Can Internet Shopping Really be Easy and Rewarding?

The internet is pretty much a “must have” service in houses and businesses up and down the UK today, but is shopping online as easy as it sounds and can it really be cheaper and more rewarding than the high street?

(PRWEB) November 7, 2005 -- The internet is pretty much a “must have” service in houses and businesses up and down the UK today, but is shopping online as easy as it sounds and can it really be cheaper and more rewarding than the high street?

To the uninitiated the main problem with online shopping, apart from knowing how to grapple with a mouse, is knowing where to go. The choice seems so much greater than the high street, which is nice in many ways but perplexing in others. Whilst all the typical high street names are there so are many less well known names that are offering some exciting and different goods at really great prices – but are they trustworthy? Wandering down the high street offers certain comforts as the companies are in buildings and have real people in them, but when faced with a list of results from a search engine it can be somewhat daunting and impersonal to say the least. The choice of companies seems endless – where should the starting point be when there are two basic requirements - good quality products and good service plus really good value?

There are informative shopping sites which exist purely to inform visitors about other companies’ websites by simply placing a link through to other sites. These websites generally affiliate themselves with the companies they are providing information or advertisements on so they get an income if their visitors go on to place an order on a website they have linked to. There are others who specialise in displaying what latest deals are about, and there are some who offer a cash back service so they split their affiliate commission with their registered website users. There are others offering a points system providing the same kind of value as typical high street rewards schemes but purely for online shopping. As ever a lot of money has to be spent before getting anything back – typically £1000.00 spend equates to £10.00 reward, or slightly more if time is spent looking for alternative ways to spend the points.

For people who like to receive more valuable rewards there is a new easy to use website called Minted! Discounts (www.minteddiscounts.co.uk) where every company listed provides their registered website users with exclusive and valuable discounts or freebies. The discounts are normally available on all or most of a company’s products – for example Cotton Traders, famed for their rugby and casual wear, offer a 10% discount off all their goods including household items. There are savings on children’s goods and toys, savings on gifts of all kinds including 10% from Thornton’s on their gift delivery service. Blackwell’s books offer an 8% discount, there is a £20.00 saving on the entrance fee from Ministry of Paintball, a flat rate of £24.50 pppn from Old English Inns, 15% off pashminas, shawls and scarves from Pashminas Direct, 12% on holidays from Thomas Cook, Virgin Holidays, Libra and JMC, 10% off lingerie from Figleaves and My Tights, and some huge discounts on magazine subscriptions from Let’s Subscribe. People wanting to benefit from these and many other superb discounts pay a small annual fee to access them, starting at just £6.99 to access a choice of 5 companies’ offers.

The internet enriches and broadens our purchasing horizons allowing a greater choice of products and services, from a better selection of companies which is somehow getting smaller in the typical town and city in Britain today. Minted. Discounts which supports both online and traditional businesses provides the internet user with a truly rewarding and easy online experience.

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