On Sunday evening,President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the whole countrywill be moving to alert level 3 from 1 June, which means that the sale of alcohol, amongother things, will be permitted.
Read More:Liquorsales and tobacco ban: 11 things you need to know from Ramaphosa's speech
And while many are excited to be able to purchasesome of their favourite beverages at their nearest liquor stores, others arecommitted to maintaining strict social distancing by ordering their alcoholonline which, according to BusinessInsider, is a booming business.
But as with everything that has to do withshopping online, there are things one should always lookout for before making apurchase.
Take a look at 4 things you should considerbefore buying alcohol online.
1. Delivery time
According to BusinessInsider, online alcohol orders may take up to seven or more days to get toconsumers. This is due to factors such as where in the country the consumer isbased and the time that it takes retailers to process each person's order. So,if you're way too thirsty to wait for about a week, you may want to head to theliquor store.
2. Credibility of the website
As more businesses will beallowed to operate online, there will be a lot of scammers who will attempt tocon people by posing as alcohol-offering websites. A few ways to ensure thatthe site you're ordering from, according to Santam, is legit are:
1. Saving/bookmarking some of yourfavourite sites to avoid typing in the wrong address when you're ready to makea purchase.
2. Asking for recommendations frompeople such as friends/colleagues.
3. Reading online reviews to seepeople's experiences of ordering from that website.
3. Inflated/increasedprices
Another thing to consideris that alcohol may cost more from apps such as Mr D or the Bottles app becausethe app chargesthe retailer for using it as well as the consumer for the delivery services.This results in the consumer paying a slightlyr more than they would in aliquor store. Some online retailers such as boschendalwines.com only selltheir wines in cases, which means that the consumer will pay more than theywould have if they only needed one bottle of wine.
4. Safety of payment method
While some retailers mayhave the option for customers to pay upon delivery of goods in cash or by card,most require customers to make the payment prior to receiving goods. This maymake some people nervous as they'd have to share their card details and CVVswith these retailers. And while this is risky, thebalance.comsays that consumers should take these precautions when paying online:
1. Consider keeping a card thatyou only use for online purchases - this will help you keep a closer eye on expenditure,and its charges once your statement comes in.
2. Only transact on secure sites -look for the lock on the website. When you get to the page where you enter yourcredit-card or other personal information, look for an "s" after "http://" inthe web address of that page - it should read: "https://". The encryptionis a security measure that scrambles your data as it is entered.
3. Use strong passwords - usean eight-digit password combination of uppercase letters, symbols and numbers,this will prevent hackers from accessing your details easily.
