Birthday Gift Lists

If you are an online shopper and user of gift wish list, then no doubt you will be familiar with the online book store and retailer Amazon, which has achieved almost total dominance in e-commerce.

The company recently tightened its grip on the online book retailing space having acquired the UK based company The Book Depository. Recently the company acquired Canada’s Advanced Book Exchange which is now known as ABEbooks, and links thousands of independent online booksellers globally.

The Book Depository is very popular with Australian consumers, in large part because of the company’s offer to provide what it says is free shipping on its huge catalogue to Australia.

The promise of free shipping however is a little deceptive, since the company typically adjusts the price of the books to the country where the purchase will be sent to. Despite that, the price remains competitive, and shoppers will find that the cost of book delivered to them in Australia remains well below what would be paid at a local bookstore. Whether they can continue to do so under Amazon’s ownership remains to be seen.

Says Neill Denny, editor of the UK Bookseller magazine: “The publishing industry will be worried about the concentration of power in Amazon’s hands. They don’t like the stranglehold it has over online bookselling as it is.”

DoubleClick last week put all three Amazon properties — ABEbooks, Book Depository and Amazon.com — to the test, to see which could come up with the lowest price for a copy of Tim Winton’s Breath.

This title in an Australian bookstore will cost $24.95 for the paperback edition and $45 for the hardcover.

Amazon.com offered the paperback version for $5.41 plus shipping to an address in Sydney address bringing the paperback total to $15.51, whilst the hardback version including delivery costs $24.95.

Book Depository, with its “free” shipping, offered the paperback at $11.77, the hardback at $21.94.

On ABEbooks, 270 booksellers on three continents offered us new copies of the paperback ranging from $1 to $14, and the hardback for about $22.

Compared to the price in a local store the quotes are amazing, and it comes as no surprise that Australian bookstores have been fighting an uphill battle.

Online shopping is storming the world over, with the main advantage obviously that the shopper can do it from the comfort of their couch, and whenever they feel like it, since the internet is 24/7.

Websites tend to be updated daily, and with new products, and discount coupons. Shoppers can choose from a vast variety of products, and once and item is selected simply add it to your digital cart, and the payment is made using a credit card, with the good dispatched to the address given.

Shopping online, lets you browse an endless variety of products, with some websites allowing you to make use of discount coupons, which can be redeemed when you purchase the item or on your next purchase.

If you like shopping over the internet, why not set up an birthday wishlist on a tool like boxedup.com. Its completely free, and you can save any item you see online to your wishlist with a single click, allowing you quick access to the item at a later date. Even better still, you can share your

So you like to do a lot of online shopping huh? Or perhaps you have never done it before, worried about the safety aspect of handing your credit or debit card deals over to an anonymous computer on a website. Well here is a check list for safe online shopping

Check list

• Use anti-virus, and anti spyware software so your computer is protected.
• Make sure you are on the lookout for common scams that ask for your personal information.
• Make sure that the website you wish to purchase from is secure before you transact
• Don’t forget to include the cost of delivery, and compare prices before deciding to buy
• Use your credit card to pay for the transaction, since it provides additional protection.
• There is a cooling-off period should you change your mind about something you have bought online
• You have the same rights when buying online as you do on the high street

Why not set up a birthday gift wish list Australia using a tool like boxedup.com, For a start it doesn’t cost a thing, you can save any item you see online to your list with a single click, enabling quick and easy access to all your birthday gift wish list Australia items. Even better you can share your birthday gift wish list Australia with friends and family, ensuring you never receive the same gift twice or a gift you simply have no use for.

A new survey by EpiServer suggests that nearly 40 per cent of British shoppers will take to the internet for at least half of their holiday season shopping this year. A lot of the increase can be attributed to just a general rise in the number of people shopping online, but price is also a large motivating factor. 45 per cent of respondents say they check multiple prices for comparison before they make a purchase.

35 per cent of all UK shoppers says they look for discount codes before making a purchase.

“While the increase in online shopping is positive for British retailers, the survey also reveals a critical challenge, with a significant number of consumers shopping around and comparing products before making a purchase,” says Neal Perry, EpiServer’s U.K. country manager. “To convince these savvy shoppers to buy, retailers need to deliver an engaging and satisfying online experience, otherwise they’ll merely migrate to the competition.”

