Beware of dead shops...

I am not too sure if anyone ever thinks about this, or has ever ask about it even, but are you all aware that over 60% of E-commerce shop or stores listed on the internet are dead.
I know that lots of people buy a shop, or software to build one when they get an idea to make money with, then they get married, get kids, buy a new car, die, leave the country, but just because they have done that, the shop that they built is still on the net.
Last week I and 5 mates logged onto 300 UK internet sites selling items from Health care products to cars, and guess what? out of the 300 we called with phone numbers on the websites only 80 shops are still run by a user of that account.
Now what happens if you log on, enter your bank card details, name adrs because you see an item you like to buy? do you get the item? is your card details just not logged by the auto shop system?
May I just say that you should keep an eye on shops that never ever change, or added too, if it looks old stock maybe you should write or phone up first to see if the number is still live, or will you just get a purr on your phone like we did.
We had 19 people pick up the phone and was told that sorry my husband run that shop thing, but he died over 4 years ago, and sorry I don't know how to run it myself.
So warning folks beware, people do not live forever even if they do run health shops.
David
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www.Alternative4u.co.uk

Re : Beware of dead shops

That's a very interesting figure!

Certainly I notice a lot of sites I look at appear 'dead' - the telltale sign is that the special offer on the homepage is March 2006 or something, or alternatively they still have a competition live that ended 2 years ago!

Tim

Re : Beware of dead shops

Yes your right, only today I viewed an e commerce with a product listed that was withdrawn from UK markets in 2007, and the e mail button on it took me to nothing as e mail adrs was closed too.
If they removed all the millions of dead sites it would be good for everyone.
I have noticed that AOL are the only provider that removed any websites, as they removed 100% of websites made by AOL's members last year.
David
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www.Alternative4u.co.uk

Re : Beware of dead shops

I guess your OK if you stick to a legitimate payment system using credit cards and majour processing companies such as paypal, at least then if you dont get your product, you can get a refund.
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Re : Beware of dead shops

Useful post.

From personal experience I do view quite a few ecommerce sites that look suspiciously out of date. Thats the main reason I tend to stick to large ventures like amazon if they have a product I'm after rather than shop around. I think there is a lot to be said for the "better the devil you know" mentality online. I might miss the odd bargain, but at least I know that my order is going to be fulfilled and not hit some long-forgotten mailbox!

Re : Beware of dead shops

I don't think anything could be done to automatically people a website hadn't been updated could it? I mean could the people that run the server see when a page was last modified automatically and alert the end user if they went to make a payment on a really old site or something... maybe just fanciful thinking!

Re : Beware of dead shops

I think a lot of those empty websites and shops could be removed from servers, I see shops selling things on the internet that are hosted on internet providers servers that went out of business over 5 years ago.
AOL removed millions of web sites last year alone from servers, I know that because they removed 5 of my own sites along with all other AOL members personal sites.
Look how fast the internet would be going now on broadband if millions of empty un-used sites were removed.
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Re : Beware of dead shops

Interesting discussion.

I have seen it often said that around 90% of emails that are sent these days are spam. Whilst there are lots of dead sites out there, undoubtedly that will never be posted to again, I also wonder what percentage of content on 'live' websites is actually done by humans.

I have visited countless blogs and so forth that unfortunately have been spammed to death it appears, particularly noticeable in the comments section. It's a shame as I'm sure the maintenance aspect puts many people off creating a site. Particularly annoying (as I find occasionally moderating here) is that as soon as a site becomes vaguely 'popular' the rate of spam it attracts is extreme.

Lianne

Re : Beware of dead shops

Really, is it as many as 90% Sasha?! Gosh I had no idea. That said I know that those of my acquaintances who have several websites and use the internet regularly do receive a lot of spam. Fingers crossed I've not done too badly by keeping the email address hidden.

Sasha

Re : Beware of dead shops

One simple piece of advice if you see an item on a website that you really want to buy, but are unsure if the site is still "active" or not.

All you need to do is email the 'contact us' or 'enquiry' form on the site with some sort of question about delivery charges or similar. If you get a timely reply, then this is a strong indication that the site is live and your order will get fulfilled. If you get no reply, however, then you should consider ordering elsewhere.

Simple but effective!

Dan
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Web Design

Re : Beware of dead shops

Nice idea Dan

Re : Beware of dead shops

I pretty much just stick to amazon for this reason. If I ever stray away then I will generally look at some reviews first. Also if you use a credit card then you should be protected in case something happens, actually you should pretty much always use a credit card online for this reason.
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