Researching Purchases Beforehand

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Researching Purchases Beforehand

Thinking back to the old ads for the Yellow Pages, whether you intend to buy online or in a store, "Let your fingers do the walking," at least during the research process. The Internet offers much more information than ever before about any product in which you are interested, complete with specification and price comparisons. Whatever the planned purchase, and however you plan to make the purchase (online versus in store) arm yourself with not only product information, but questions. The more you know—or learn—about the product, the easier it will be to narrow your search.

Customer Reviews

One of the best online research tools is customer reviews. Even if you don’t buy online, as you do your product research, read what the consumers who already purchased the product have to say about it. Just about every store has customer reviews on its Website. Consumers typically rate products with a five-star system, one star being the worst and five stars being the best. Read good and bad reviews. Weed out unnecessary information so you only compare information relevant to your search. The best thing about reading customer reviews is that there is usually no incentive to a customer to write a good review. Conversely, unless a customer has a major axe to grind against a store, there isn’t any advantage to writing a negative review. Therefore, you will likely find only honest feedback.

So, let’s say you’re thinking of purchasing a new washer and dryer. You can go to www.sears.com or www.homedepot.com, as examples, and look for reviews of the specific models you are considering, even if you have no plan to purchase from them. You can find customer reviews in many places including www.amazon.com.

Another excellent source for unbiased information for just about any product made is www.consumerreports.org.

Ask friends and family

A final note along the line of customer reviews is to just ask around. Mention your planned purchase at the soccer game, at your job, or after church. You will likely find someone who just made a similar large purchase or know someone who has. The more you ask, the more you’ll learn about the product(s) you are interested in purchasing.

The importance of research

Researching your major product is the single most important part of making your major purchase. You now know what features of the new purchase you need and what you want. You know what you can afford. Either by going from store to store or looking online, you should already have an idea as to the model options of your big purchase. Based on customer reviews and other research you have done, you have ruled out certain models and are considering others.