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House & Home
Homing in on the right gifts for the house can be tricky. Despite its eponym's legal troubles, MARTHASTEWART.COM is still one of the best places to start. Shop by category: there's gardening, decorating, even "homekeeping" (stylish supplies for laundry and other chores). WILLIAMSSONOMA.COM lures you with attractive cookware, kitchen tools and appliances alongside seasonal recipes. Both sites have a quick-shop feature so you can plug in item numbers from a print catalog to jump to specific products. Price-conscious shoppers should check out OVERSTOCK.COM, a clearance site for excess inventory (bed and bath, appliances, furniture) from brand-name manufacturers. Overstock sells lamps too, but you will find many more options at LIGHTINGUNIVERSE.COM, which organizes its wares by type (table lamps, pendants) and then subdivides by style (Art Deco/Retro, Craftsman/Mission).For gizmos, try TECHNO SCOUT. COM or BROOKSTONE.COM. Too much hardware? Make a softer statement with something from flower merchant CALYXANDCOROLLA.COM. It ships directly from growers, and the plants come in decorative ceramic pots.
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Don't be afraid to use your credit card online. Yes, there's fraud on the Web as well as off. But consumers are rarely left holding the bag (beyond the cardholder's typical $50 maximum liability, and some card issuers don't even charge that). Reputable e-tailers will use a secure server to process transactions, and will make it plain they're doing so. Of course, even secure servers can be hacked; if you think a thief is using your card, run a quick check at CARDCOPS.COM, a database of suspected stolen numbers, compiled in part from merchant reports.
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For Him
Inside every man there's a little boy who loves to play. Consider RCWAVE.COM, where we found the iRacer, a teeny remote-controlled car that makes a terrific desk toy for the executive who could use some comic relief. Or GIANTROBOT.COM (from home page, click GR Store), which carries Asian pop-culture kitsch, T shirts, comics, and other random items (Japanese Winney the cow egg toy: $7.50). Need a gift with more gravitas? Get silk ties, merino wool sweaters and other staples at BROOKSBROTHERS.COM. For the outdoorsman, there's REI.COM, which lists products by activity (cycling, cross training, Alpine skiing, fly fishing). And if you can get past the leprechauns and other cheesiness, SHOPIRISH.COM has some charming gifts for golfers. Still stumped? Every guy, whether he admits it or not, couli*Ad use a purse. Choose the perfect leather satchel or a more casual carry-all from the hundreds of options at EBAGS.COM (the hip stuff is under Urban Gear). Just don't use the P word in the card.
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Before you hit the Submit Order button, take note of the shipping charges. Paying $4.95 is fairly standard, but deals abound, particularly during the holidays. SONYSTYLE.COM, for instance, which carries a full line of Sony electronics, charges customers 1¢ per item for regular UPS ground (three to five business days). AMAZON.COM ships free when you spend $25 or more (with some exceptions). Elsewhere, shipping can get pretty steep. If paying CRATEANDBARREL.COM $8.50 to ship a $40 fruit bowl sounds unreasonable to you, check to see if the Crate & Barrel store at your local mall has it in stock.
For Her
There are two ways to shop for the woman in your life. You could seek inspiration at a place like UNCOMMONGOODS.COM, which features fun specialty items you won't see anyplace else. Or you could stick with safe bets like LANDSEND.COM, purveyor of can't-miss cashmere scarves and other standards. REDENVELOPE.COM, somewhere in between, always has fresh suggestions and helps nudge shoppers in the right direction by grouping items by personality (click Lifestyle for the site's picks for the decorator, the entertainer, the spa seeker, the traveler). To be really hip, browse GIRLSHOP.COM for clothing and accessories from more than 100 "indie" designers, from Anna Kula's hand-knit caps to Zoe Vice's low-cut cords; there's a guy shop and a tot shop too. If you're in the mood to splurge, ELUXURY.COM features apparel, leather goods, jewelry, crystal and other high-end items from the likes of Dior, DKNY, Fendi, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. GLOSS.COM, a beauty supersite selling Chanel, Stila and eight other major brands, is easy to navigate and pools all your purchases into a single shopping cart. Amazon.com just introduced a similar portal for apparel, so you can hop from, say, Eddie Bauer to Nordstrom to Guess but check out only once.
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Make sure the price is right. Use BIZRATE.COM's search engine to see which other Web merchants carry the item and for how much. Bizrate also posts online store ratings based on customer feedback. Sometimes it's better to buy from a reliable outfit than to risk purchasing from a small operation with a poor (or nonexistent) track record just to save a few bucks. Other comparison shopping "bots" include PRICEGRABBER.COM, DEALTIME.COM, PRICESCAN.COM and MYSIMON.COM.
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