KEY POINTS:
It was a rainy day in late November, and Manhattan's Fifth Avenue was crawling with shoppers carrying big cardboard bags that suggest big purchases.
As I passed Saks and Abercrombie & Fitch and DeBeers, a shiver ran down my spine. I hate shopping, unless it's for gadgets in a cut-price electronics warehouse in Shanghai. Yet here I was, on the most expensive retail street in the world, where a 90sq m patch of floor space costs US$1.35 million a year in rent. I decided to see Fifth Avenue from the safety of the car.
A week from Christmas you've probably been caught up in the high street sales frenzy yourself. But do you have to put up with it - the queues, bad customer service, gridlocked car parks and random Eftpos outages? The answer is no, because you can get practically whatever you want on the internet, pay for it with your credit card and have it couriered to your door.
New Zealand e-tailers have come a long way in the last couple of years, and many of them now offer free national shipping.
The biggest e-tailer, Telecom-owned Ferrit.co.nz, in November added payment services to its website, so you can pay through the site for goods bought from one of the retailers featured on Ferrit - most of the big ones are there.
The site is offering free shipping until midnight, December 20, "unless you want us to send a courier who can sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing in a Santa outfit", Ferrit says.
If you're in the market for books, DVDs and music, you can't go past RealGroovy's website. The retailer is known for its large stores in main centres, its great second-hand collection of music and the rare imports it offers. Everything in the stores is available online with free national shipping for everything bar vinyl records.
Check out Gameplanet for video games, hardware and gaming information. Shipping ranges from $3.95 for a game or DVD to $24.95 for a video game console.
Digitalcameras.co.nz is a great starting point if you're in the market for anything from a compact snapper to a semi-pro SLR. It ships for free in Auckland if the purchase is over $100. Elsewhere, it charges $10 to deliver.
Pricespy is a good entry point into the thriving electronics market. The umbrella site lets you search the databases of dozens of local merchants. It makes comparative shopping easy, and while the site could use a revamp, it's got all the information you need. Many of the merchants offer free shipping.
One that doesn't is Acquire, an Auckland-based e-tailer of computer equipment that I've used to buy new gadgets. Co-founder Clive Glover says Acquire's prices are already cheaper than conventional retailers.
Acquire will be shipping for Christmas delivery up to December 21.
If you want your new purchase to arrive before Christmas, don't rely on the postal service: you've already missed the guaranteed arrival dates.
Couriers will be flat out this week doing deliveries but will be on the move right up to Christmas Eve to clear the backlog. It's those couriers that are likely to be carrying your online purchase.
