While there are many of us that have bought into the concept of shopping online so well we can in fact do an entire year's Christmas shopping without ever entering a store, I accept that for many people online shopping seems daunting, and like anything in life, the one time you may have bought something online it either didn't arrive, was too big, too small or broken. Well, as a fairly seasoned online shopper the following provides you with some insight into my top 5 online shopping sites. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but for the newbies will certainly keep you busy!

Sites like these have been popping up for a couple of years now with the express intention of bringing together complete strangers to give them purchasing power ... to shop mob. They vary in style, some will have a deal a day or week, and others will have a selection of sales on at any one time, but all of them bring together retailers that want to discount with buyers who don't want to pay the full ticket price ... always a good idea!