OK, every country has its own national quirks and characteristics. But when it comes to the wonderful world of Internet shopping, Canadians seem to be suspicious, demanding and even a touch paranoid.

Survey results released by market research company NPD Group Inc. reveals several possibilities as to why Canadians have been slower to jump on the online-shopping bandwagon than their American cousins south of the 49th parallel.

Most significantly, almost 90% of the survey’s respondents admitted that having to pay return shipping costs alone would make them less likely to make an online purchase.

But it doesn’t stop there; 51% said they were anxious about the security of online payment transactions, and 22% said having to create online accounts prior to purchase was enough to put them off.

Personally, I think the more interesting idea is not how many Canadians would baulk at having to pay return shipping costs but the fact that they have to return anything at all.

It makes more sense with clothing. But why would you return books, CDs, cosmetics or sporting goods, for example? Have they gone online shopping without reading the customers’ testimonials? Were they in a hurry?

I would rarely return it, as I’d be more likely to ahem, regift it, or sell it on eBay and chalk it up as a mistake. But maybe I too, would return something if return shipping was free.

eBay fans, at last there’s a loyalty scheme especially for you!

From now on, any gifts you buy for others will offer you more than the fist-pumping “Yes!” when you’ve outbid the other contestants (sorry, customers).

Introducing the eBay Bucks rewards program, which has been slowly gestating in the cyber womb since April last year.

To qualify, you need to: 1. Purchase a qualifying item. 2. Pay using PayPal (also owned by eBay). (and you knew this was coming…) 3. Be an American customer.

If you tick these three boxes, you’ll be rewarded with a 2% kickback in the form of eBay Bucks, which will accumulate quarterly. You’ll then be issued a statement telling you how many you’ve got up your sleeve to use for other eBay purchases you make over the next 30 days. Rather like cyber tokens.

These eBay Bucks are automatically generated by any qualifying purchase, all the way up to a maximum of $500 per quarter. Some shopping categories lie outside the program, such as classifieds and real estate, but most items the average person is likely to be hunting for will come with the 2% kickback.

No doubt eBay will monitor the program to see how it fares in The Land Of The Free, with a possible eye on expansion to the international market. But for the time being, only the program will only apply in America. Watch this space for updates.

Okay, hands up everyone out there who tends to leave their gift shopping till the last minute.

Chances are, you’re part of the almost 50% of all e-gift card shoppers who are in the same boat, so you’re certainly not alone.

The connection between e-gift cards and last-minute shopping isn’t exactly a mysterious one. A recent study by US payment provider Blackhawk Network revealed that almost half of all gift card users over the previous 12 months appear to have time management issues and leave their shopping to the last minute. The advantages of e-gift cards for these hapless souls can’t be underestimated.

Half an hour online, a few clicks of the mouse and the gift card has landed in the recipient’s inbox, with no postage costs to worry about or, more importantly, no precious time lost to allow for delivery. The sender can rest assured that the recipient knows they’re thinking of them and has remembered the occasion in a timely manner. In short, everyone’s happy.

Recognising this burgeoning trend, Blackhawk Network has recently expanded its eGift Card program to include even more retailing options than ever before.

I bet you can already think of a few people you know who’ll be using e-gift cards on Christmas Day!

It just keeps getting easier and easier. Online shopping, that is.

Visa has come up with an “electronic wallet” for online purchases. Competing directly with Paypal and Google Checkout, Visa has given Rightcliq some spanking new additional features of its own, ensuring it will never have an identity crisis.

As well being able to store your payment card numbers (just like you can with Paypal and Google Checkout) which makes it super-fast AND safe to shop online, Rightcliq also allows you to drag images of fabulous things you spot on retailer websites to the My Wishspace part of the account so you can create a handy wishlist for your upcoming birthday, for example. You can then get the low-down on these items from friends, via Facebook or e-mail.

Visa will target Rightcliq to “Young trendsetters” who want the latest products and interact via social media as they shop, and “Shopping enthusiasts” who are trendy, fashionable, love to shop and to be in the know. Together, these two segments represent 26% of online consumer retail spending.

