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Online Wine Stores Secured web sites can be trusted.

23rd November, 2009 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Over the past 15 years, the Internet has exploded and pretty much become a necessity in our everyday lives. We used to call people from our only phone in the house to catch up on recent events and news. “Snail Mail” as its called now, was the primary source to send cards and well wishes to people for birthdays and Christmas. The library was an important public resource as we used to go there to reference a subject we were interested in.

We used to walk through shopping centers and malls to find things that we like, go to the register and pay cash for items that we’d like to buy. Some of things still remain part of our lives, but the internet has overwhelmed the ways we once used to do many day to day things. Could you now live without email for more than a week or two (and no, being on vacation doesn’t count!)?

The shopping side of our lives is slowly changing, such is the world of “comfort from our own homes” online shopping. The wine industry is no different in this world of online shopping, although it has been a little slower to catch on than a lot of other industries.

The difficulty with the wine industry is that the product range is beyond comprehension. Walk in to a bottle shop and about 50% or more of the floor space is taken up by wine, such is the product range. This also brings a level of complexity to the online wine world.

With this in mind, there are many choices of different online wine stores. There are literally hundreds of stores offering an almost exclusive range of wine, and some at a very exclusive price. So what is the easiest ways to tell the better ones from the not so good ones?

Therein lies the ultimate question and one which could be asked of any industry on the internet. As with any online store, security is the most important thing. The first thing an online stores has to have is what’s referred to as a digital certificate. This certificate encrypts (or digitally jumbles up) any information that is sent between the person buying and the store so that hackers cannot read the important information as its being sent across the internet.

How can you tell if a store has a digital certificate? Generally at the time of purchase (especially when you are entering credit card details), the web site address should change from http:// to https://. If you enter a screen which asks for your credit card details, check if the address starts with https://, if it doesn’t, don’t continue. Don’t buy from a store that doesn’t have this type of security as its putting your personal information at risk. It’s not that the store can’t be trusted, its other people on the net that take advantage of such stores that can’t be.

If you stick to that one golden rule in relation to security on the internet, you will be well on your way to enjoying your shopping experience with online wine stores without the worry of somebody “looking over your shoulder”.