This gorgeous double-handle kitchen faucet from Kohler's Purist collection is available on Build.com. It's easy on the eyes, but how do you find something like this?

According to Internet Retailer Magazine (widely considered the definitive source for everything related to online retailing), the annual growth rate for 2010 e-commerce sales in the United States was 14.8 percent. Additionally, nearly 8 percent of all U.S. retail sales last year were done online.

Build.com prides itself in making shopping with us easy as possible. But we know it could still be a little confusing. So, here are some tips to help simplify your experience with Build.com.

Filters: Our shopping filters narrow your search through thousands of products to find exactly what you’re looking for. Let’s say you want a double-handle pullout kitchen faucet that’s ADA compliant and eco-friendly. Oh, and you really like Kohler.

There are some nifty shortcuts, but since this is Filtering 101, here’s how to filter from over 3,600 kitchen faucets down to the one that best fits your needs:

• From our home page, hover over “shop by room” and click “Kitchen,” then click “Kitchen Faucets.”
• Click on “Shop All Kitchen Faucets.”
• Now that you see all of our kitchen faucets, the column on the left titled “Narrow Your Results,” allows you to filter your results and customize your search. In the box “Number Of Handles,” click “2” since we’re looking for a double-handle faucet.
• In the box “Features” click on “Pullout Spray.”
• In the same box, click on “ADA Compliant.”
• In the box “Brands,” find Kohler and click on it. You will have to expand the list by clicking “more options.”
• And hey, it turns out we carry exactly what you’re looking for. Success!

Availability: We know how important this is, so we’ve vastly improved our stock feed from manufacturers over the last couple of years. If the product was available at the beginning of the day you’re looking at the product, it will say “In Stock.”

But some products are just so darn popular that the manufacturers run out of stock and they’re placed on backorder. If there’s a question whether a product is in stock (like the above faucet we found), the product page will indicate this and how long lead times can be.

Saved carts: If you’ve found what you’re looking for but you’re not quite ready to pull the trigger and buy it, you can always save it in your shopping cart. By clicking “Save Cart” when viewing your cart, it will be stored in our database for the next 30 days.

Risk status (and how to avoid it): When you’ve found the product you want and are ready to check out, make sure to stay out of what’s called risk status. The most common way a customer lands in risk status is providing us with a billing address that’s different from the one your credit card (bank) has on file.

Examples of these are:

• If you use a PO Box for a mailing address, the bank might have your physical address on file
• If you’ve moved recently and haven’t updated all of your records

Other common ways that an order can be entered into risk status include:

• If your billing and shipping address are different
• If your order contains large quantities of the same item
• If your order is over $1500

In these cases we advise you to call in your order to have one of our representatives place the order for you. This will save you time and frustration and allow you to know exactly when your order will be processed and shipped.

Shipping times: Shipping times can vary based on a few factors, like availability, your location and the location of the warehouse the product is coming from. If you’ve ordered multiple products, it’s possible your shipment might be broken up into separate deliveries.

Breathing room: We all want our online purchases to reach our doorstep as soon as possible—like, yesterday. And the majority of orders on Build.com reach their destination on time, or even early. But, as we all know, sometimes things take longer than we want them to.

So try and leave a little breathing room when it comes to receiving a product. Order early, try your best to be flexible in your project so that even the worse case scenario should feel like just a little bump in the road.

Until next time, Happy Home Improving!

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