are able to be compliant with today’s medical needs.

In the event you are one of those individuals looking to do just that, here are a few tips for getting the process started:

  • Selection – First and foremost, making the right selection on a school and its coursework is crucial. While you may be limited in some of your options, don’t just settle. Make sure you ultimately get the added educational requirements you need;

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  • Timing – One of the key facets in this situation is properly managing your time, time that will likely be divided between work and going back to school. It can be overwhelming for some people, while others will take the ball and run with it. Make it known to family and friends (if you decide this is the route you are going to go) that they need to be respectful and understanding of your demanding schedule. In most cases, those closest to you while understand and be very supportive;

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  • Focus – Lastly, make sure you are clearly focused on improving your career outlook through more education (if needed) and becoming more of a leader in the workplace. It is easy for people to at times lose their focus, but that can of course prove to be quite detrimental. When you put all of your focus into achieving your goals, the results can be quite satisfying.
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