You really do have to love the internet, seeing as many companies like to offer a cheaper shopping experience. With thousands of sellers all offering to give you a better deal than you will find in the stores, it's tricky to know which ones are legitimate and which companies are just fronts for scam artists. Luckily, TheHut.com is amongst the majority of legitimate internet sellers out there. But what is it that separates TheHut from all the other ones like Asda Direct, Game and Amazon?

First thing is first, TheHut sells a range of items, that you will not find on most sites, without the customary big delivery charge, provided you join up free of charge. Whether it be a jar of sweets, perfumes, a rare computer game or even the latest Blu Ray, TheHut gives free delivery on every single item. You may find these items cheaper on smaller businesses websites, but when coupled with the delivery charges, it's evident that TheHut is second to none on most of their prices, including the hugely popular Amazon.

TheHut sells a medley of items. Upon visiting the site, a bar showcasing categories of items they sell is visible. The "Daily Deals" option will take you on a 1 day exclusive or sometimes weekly offer, on a bunch of selected items, ranging from electronics to clothes and even cosmetics. It's very rare to find a £2-£5 off offer, as anything up to 50% off, and even more at times, is the norm.

The "Men" category refers to attire for erm, men. Anything from clothing, sunglasses, wallets and even underwear are available, all of which are of the designer kind, not just some cheapy own brand Primark imitation. The "Women" category is likewise for them. Just remember to substitute underwear for lingerie.

The "Toys" category is for the kiddies, as TheHut stock quite a few popular toys that you can easily find at The Entertainer for a cheaper price. Of course, for those slightly older than kiddies, all the way to twenty or thirst something adults, the "Games" option is the place to look out. With games available for the current generation of consoles i.e. PS3, XBox 360, Wii etc, as well as the consoles themselves, TheHut put on some very competitive prices on all of them, which sites like Game and HMV ought to be embarrassed about. Even console accessories and strategy guides can be found.

The most extensive catalogue on TheHut is found on the "Movies, Music and Books" category. The title is pretty much self explanatory as almost everything released on DVD, Blu Ray, CD, hardback and paperback book is available. Naturally, seeing as this is what TheHut pride themselves on, the prices are ridiculously cheap and often better than Amazon.

The "Computing" and "Electronics" sections pretty much refer to PC accessories, speakers, headphones, laptops, mobile phones etc. There are better prices to be found on other sites who deal in electronics, but you just may find the odd bargain.

The "Sports" section mainly deals with sporting uniform and equipment. So whether you're looking for a cricket bat, shuttlecock, sweatbands, rugby polo or just simply a cup, TheHut will have a good price on just about anything sporty.

"Health and Beauty" is where you would find cosmetics, hair removal, skin care and all those other things for both men and women. Again, much like the "Computing" and "Electronics", you'll probably find cheaper stuff elsewhere, but you may never know, a bargain may be around the corner.

"Gifts" is another of those self explanatory categories. Treating a friend or loved one to an experience day, a fun gadget or some memorabilia has now been made possible by TheHut. I haven't really checked this section out, but seeing how expensive sites like Firebox are and in the Argos catalogue too, prices here shouldn't be too offensive.

Finally, you may notice "Clearance", which includes all the get rid of stock from the mentioned categories at dynamite prices. Naturally, it's all the stuff you don't want but which clearance store does sell desired items?

Reading that, you may say it's similar to Amazon and Play. They sell identical stuff and give free delivery and of course, try to sell you a credit card during payment. So how different is TheHut to these? When using TheHut, you may notice an absence of market sellers. You may look at this as a bad thing, but what they replace it with is something more worthy than a market seller. TheHut like to publish a hell of a lot of vouchers, mostly of the 10% off kind. For example spending £30 will allow £3 off the price with a voucher (which is 10% off) and bring the price to £27. While market sellers have stuff cheaper in the most part, TheHut does a good job matching it with the use of vouchers. And seeing how seldom Play and Amazon promote money off vouchers, it's no wonder I find myself using TheHut a lot. In fact, seeing as I've spent a chunk of dough on TheHut, they send me regular emails of VIP club vouchers, where you can get vouchers, which give more than 10% off, as well as on certain products, for example, buying 2 of something for a tenner or so, instead of paying £20, which the standard voucher TheHut promotes charges.

Customer service is excellent too. Products are clearly marked sold out, if they don't have it in stock, so there's no buying a product only to get an email the next day saying it's out of stock (a problem I've had with HMV). An email is sent out to confirm purchase and another to confirm dispatch, whether it be the next day, 5 days or a month for pre-orders. Heck if they don't dispatch it on time, they have the decency to email you to say it will be dispatched late, instead of having to log on to the account to see order status. It's incredibly simple, as well as it should be. Queries can be made in the unlikely even they don't send an email and orders can be cancelled provided they aren't dispatched. And not that I've had to do so yet, but to return you have a 2 week period to return the item sealed and unused for a full refund. Seeing how simple everything else is, I doubt this process is a hassle.

There is one thing i have to complain about, and that's the delivery time. Seeing as TheHut are based in Jersey, items can take around a week to arrive, seeing as they pass customs. Then again, to bring cheap prices, it is understandable that delivery time does take a while.

Another, albeit very minor, problem is that you can't see the item until it arrives to the front door, so you don't really know whether the item is damaged or not, until it's been opened. Only once, a DVD cover from TheHut had a slight crack, but not too noticeable from the distance. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I like to look at the condition of the item before I buy it and will switch it with another if there's a problem.