ONLINE GIFT ARTICLE

Successful online gift giving for the time strapped mum

-by Desne Doman

One of the key factors that can turn joyous occasions for gift giving like Christmas into a soul searching, bank balance threatening time of trauma and turmoil is the time factor, never mind crowds, bad parking, ungrateful recipients or people who seem to have everything. We give you some quick prompts to get you in the right frame of mind and then list links to some of the best online shopping sites to save you time and money.

To shop online successfully, you need to be in the right frame of mind, so pour yourself a glass of wine, shift your mindset away from the feeling of your potential failure at selecting the perfect gift towards what would elicit a joyful and appreciative response from them and let your heart do the buying.

Select a name

What makes this person's special? (Spouse, great aunt who I will inherit from etc)
What is special to this person? (A love of animals, their kids, music)
What would they love to have? (An iPod, a holiday, a facial)
What would they wish to have? (A massage, a cleaner for a day)
What do they need? (A party dress, decent kitchen knives)
What do they never have enough of? (Placemats, writing paper, laserpods)
What do they need to replace? (Slippers, swimming goggles)
What makes them laugh? (Funny films, comics)
What hobbies, interests or passions do they have? (Reading, golf, walking, music)
What would they enjoy tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing? (Truffles, a great wine)
What would they love to read or learn? (NASA’s space program)

Online Tips:

Read the small print.
Place your order in time for pre-Christmas delivery (avoid the last week)
Check the shipping which can add up quickly. Several stores are offering flat rate shipping regardless of the number of items as a Christmas special.
Before entering your card details, ensure the transaction is secure - look for the https:// URL and the closed padlock icon in your browser window.
Check how and when the product will be delivered, and their returns policy
Keep a record of the transaction until your items arrive.

www.xxxx.com.au

Description

Widest range

dstore
wishlist
tesora
petersofkensington

Dstore has the widest range and is the best one stop online shopping (charges full retail price) destination for a wide selection of gifts, toys, DVD’s etc. Special Flat rate shipping for total order of $5.95.
petersofkensington is upmarket and has some good specials

Toys

peedeetoys
thetoystore
edex (educational)
gameshead electronic games

Discount online toys are not as widely available as electronic items, however if you know what you want good bargains can be found on the auction and good deals sites we have listed.

Good deals

dealsdirect
overstockoutlet
stuff
twodollar

Limited range but with huge discounts. Also see the auction sites.

Designer goods

designeronline

Genuine designer items at discounted prices with a 100% money back guarantee

Perfumes

cityperfume (free delivery)
perfumery
shoppersdirect

A sample comparison showed cityperfume to be the cheapest by as much as 50% compared to the same product from dstore

Wines

winerobot

Wine Robot searches the online stores for you and lets you compare the prices on up to 10,000 wines.

Books

scb
www.getonce.com.au/books.html

scb - gives discounts on books of 20-75% off retail instead of usual 10%. Flat rate of $6.95 postage.
Getonce compares prices at the major retailers

Unusual and hard to buy

latestbuy – claims to stock items that are unique, engaging and funky e.g. tissue dog
fungifts – mainly food and wine gift baskets e.g. French dinner for two
aggeggi - philosophy - “A thingy with no name inspired you to play……” e.g. laserpod
coolthings – for those into cool glowing, levitating gadgets... e.g. floating mini cooper
redballoon – vouchers for fun experiences including gourmet cooking, skydiving..
adrenalin – for adrenalin junkies including Porsche drives, canyoning..
giftvouchers – when all else fails get a gift voucher to over 60 retailers
surpriseinabox – experience vouchers including a concierge service

Comparison shopping

shopbot
cnet.com.au /shopping
getonce
buyfast
shopping.ninemsn
shopping.yahoo

The hard work done for you. Although some of these have limited categories to do comparison shopping. You can comparison shop any item on ninemsn and yahoo however their results only include a limited number of shops

Auction sites

ebay
graysonline
oztion
ausauction

Ebay has the largest range. Beware of Christmas auction frenzy where buyers pay bid up prices higher than retail shops. Use the comparison shopbots to do your price research before bidding.

Gifts with conscience

www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au – give a goat, chicken etc. to a poor family on behalf of someone
www.worldvision.com.au/smiles/ - similar to the above
www.tear.org.au/giftcatalogue/index.shtml - similar to the above with gifts starting at $5.