How to Shop for Dog Products Online

Research is probably the most important step of any shopping experience. Thankfully, when you're shopping online a whole world of information is at your fingertips. Pretty much the same rules apply to researching dog products that apply to researching anything else. Know how to evaluate sources, find multiple sources for your facts and, when it comes to consumer products, read customer reviews. You'll need to research not only the products that you wish to buy, but also the companies you're thinking about buying from. However, we'll deal with the latter subject farther on.

What sites you use to research will depend largely on the products you're looking to buy. To begin your research, you should probably take a look at some comparison review sites in the product category that you choose. For instance, if you're looking for dog food, find sites that compare several different brands beside each other. I usually start by running a Google search. In this case, I'd google "dog food comparison." You can also start by going to some sites you know and trust when it comes to dogs.

Some good general comparison sites include ConsumerReports.org and ConsumerReview.com. Going to a comparison site first helps you to narrow your search down to a few brands fairly quickly, and can also educate you about some of the more important issues in buying the given product. For example, with dog food, many people are switching to grain free dog food, because it's closer to what a wild dog would eat.

Once you've done some comparison research and narrowed down your search to a few brands, you'll need to do some brand-specific research on those final products. It's important here to diversify your sources of information. Yes, you should definitely check out the official websites of the brands themselves. However, you can't really trust these sites. They'll give you basic information, but be skeptical as you read. The site's only goal is to sell their product. They must do this legally, which entails being truthful (or at least not lying) and providing things like ingredients or other specifications required by law. But if they can pull the wool over your eyes legally, they will.

So once you've looked at a brand website, check out some objective, outside sites, too. Sites ending in .org and .edu are often more trustworthy than .com's, but not always. Look around the web and see where other dog owners seem to go for information. In the case of dog food, I found fairly quickly that IAMs dog food had been cited by PETA for animal cruelty violations, so I decided to stay away from it. On the other hand, I found that Evo dog food and Canidae dog food both had grain free options and seemed to be widely trusted. Most every review I saw said that they were high quality dog foods.

When doing these final checks on specific brands, leave your mind open to at least a couple of options. You may find in the next step that one brand has a price advantage over another and this may sway your decision.

Now that you have maybe two specific brands or products in mind, it's time to find a place to make your purchase. You might be surprised at how widely prices may vary across the internet, and certainly between on the web and in stores. By all means, if you know of a store that sells the product for less than an online retailer, buy it there. However, I've found that you can almost always get a better deal online when it comes to dog products. For instance, you can get discount pet medicine incredibly easily over the web and not be charged the premiums that you would have to pay at a vet's office. Now, you'll need to do more than just looking at the price tag on the product that you're buying. Some of the other considerations you'll need to make include shipping costs, package deals and return policies.

For instance, if you're buying something heavy like an orthopedic dog bed, paying shipping costs according to weight can get fairly expensive. Look for a store that either doesn't charge for shipping at all or charges a flat fee. Whatever the cost of the shipping is, add that onto the retail price when comparing prices between different sites. Also, if you find that one product is cheaper on one site, while another product that you also want to buy is cheaper on another, look into whether the shipping cost can be combined for both products if you buy them from just one site. For example, many products on Amazon ship for free if you spend more than $25.

As for package deals, sometimes you can get a discount when you buy two or more items together. Amazon often has bargains like this. Also, consider whether one brand can provide you with two benefits for at once. As an example, you can buy both Heartgard and Frontline Plus for your dog, or you can buy Sentinel for dogs to take care of both fleas and heartworm disease. Therefore, you'll want to compare sentinel's price to the combined price of Heartgard and Frontline.

Finally it's time to make your purchases. You've found the best products at the best prices, so I only have a couple more tips to give you when it comes to ordering. First, I have found it convenient to create a special email address that I use only for buying products online. This way, I avoid having my regular email bombarded by junk mail from the stores I frequent, plus I keep all of my online receipts, shipping confirmations and related email organized easily in one place. Second, it may be worthwhile to get a credit card that you use solely for online purchases. While the internet is very secure these days and I have never had my identity stolen or my credit card used fraudulently, it's still better to be safe than sorry. Whatever credit card you do use, make sure it's one on which you get some kind of rewards for your spending.