Steps to buy online and how to pay with a credit card Yemenat 2023

If you are reading this article, you must know that how to buy online has evolved to an unprecedented extent. This is because at some point – according to the prediction of statistics – the e-commerce revenue index is moving at a steady pace to cross the $5 trillion barrier!

And by the development of how to buy online, we mean that it has become more flexible and easy to access than before. As you browse communication platforms and the Internet in general, you stumble across non-stop online stores here and there.

From extravagant electronic products to cheese boxes, from original to second-hand products, there is always an online store for everything, at all prices and quality.

If you, in turn, want to know how to buy online safely or know the steps your future customer goes through to buy from your store.

Here is a complete guide on how to buy online and even get your purchase back!

All you will need is:

• Internet connection.
• Credit card (depending on the country of residence)

Online purchase steps

1) Search for the product on Google

First, start by searching for the product on the Google search engine, for example, using the most important keyword, and let it be “iPhone 11.”

You will find a list of results in front of you from stores that specialize in selling the desired product, such as official stores, or stores that sell many comprehensive products such as Amazon, Jumia, and others.

There is a Google Shopping feature from Google, which allows you to search for the product you want at the price and specifications that suit you, and to compare products and specifications, and it also shows you the full information of the sellers.

2) Compare prices and specifications

The phrase “how to buy online” is an acronym for many skills, including how to compare products and stores, effective research and review, and even decision-making skills!

So how do you compare?

Comparing products while buying them online is not much different than buying them in physical stores, but there are some additional factors that you have to take care of. Such as:

• Store security.
• Price and security of delivery.
• Terms of purchase and return.
• customers service.

Here are some important points in this step:

1. Decide carefully what you want

Have a clear vision of what you want to buy, not buying for the sake of buying. (Of course, you can buy to buy, but it probably isn’t the best investment for your money if you ask me!).

It is inconceivable that you need a computer, so you run to buy a radio, for example. The product should fulfill a need that you have, not be a random product.

for example:

• Do you want a phone?
• What are the indispensable specifications for this phone:
  • Is it the photo quality?
  • storage capacity?
  • Processor power?
  • Or is it all?
• Do you care about the social form as well, or do you not care about it at all?
• Do you need a phone that enables you to manage your business and correspondence quickly and clearly without straining your eyes?
• Do you really need a phone? Or a device with phone features without the need to complete calls, for example, where the tablet can complete the task?

Make a list of everything you need and a list of all the additional features that are okay to have and are okay to miss. The list includes the following titles:

• Top features.
• Less important features.
• Neutral features.

Consult your circle of acquaintances or product-savvy people and ask for their advice based on your needs.

Mark all of this and put it in your sights. I mean literally. Write it down on a piece of paper and put it in front of you. In the face of all the violent temptations you will meet, you will need to remind yourself of what only matters!

2. What about your potential?

Everyone wants the best, highest quality, and necessarily the highest price, of everything. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.

In order to choose the best product – or should we say the most appropriate? – then define the criteria on which you will choose. Of course, it cannot be generalized to everyone.

However, there are key factors:

A/ purchase budget

What is the price range that you allocate to this product that you would not like it to go beyond?
This point is one of the most important steps in purchasing from the Internet, as you can only really choose by setting a ceiling to filter products based on it.

If you are ordering this product from abroad, include the customs rate, if your country imposes it, in addition to the shipping price.
Note that local products may be cheaper than imported ones, in terms of quality as well as shipping fees.

b/ your product requirements

As we explained in the previous point, you need to know exactly what your requirements are for the product you are going to buy. And did you find in the available products – in light of the price and other specifications – what suits you, or will you need some modification and perhaps give up some of them?

Some specifications come at lower prices in some products, but at the same time they are missing another feature that you may or may not need. That is why we strongly emphasize the need to define what you cannot do without and what you can.

C / the date of the request

If there is no urgent reason to own this product, you can always wait for global sales dates such as Black Friday or special site sales.

3) Check with the seller

The third step in buying online is to check with the seller, or the online store from which you will buy.

More important than knowing how to buy online is knowing which seller to buy from. The seller may be a reliable specialized store or brand, so you visit the official store, and the purchase process is completed safely according to the criteria we mentioned earlier.

But if the store allows independent sellers or independent stores to display their products on its platform, such as Amazon, then you definitely need to check their information and credibility, in addition to the opinions (and number) of previous buyers, of course.

Visit their official website if they have one, or review their contact information, and make sure it’s real and not fake.

Always choose the most popular and top-selling seller.

And pay attention to the attempts of ancient thieves to create an online store with various extensions. Instead of, say, amazon.com, you’ll find extensions like .net and .org. They are the oldest tricks in history, but they must be alerted.

4) Make sure the site is secure

We’ll say this without embellishment: a site that doesn’t have an s after HTTP, don’t waste a minute on it.
That magic word HTTPS followed by a small padlock sign means that the store is secured and that your personal and credit card information is encrypted and hidden while being sent to the site, and no one can detect and steal it.