There’s a browser plug-in to fill in your personal and payment info at checkout, too.

American customers can also use Rightcliq to track the delivery status and current location of goodies they’ve bought, courtesy of the US Postal Service. There’s also stacks of discount offers exclusively for Rightcliq users, something Visa also hopes will reign in new customers for online retailers and therefore help cement its popularity.

Can it get any easier? All you need is a credit card, a mouse and a finger to click with.

Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…

Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.

Instead of handing someone a plastic gift card for their birthday, Christmas or baby shower in person, e-gift cards are terrific for those who live on the other side of the world – and especially great for those who remember all-too-late on the day when it’s someone’s birthday.

The 16 merchants on there to date range from Bedandbreakfast.com to Zappos. The balances on the e-gift cards are low – $US25 and $US50 – but they should get you out of hot water celebration-wise when it absolutely, positively has to be there before you get an abusive phone call, text or email.

Two’s company, three’s a crowd and 20 or more can get you a great bargain!

In the case of shopping, that doesn’t mean pounding the malls in the company of like-minded shopaholics and bargain-hunters. All of that is soooo 5 minutes ago.

This group activity is much more fun in a pressure-slowly-building, clock’s-ticking, edge-of-your-seat kind of way. Oh, and did we mention that you can pick up some amazing bargains and discounts in the process?

The rub is that to get the deal, a certain number of people have to put their cyber hands up for it. Therefore, by roping in your friends, family, even colleagues, you’ll have the numbers and the deal will be yours. Simple. The power of the group never sounded so good.

Woot pioneered the one-deal-a-day model (although unlike the others, it didn’t depend on a set number of customers purchasing it to receive the deal) when it launched in Dallas in July 2004. Seeing it was a goldmine, Woot was bought by Amazon on 30 June 2010.

But probably the best-known group-buying website is the 400-pound gorilla of online deals, US Groupon which launched in Chicago as recently as November 2008 in time for the Christmas holiday season. The European deal-of-the-day website CityDeal was launched only a year later in December 2009 and by May 2010 was acquired by Groupon, which now has daily online offers operating in more than 140 cities in 18 countries.

The UK equivalent is Groupola, which offers some of the most fabulous bargains from theatre tickets, to glamour photography sessions, to personal training services to fashion, food and accessories at up to 90% off the regular prices.

And there are a few in Australia, such as Spreets, Ouffer and Zoupon, too. However, I’m not aware of any in New Zealand – anyone?

Anyway, you simply register to receive amazing deals in your city – and facebook and Twitter your friends like hell to make sure they pass it on. If enough people buy, you’re in.

Lots of us have, at some stage, fallen for one of the thousands of “free trials” of various goodies doing the rounds on the Internet.

Whether it’s for weight loss pills, magical cleaning products, Rolex watches, libido-enhancing meds, subscription to a website, (take your pick), we happily provide our credit card details to cover the “nominal shipping fee” and then find ourselves scratching our heads when mysterious $20, $30 or $50 charges start to appear on our credit card statements each month.

Sound familiar? Yes, it’s that old nemesis called “negative option” where almost invisible fine print informs the consumer that unless they cancel the “free trial” within a usually very short time frame, the merchant is allowed to continue debiting the customer’s credit card each month. Ah yes, feel the lurve and goodwill.

This charming little practice has obviously been enjoying a surge in popularity lately, at least amongst unscrupulous merchants, because consumer complaints to Visa have skyrocketed over the last few months. So much so, that Visa has done a bit of sniffing around and decided that something was decidedly on the nose.

The credit card giant recently announced that it has shut down the credit card processing for 100 merchants who were particularly fond of negative option as a means of billing cardholders on the Internet. In other words, the world of Internet shopping just got a little bit safer. Hooray!

Skeptics might say that it will only be a matter of time before these slimy online sharks find another way of fleecing customers, but for the time being at least, you can breathe easy with the knowledge that 100 shonky merchants have simultaneously had their teeth pulled and wings clipped.

