From mouse to house Print E-mail
Written by Alma Williams, 2005   
Page 2 of 2
 

Home-working

Some women become active suppliers both of goods and services. Living in rural areas, where working opportunities are often limited and transport difficult, they can now run small businesses through their own websites. Jean and Jess sell outsize underwear from a converted cow barn.

Cynthia not only runs an upmarket B&B in her gracious Elizabethan house but also has started in her rare spare moments to market choice cuts from her prize-winning Aberdeen Angus herd. Rita and her husband sell pig, poultry and fish products from their smokehouse - it's mail order with a new online look.

Any problems?

You have to have the right equipment - and the money - to get started, along with a reliable Internet Service Provider (ISP). You must have the knowledge, skill and confidence to use all this equipment and the ability to understand jargon where old familiar words are confusingly used with different meanings for new purposes.

A menu is not a series of recipes from the WI cookbook, nor are spam and cookies food items! You are in a world of browsing, booting and bouncing, using passwords and portals, logging on, breaking and entering and escaping.

You need to be ultra-cautious, checking and rechecking before that final click on your mouse: in a hurry Marie ordered "1 carrot" instead of "1kg carrots" and she got exactly what she'd ordered! Chris, in a stressful moment, got herself booked on a flight to Malaga instead of Malta.

You can order your shopping online, pay by credit card but still have to rely on a traditional sequence of little white vans or trolley-pushing postmen to deliver your electronically-ordered goods promptly and conveniently. There is a lot of aggro at peak pressure times like Christmas, when orders are accepted but delivery fails to materialise in time. So don't leave ordering until the last minute.

Security safeguards

First, check the site, with that little padlock sign at the left of your screen showing the retailer has an encryption certificate. Secondly, be careful with the passwords you choose. A recent Which? report on stolen identity suggests you should never use the same password for more than one account. Moreover, you shouldn't use your mother's real maiden name or place of birth in spite of what your bank may request.

Thirdly, watch out for scams in incoming emails from seemingly reliable sources, for example your bank or building society which needs to 'correct' certain details about your account. You may also get so-called charitable appeals, calls from distressed owners of overseas funds seeking a home for their money in your account, or congratulations for prizes you are alleged to have won. Do not respond.

Your online rights

If you are shopping with a UK registered company, your statutory rights are the same as they are on the high street. This means that whatever you buy must do what it is supposed to, be in good condition, free from faults and must last for a reasonable length of time. Moreover, distance selling regulations give you seven days to return any purchases, so make sure you have a full postal address to contact.

But the further you are away from the company you are dealing with, the more difficult it will be to enforce your rights if something goes wrong, especially if there are different laws, languages and currencies.

If you go in for auctions such as e-Bay, which now has ten million UK users, you have fewer rights because most sales are by private sellers and not by business traders. The goods must be as described but they are not covered by rules of satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose. It can be harder to sort out problems than if you had bought from a shop, though some auction websites offer complaints resolution processes or anti-fraud guarantees.

The future?

Shall we see mousemats in every home? Will our high streets be replaced by super-highways?

Not likely. Already many mice no longer need special mats, and some computers allow talking as well as tapping. Online shopping will increase as access becomes cheaper and quicker, and we all get more skilled. Certain products such as books, CDs, DVDs and the latest must-have toy will remain popular; many items will never sell by remote control because they need to be seen, touched and tried on, felt and smelt.

Services such as banking and insurance, tickets and travel are gaining a bigger market share, but many people will still prefer to consult a real human being face to face. As Richard Perks, Director of Retail Research at Mintel, says about online shopping: "It will never be more than a small but important part of most companies' distribution."
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
 
[ Back ]