Smart Shopping on Today's Web

Harry McCracken

Remember the golden age of online shopping? Everywhere you looked, scrappy entrepreneurs were launching Web stores to sell dog food, chain saws, new homes, platform shoes... you name it. They started with breadth of selection and lowball prices that no brick-and-mortar store could match, then sweetened the deal with fringe benefits like free shipping.

It was a great time to be in the market for just about anything--and it was only a few months ago. But recently, inevitably, reality has set in. Now most Web merchants are (get this!) trying to turn a profit. Those that are still around, that is (Pets.com, we hardly knew ye).

So these days, finding the Web's best bargains takes more legwork. Even Amazon.com, the site that practically invented deep online discounts, has gotten stingier. Books I once got at 30 percent off are now discounted only 20 percent (or occasionally not at all). Prices also seem to have inched upward at Buy.com, Egghead.com, and other purveyors of discount computer and consumer electronics gear.

But these and other major Web stores still dole out virtual coupons that let you shave at least a few additional bucks off your purchase price (one typical offer touts $10 off an order of $40 or more). A whole genre of sites has sprung up to track these promotions: DealCatcher.com and HotDealFinder.com are the ones I habituate. My hunch is that these coupons won't be plentiful forever, so grab 'em now.

Today, keeping an eagle eye on shipping charges pays off more than ever. While some sellers have upped their shipping fees, others have kept theirs reasonable, and a few, such as Outpost.com, still offer free overnight delivery. Bear in mind that shipping fees for multiple items are usually more reasonable than those for single items, judged as a percentage of the total amount you pay. For instance, if you hold off on CD or video purchases until you can buy a bunch of them at once, you'll pay less than if you buy them one by one as the mood strikes.

Tools in Transition

Of course, the Web doesn't just make buying stuff easier--it also simplifies researching purchases before you plunk down your money. Smart buyers know to call on shopping bots (which let you compare prices at multiple Web stores) and consumer-rating sites (which offer reviews by real people of computer gear, consumer electronics, and other items). But cool shopping tools have been hit hard by the dot-com downturn. Many buying-advice sites and shopping bots that PC World recommended over the past year have vanished altogether or been swallowed up by competitors. Among the missing: 2020Consumer.com, Evenbetter.com, IChoose.com, and Productopia.

Fortunately, several worthy contenders are still in the game. ConsumerReview.com and Epinions.com are my favorite destinations for reviews by real people--I wouldn't buy even a toaster oven without consulting them. And though no single shopping bot has won my allegiance, I have three mainstays: DealTime.com, MySimon.com, and Shopper.com.

Lately, though, I've learned to be wary of some of the deals that bots sniff out. Obscure Web merchants that claim ultralow prices sometimes find sneaky ways to jack up your total cost. Consider DoubleDiscount.com, a site that touts 51 percent markdowns on best-selling books. Pretty incredible--until you spot the fine print that says there's a 10 percent handling fee on every item, above and beyond the shipping cost. Even with the surcharge, the prices are bargain-basement cheap. But it's tough to find any information about DoubleDiscount at vendor-review sites such as Gomez.com.

Then there's TurboPrice.com, a site that listed rock-bottom prices for digital cameras. At press time, for example, it had Nikon's Coolpix 880 for $537, better than $100 less than the big guys wanted. When I tried to order, however, I found that the site couldn't handle credit-card transactions--a fact it had failed to mention. Instead, I was instructed to call a toll-free number to seal the deal. When I did, I learned that TurboPrice charged a ridiculously steep $24 for ground shipping.

So bargain hunters, beware: Check out sites carefully before doing business with them. All in all, I try to stick with sellers I know and trust, even if they aren't the very cheapest options on the Web.

Or for that matter, off the Web. My new favorite bookseller turns out to be the neighborhood shop I frequented back in pre-Web days. Its discounts no longer pale in comparison to Amazon's, the service is expert and personable, and same-day delivery is always free, since I provide it myself. But even when I buy offline, I still like to start by loitering in the best Web stores and partaking of the free advice such features as Amazon's reader reviews and Recommendations Wizard provide. Nobody's kicked me out yet.

FYI

Yikes! Good news for cybercrooks: A new report says that fewer than 0.1 percent of U.S. law enforcement agents are currently assigned to fight Internet crime.

Source: Gartner Group

New on the Net...

Google-ize Your Browser: If you're addicted to Google, the Web's best search engine, why not put it at your fingertips? That's the idea behind the Google Toolbar, a nifty downloadable utility for Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. The toolbar embeds Google's uncannily accurate search tools into the browser itself. Google offers it in a standard edition that can detect the Web page you're visiting and report it back to Google (necessary for some features), and in a less snoopy (and slightly less capable) one aimed at privacy absolutists.... My.MP3.com Returns: Until lawsuits by music publishers killed it last year, MP3.com's My.MP3.com service--which let you listen to tunes from your CD collection on any Net-connected PC--was a boon to music lovers. Now it's back. But since MP3.com is still striking deals with publishers, not all the CDs and tracks are available yet. And unless you cough up $50 a year for a premium account, you can store only 25 CDs' worth of music. Is My.MP3.com worth paying for in this hobbled state? I'm still trying to decide.

Gimme Five: Top Sites for PC Hardware Fanatics

Looking for sources of advanced information on PC nuts and bolts? Head to these prime destinations for under-the-hood news, reviews, and advice:

1. Tom's Hardware Guide: This full-blown community of PC fans teems with opinionated message boards.
2. The PC Guide: Technical hardware info in plain English, plus a great guide to PC fundamentals.
3. Ars Technica: Unabashedly geeky coverage of CPUs, motherboards, and the like; if you plan to build your own PC, go here first.
4. MadOnion.com: Free tools such as downloadable benchmarks and an upgrade advisor that analyzes your PC's parts.
5. StorageReview.com: A wealth of data on hard, CD-RW, and DVD-ROM drives, including specs, tests, and a comparison engine.

Write PC World Executive Editor Harry McCracken at websavvy@pcworld.com.