There are other safety factors in online shopping that should not be overlooked in any case:

• Do not make a purchase – using your credit card – on a Wi-Fi network that is not well secured, because any information you send from the device connected to this network is usually not encrypted.
• And to further secure yourself, try not to make any purchases except in your home Wi-Fi network, or using phone data.
• Did we say you should never share your credit card or bank account information via email or chat rooms, ever?
• If you can, try to allocate a credit card dedicated to online shopping, and only put in it the expected amount of purchases; So that you can track any hacking attempt here or there.
• If you encounter pop-up ads anywhere in the store, think twice about the safety and reliability of the store as a whole.
• A trusted store has clear sales, refund, and shipping policies. Do not bid until you have read this information carefully.
• If you are buying an important product such as a phone or computer, try as much as possible to buy from the official store or authorized sellers.
• For example, check the list of Online purchase on your electronic card each month; To make sure that it has not been hacked and that Online purchase have been made without your knowledge.
• Keep a copy of the Online purchase order sent on the phone or e-mail, as you may need it in the event of a product return or otherwise.
• Don’t share too much. Be very brief with the information you put on the store. Some electronic extortionists in some countries take advantage of sensitive information such as birth certificate and social security number to make illegal Online purchase.
• Use a strong and varied password. Stay away from serial numbers, your name, and those things that are easy to guess. Make up an unhackable password and write it down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere confidential.

5) Avoid shipping fees

Some stores collect all your Online purchase and ship them at once. Try to use this point to your advantage by collecting everything you want to buy and putting it in one shopping cart, thus paying a simple unified shipping rate on all products instead of paying it repeatedly.

6) Put clear contact information

By choosing the right product from the trusted store, now is the time to check out.

Make sure to put all the information that enables the store and the shipping company to deliver the product to you easily and quickly.

for example:

• Leave more than one phone number, let it be all your personal numbers through which you can be reached, and the numbers of potential people who can answer or receive the order for you in the event that you are not available or difficult to reach you.
• Make sure that you are available to collect the product at the estimated time of arrival that the site will show you.
• Put a detailed address – even if it is boring – for the location of your home, including the name of the city, district, street, house, or apartment number and its distinctive signs. Such as the color of the building or the names of shops or buildings that point to it.
• Most electronic stores give you the ability to write notes for the shipping employee, take advantage of them to provide all other solutions to reach you, such as leaving them with neighbors, at the doorstep, or others.

7) Enter the payment information

There are many electronic payment methods that you can use to buy online, depending on whether they are available in the store from which you will buy.

One of the most important of these methods is payment by credit cards (which are available in most online stores), so here we will explain payment by credit cards in detail and with illustrations.

When you enter all the Online purchase data, you will find the payment data, which will be as shown in the image below:

Here is an explanation of each of the above statements:

• Card Number: Enter the prominent numbers on your credit card (usually 16 digits).
• Exp. Date: Enter the expiry date of the card (you will usually find it between the card number and your name).
• Cardholder Name: Enter your name on the card.
• CVV: It is a secret number that is usually found on the other side of the card (it consists of three numbers).

Important notes while entering credit card payment data:

• The form of the data form is not necessarily the same as shown in the image above.
• The data in the image above is the basic data, which you will find in any credit card payment form.
• You may find there an option to choose the type of card (Visa Card, Master Card, etc.).
• You may find a statement with the payment address, and here you must enter the address that you wrote when making the credit card (you can refer to the bank issuing the card if necessary).
• You may find certain terms or conditions that you have to agree to in order to make the payment (check the small box in front of each item, after reading and agreeing to it).
• You may find an option that enables you to use a card that you used before on the site and saved it, and then you will only need to choose the card and you will not have to type all the data because it is already registered on the store.
• After entering the credit card information, you may find the option to save the data for future use (you can accept or reject it according to your choice).

In the event that you want to pay through PayPal, which is the second most popular online payment and Online purchase method, you can return to our previous article entitled “ Explanation of creating a free PayPal account and how to activate and use it.

With regard to other methods, the matter is not much different, as the whole process is just entering the required data only.

8) The feature of payment upon receipt

Many countries, including Egypt, due to the somewhat complicated procedures for opening a bank account and owning a credit card, its users tend to choose the payment upon receipt feature, because the culture of payment by credit card is not widespread enough yet.

If you are going to use this feature, make sure of the following:

• The price of the product, in addition to the price of shipping or customs, is in your possession while completing the Online purchase process. Avoid searching and buying entirely if you are not absolutely sure that the money is in your pocket or will be available – also absolutely – when you receive the order.
• If available, you can ask your acquaintance for permission to order the product from their account and credit card and pay them directly.
• In all cases, you must make sure that you or someone from your side is present at the time of product delivery. But if you use the cash-on-delivery feature, be more and more careful that you are there then. If you are not available yourself, ask a family member or neighbor to pay for it and collect it for you.

Final tips to improve the online buying process

1. Use coupons to Online purchase higher-priced products. Always try to save for major purchases.
2. Make sure that your password is made up of numbers, letters, and maybe punctuation marks as well, and don’t forget to use complex passwords on different platforms.
3. Do not under any circumstances try to click on any pop-up ads telling you that your computer or phone is in danger, as these ads may be the danger itself.
4. Do not log in to your bank accounts from public locations such as cafes, restaurants, or bus and train stations.
5. Try as much as possible not to buy medicines and drugs from electronic stores, even medical ones, except in the narrowest limits.
6. If your bank, your favorite store, or PayPal emails you to renew your password without warning, contact them first before you click anything to make sure they’re the ones who sent it.

In general, if you take all the necessary precautions to secure yourself and your information to buy online, you will have a very entertaining buying experience – you may even get addicted to it – and enjoy the ability to get reasonable prices and compare other great features and specifications that you rarely find in traditional stores.