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. Paper mail was used to send cards to wish people Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas. The local library used to be used as our reference point for studying and a place to go to borrow books to read up on topics 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. While some of these things still remain part of our lives, the Internet has changed how we do day to day things dramatically. Could you go without Facebook, Twitter or dare I say it, email, for more than a couple of weeks?

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 is a large world out there when it comes to 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 most important part of any online store is what’s referred to as the 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? 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. Refuse to buy from that store as they are putting your private information at risk. It’s not the store that can’t be trusted, its people on the net that target stores like this to “listen in on” and steal your information.

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”.

This entry was posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 9:15 am and is filed under Food and drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.