If you are a keen online shopper, than using an online wish list tool like boxedup.com is a great way to keep track of things you want to buy either for yourself or as gifts of loved ones, you can create specific lists for specific occasions, and with a single click you can save an item to an aggregate list with all the price and site details for the item you want to buy, enabling you to quickly navigate to the page the item was located for quick purchase. Moreover you can share your wish lists with family and friends, ensuring you never again receive a gift you have no use for, or have two people buy you exactly the same item.

Choosing a birthday present for one’s parents can often be a difficult thing to do. If your mum or dad don’t have special interests or hobby’s then trying to choose a generic birthday gift which is original and will be well received can be a nightmare.

The best way to make the folks smile on their birthday is choosing a gift item as if you were a youngster again, and lots of parents will appreciate this and there are a ton of quirky gift ideas available.

A box of birthday celebration steaks for example. Now at first this may seem a very odd birthday gift idea, but if either of your parents are meat lovers than this a great way to say Happy Birthday and I Love You. There are a ton of big brand name steak providers on the market, and many of them regularly offer special day services. Usually the steaks are highly priced, but it certainly means your parents will have a scrumptious birthday meal on their special day.

The internet is a great tool for doing birthday shopping, and if you are having problems coming up with a gift idea, perhaps starting an online wish list on a tool like www.boxedup.com is a method you can use to solicit gift ideas from friends and family. You simply set up a list and share it with your contacts and ask them to add items they think would make a good gift idea on their internet travels. That way you can see the best ideas that people have on their internet travels.

Every year we get one single day to indulge ourselves, that one day of the year where families and friends wish you a good day, and for the cynical, are forced to be nice. Of course I am talking about your birthday.

All of us have had to traverse the birthday gift minefield. Either when we have to choose a gift for someone near and dear, or when we open gifts and have to feign excitement at receiving a gift we will never use (a bottle of old spice comes to mind).

A fairly simple solution to the problem is organising your birthday shopping through an online wish list. Tools likes boxedup.com enable you to make lists of items that you are interested in, and organise the things you want to buy, into specific lists. You can create separate lists for different occasions like birthdays or Christmas and you can sort your shopping into categories like electronics or clothing, or you can create separate lists that you share with different groups of people like friends or family.

How specific you get is entirely up to you, and the most diligent amongst can use the tool to create highly specialised lists of items that family and friends can refer to, and can use to find gift ideas that fit their budget, the occasion, and more importantly an item you will appreciate receiving.

Start your birthday wish list today, and make sure you never receive another gift that ends up collecting dust and never gets used again.

The concept of Wish Listing is often misunderstood as the very term suggests it’s making a list of products or things that you wish you could have e.g. a ferrari, a spaceship or a date with Cheryl Cole! A wishlist can actually be an all encompassing term for creating any kind of list for things you want, a great example of which is a gift list.

If you are anything like me, buying a gift for someone usually involves a quick phone call or email saying “hi, so it’s your birthday – what do you want me to get you?!”. I take this approach for two reasons :

1. I don’t have much time to go shopping / I am lazy
2. I want to buy something that they will actually like! Having been on the receiving end of pants and socks at Christmas for every year since I was old enough to grasp the concept of gifts, I know it’s nice to actually get a useful gift!

Using a web application such as boxedup.com to create a wish list allows you to go around the web and find products you would actually like, then you can add these to a list in your boxedup account to email on to friends. They can then purchase gifts for you and as they do so those items no longer become purchasable by other users so you don’t get the same gift twice. Those that are less internet friendly can also view your list via an easy to read print out.

Here in the UK we may see asking for gifts as a bit non-British, but it’s massive stateside, and lets face it – you have gift lists for weddings and christenings, why should you have to put up with a bottle of Brut and some socks for your birthday!

Wishlisting is becoming more common with web based tools making it easier for you to keep track of things you want and they are also a great way for you to keep track of things you’ve bought to provide reviews and helpful hints to others who may be thinking of buying a similar product or have had a similar issue post purchase e.g. how do you change the sim card on an iphone!

Wishlisting is becoming more common with web based tools making it easier for you to keep track of things you want and they are also a great way for you to keep track of things you’ve bought to provide reviews and helpful hints to others who may be thinking of buying a similar product or have had a similar issue post purchase e.g. how do you change the sim card on an iphone!

Wishlisting is becoming more common with web based tools making it easier for you to keep track of things you want and they are also a great way for you to keep track of things you’ve bought to provide reviews and helpful hints to others who may be thinking of buying a similar product or have had a similar issue post purchase e.g. how do you change the sim card on an iphone!