Many American retailers now give you the option to order your goodies online (in your pyjamas) but to save on shipping costs by letting you pick it up at their (nearest) store.

This is great when you have to get something in time for an urgent gift occasion. Locally, I’m doing it on Wednesday when the stock has come in on a fun t-shirt for my brother’s birthday from Well Spotted in Ashfield, NSW. Another place I regularly use the purchase-online-pickup-in-store option to get an out-of-stock book as fast as possible is from my favourite local bookstore,  Shearers Bookshop in Leichhardt, NSW.

Here are some other Australian stores which now let you order online and pick-up in-store, too.

Coles is trialling buy online and collect in-store in their supermarkets in Darwin, NT and Aitkenvale, Aspley, Cairns, Cannonvale, Elanora, Fairfield, Loganholme, Maroochydore, and North Ipswich, QLD (please oh please let it go nationwide!). This is a boon for those harassed mums whose children become heat-seeking missiles for lollies and chips when traversing the aisles in the supermarket.

Discount online department store www.OO.com.au lets customers pick up their electronics, perfumes, handbags, appliances, homewares, pet items, toys and NRL merchandise from their Rosebery, NSW showroom Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

Storm London has has recently launched its Australian website at www.stormwatches.com.au which allows customers to purchase a watch online and collect it from one of two Storm London concept stores in Chadstone and Highpoint, VIC 7 days a week. Customers not only save on delivery but receive a free- watchfitting, too.

Eco-friendly baby product website www.flowerchild.com.au lets customers collect their online purchases from their bricks-and-mortar store in Collaroy, NSW.

Australia’s biggest collection of Thomas the Tank Engine toys, plus Lego and other treats can bought online at www.toottoottoys.com.au and collected from the store in Bentleigh, VIC.

Beautiful sterling silver jewellery can bought online from is www.ravishdesigns.com.au and collected at the showroom in West Lindfield, NSW.

Brindabella Baby lets customers buy their baby’s compostable disposable nappies, natural mother and baby skincare, baby slings and carriers, and shoes and toys from fair trade workplaces online and come to collect them in Pialligo, ACT.

Are there any others we should all know about? Let us know! Post a comment below!

Ever received a few $20 or $30 gift cards to a particular store and thought, “excellent! I’ll use them all on the one thing!”?

While you can usually combine gift cards towards purchases in bricks-and-mortar stores in the mall, it is far less common that you can do this with online shopping.

In short: many retailers’ payment systems don’t accept multiple gift cards. Since most gift cards have a fairly modest limit on them, so it may seem like a good idea to combine one with another form of payment, such as a credit card, for an individual purchase.

And if you don’t use them right away, until 22 August (when new gift card laws come in), you could be shocked to find that your Visa or MasterCard pre-loaded gift card value has been nibbled away by monthly administration fees.

Make sure your gift recipient can pay using multiple gift cards by confirming with the retailer before you purchase a gift card from them in the first place or at least check their FAQ section. And beware: requesting a refund of a gift card from the issuer usually attracts a fee, while others are not refundable at all.

Can you guess what percentage of consumers had already started their holiday shopping and searching for the term “Christmas gift ideas” by August last year? According to Google (and they should know): 44%.

The expensive and stressful strategy of leaving Christmas shopping til the last minute is losing popularity as many online shoppers start to buy one or two Christmas presents now to spread out their expenses.

This week Toys ‘R’ Us launched their Christmas Savers Club, with commentators marvelling that wow, it was so early in June to be launching this! Ah no, this is the perfect time.  $20 a week now hurts a lot less than $520 in one go a couple of days before Christmas.

The GFC has made people think – at last! – about planning for heavy Christmas expenses all year long. There was shock! horror! when Walmart introduced holiday toy deals in October 2006, ridicule when L.L. Bean mailed out its holiday catalog in September 2007 and amazement when Sears opened its Christmas Lane shop in July 2009.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s 10 reasons why it’s worth shopping for Christmas gifts ahead of time and out of season.