One advantage of shopping online is the ease with which specialty items can be purchased and promptly sent to a person's home. Many vendors, but not all, now prioritize maintaining high standards of security for their customers' online purchases. It is not unusual for online stores to accept several methods of payment; credit cards and PayPal are two examples. If a customer prefers to purchase by phone, many Internet stores publish a phone number, often toll-free, where customers may order merchandise that they have seen online. For conscientious dieters, the Internet has many online options for buying food.
Step 1
Type the website address of an online diet food store of interest to you in the browser window. Several options are available for most every need in varying price ranges. In general, however, prepared food with home delivery is more expensive than buying products only and making meals at home. One economical vendor is Medifast, www.medifast1.com. One week of Medifast foods can cost as little as $9 to $10 per day. Other popular examples include BistroMD, www.bistromd.com, and Ediets.com, www.ediets.com. Netrition.com sells diet food products only. It is essential to check the security and privacy policies of all vendors and to shop only on secure websites.
Step 2
Navigate the website, adding desired products to your virtual shopping cart, following prompts as instructed, until you are finished making choices.
Step 3
Choose the prompt for "checking out" once your choices are complete. Doing so will usually take you to a secure payment page. You can look for signs that a payment web page is secure: the letter "s" added to the end of the letters "http" in your browser window is one indication. Often, a picture of a lock appearing in the browser window is another.
Step 4
Add payment information into the payment template provided by the trusted, secure website from which you are purchasing diet food products. Very often, this information includes mailing and shipping address, phone number and credit card details. If payment by PayPal is available and you choose that method, you will be transferred to PayPal securely and asked on the PayPal website to enter your account number and password to complete the purchase.
Step 5
Click on "Submit," or on whichever prompt a given website provides for submitting your payment information once you have checked that it is accurate. Most websites will provide you with a confirmation number for your purchase and will send an email confirmation as well. many websites caution customers to not click on the "back" button before receiving confirmation, which may take a few moments. Doing so may disrupt the payment or cause your payment to be submitted twice.
Step 6
Write down or print out your purchase confirmation and any details regarding shipment dates, if provided. Also write down the website name and address and any customer service phone number, if available. Keep these details in a safe place.
If you are informed that you will receive email confirmation of your purchase, access your email and add the vendor email address to your "safe" list so that your email program knows the message is not spam.
Tips and Warnings
- Comparison-shop. If you find a product that you like, check other online vendors to ensure you are getting the best price.
- Although purchases can be made online wherever you have an Internet connection, use extreme caution making purchases using an unsecured Internet connection or public computer. It is highly advisable to not make purchases under these circumstances, as personal information and credit card or other financial information, user names and passwords are potentially made available to anyone sharing the Internet connection and/or public computer.
Things You'll Need
- Valid credit card or online PayPal account, with details of either readily available
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