Stunning and distinctive pieces of jewellery can bring joy to the wearer and are a great way to express yourself. If you are looking for pieces to buy to treat yourself, or to co-ordinate for an outfit for a special occasion it can be time-consuming and tiring to search for accessories locally. The choice may not be there especially if you live in a small town or village and with many businesses closing down due to the pandemic. Therefore, retailers' websites have become increasingly important to offer you the best way to buy jewellery.

If you like roaming around your local stores or retail complexes for some retail therapy, you may now get accustomed to browsing and scrolling for that same experience. Research shows that online shopping has a lot of therapeutic and psychological value, as waiting for the package to arrive ignites dopamine release.

But as convenient as it may sound, this experience poses risks and has disadvantages too, and they are not to be overlooked. Let's find out what they are to most of your online jewellery shopping experience.



Photo source: https://unsplash.com/photos/2bxli6toVLo

Pros of buying jewellery online

The best deals are one click away.

If you fancy a piece of jewellery in a local store, but it exceeds your budget, you can always search for an identical one online to find the best price-quality ratio.

Online gems can be cheaper due to reasons like:

- Online retailers save on staff, brick-and-mortar stores and so on – it lowers their product's cost per unit .

- There are no intermediaries in between the business-customer – B2C services lead to lower prices, accessibility and a short user journey.

- Most online jewellery stores offer discounts when you sign up – they also keep track of your purchases to offer future bonuses.

Online jewellery stores offer a wide variety of choice.

Jewel speaks your personality, so you want to ensure it expresses your character in the best way. Therefore, you dream of a wide variety in your purchasing choices when feeling like you need a new pair of earrings or necklace. This need is best satisfied when you gain access to every piece of jewellery in and outside of your country, instead of being content with whatever you can find in your local stores because most jewellers are not able to display all of their products in offline shops.

Speaking of variety, most online jewellers offer many payment options besides cash and "buy now, pay later" instalments, such as Worldpay, Shopify, PayPal, Sage Pay and more.

Other customer's reviews reveal the quality of the product

Modern credible online jewellery sellers are transparent about their merchandise and provide customers with abundant information like pictures and descriptions.

When you want to purchase gems offline, make sure you pick a trustworthy website that allows objective reviews and is cautious that they are not fake. Reputable platforms enable posting pictures of customers with their achieved gems on and express both favourable and unfavourable opinions about them. Store ratings, expert knowledge and customer reviews help you figure out if your chosen offline source is ethical and allow you to make comparisons between products on various websites.

The internet offers inspiration and creative ideas

The internet's abundance of pictures and videos helps you visualise your dream accessories. If you can't find a fancied piece of jewellery in an online shop, you can still buy a personally designed one. If you find the product pricey online, you can show the picture to a local store jeweller and ask for similar merchandise. Anyhow, Pinterest and online stores are your best friends when you lack the time and inspiration to choose some new gems.

Cons of buying jewellery online

The burden of paying caution to every email and link you click

For the most part, offline shopping is safe when done precautionarily. But considering that hacking techniques become increasingly sophisticated and the likelihood you become a breach target grows with cybercriminals' advancements, you should keep in mind the following security tips for a safer online shopping experience:

- Type the URL into the address bar – scammers send phishing emails that send you on fake websites

- Beware of "poisoned" search results – deceiving websites could lead you to malware

- Ask your credit card company for a temporary credit card – many such companies will do these and will enable you to make a one-time purchase

- Use a dedicated email address for shopping accessories – the same can go for a smartphone or computer

Of course, all these preventive measures don't guarantee a 100% safe experience, but they at least lower the chances of your data being breached. Even though, if you happen to experience a misfortunate cyberattack, know that you can get compensation to counterbalance some of the financial damage. Search Google for a data breach compensation claims guide to shed some light on what such a claim may be, or directly contact a solicitor to help you through the bureaucratic process.

Increased likelihood of having your data stolen

Information theft is the illegal storage or transfer of confidential, financial or personal information. This can regard your passwords, proprietary processes or technologies, algorithms or software code. A serious privacy and security breach can imply potentially severe aftermaths, and data thieves target information such as:

- Financial data - credit card or debit card information

- Customer records

- Network credentials – usernames and passwords

Online shopping scams exist

You can be a newbie in online fashion purchases, and your lack of experience means the chances you recognize an online shopping scam or deceiving and fraudulent shopping website are low. Or you may be so accustomed to providing your needs from the internet that you can sometimes overlook bizarre aspects of a website and buy a product you have doubts about. You know returning products that are not according to your expectations is most of the time accessible and convenient, but you should not disregard the likelihood of getting scammed.

To avoid online shopping scams, you are advised to:

- Shop with trusted websites

- Check your payment is secure

- Watch out for the "too good to be true" signs

- Beware of mock websites

Conclusion

Increasingly more people are inclined to buy things online, and it is clear why. For some people, the advantages can counterbalance the drawbacks. Either way, shopping for new jewellery can be an enchanting and thrilling experience, as long as you use common sense when purchasing an item.