You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks: With Online Pet Solutions
Although you may not be able to teach an old dog how to roll over or play dead, you can teach it to enjoy pet products you order a new way, online. By shopping at ecommerce websites, you can not only find neat pet items, you can save lots of money on expensive gas, save time driving around, and stay home and shop online, buying just what you’d like, and have it shipped to you.
For example, if you’re searching for raised dog bowls and don’t know where to begin to look locally, forget about it and head online to Google or another top search engine. Type in your keywords, “raised dog bowls” and hit the search button. Within seconds, many listings appear that you can check out, bookmark and shop over and over again.
Some excellent points to ponder about online shopping are:
1) You can find targeted items you need, like dog food storage containers without running to multiple stores in your area like Target plus PetSmart. This shaves off hours of driving and searching time, not to mention mega bucks in gasoline costs. Plus you can actually get better quality merchandize, instead of settling for cheap imitations.
2) You can even buy hard-to-fid items like orthopedic dog beds that you don’t find just everywhere. Sure, regular dog beds may be at the local mall’s pet store, but you’d need to special order the orthopedic variety, if it’s even offered.
3) You can often benefit from awesome online specials like free shipping, discounts and / or bonuses with your purchase. Plus there is no line at the check out! Place items in your online cart, then click and check out. Quick and easy.
Online Shipping Safety Tips
It’s no secret that online shopping comes with some safety risks. So let’s tackle those head on. The big fears are identity theft, lack of follow up (i.e. you aren’t sure if you’ll get your purchase), and fear that the online company will cheat you somehow. So let’s face these.
Identity theft
As long as you make sure you have a secure browser when you check out, that there’s an https:// present in the URL instead of an http:// you have a secure connection. Also check for complete contact info: a street address, phone number, email address and / or Support Desk area. Never give out private info like your social security number.
Follow Up / Cheating
You’ve already checked for complete contact info, so there’s no need to worry about either issue here. Test before you buy, if you want to be more comfortable, by communicating with the seller via an email or their Support Desk or phone. See how long it takes them to reply.
With regards to cheating you, as long as you pay with your credit card, even if you use Paypal, you should have protection for your purchase. Check with your issuing bank, if you want to be sure. And read Paypal’s protection policy or that of any other financial system you use.
Keep copies of all communications, receipts, delivery tracking links, etc. and you should be fine. Then you can teach old dogs new tricks – when you open the packages and share their dog goodies with them!
For more information recommended by Kelly Marshall, see these recent articles on Choices Affecting Dog Behavior and Confining Your Puppy.
