Monday, October 31, 2011

How Long Does It Take to Have Fresh Seafood Shipped?

How does 24 hours sound? You can often place your orders at a fish market online and have your fresh seafood shipped and sitting at your kitchen table in 24 hours.

If you’re planning a dinner party or just want fresh seafood for dinner, you can have fresh seafood shipped to you directly from some of the best fish markets on the West Coast. Many favorite local fishmongers will happily pack up any seafood product they sell and ship it to any address in the country. Whether you want to buy halibut or other ocean-caught fish for dinner or are looking to buy lobster tails for a special occasion, you can not only have it delivered to your front door, you can do it at a quite affordable price.

How to Have Fresh Seafood Shipped

If you’ve never ordered seafood online, you may be unsure how to go about it or what to expect. The easiest – but perhaps most important – part of ordering seafood online is finding where to buy halibut, ocean fish or shellfish. A simple Internet search will turn up dozens of results. If you’re looking for a specific type of seafood – say, halibut or lobster tails – use “buy halibut” or “buy lobster tails” as your search phrase to target your search more narrowly.

Look for a website that is connected to an actual fish market. Once you find one, check out the reviews for it online to get an idea of their reputation, both locally and across the country. That little bit of research will narrow down your choices to the top online fishmongers. Generally, the website will have photos of its offerings along with descriptions to help you make your choice. Many of the best places to buy lobster tails, halibut and other seafood also offer recipes and helpful information about the healthy aspects of eating seafood. Those pages can be fun and informative, but the page you want to find is the one that explains the fish market’s shipping policies. It will tell you what you need to know before you place your order.

Most online seafood vendors have their seafood shipped out once a day. The shipping policy will tell you what time your order needs to be placed if you want it shipped to you the same day. If you miss the order deadline, your order will be shipped the next day. This ensures that any fresh seafood shipped to you is as fresh as possible.

Depending on the time you place your order, you can expect it to arrive either the next day or the following day. It will be shipped in a Styrofoam container surrounded by frozen gel-packs to keep your seafood at the right temperature during its transport. Generally, the seafood will be vacuum-packed inside the Styrofoam container, and the container will be packed inside a cardboard box. Your order will probably also include instructions on storing your seafood to keep it fresh until you’re ready to cook it.

That’s it. As you can see, it’s easy to have fresh seafood shipped directly to your door. So next time you’re craving seafood, don’t resign yourself to what you can find in the freezer case. Shop online and have your seafood shipped to you, anywhere in the country.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

What To Look for When You Order Seafood Online

If you love fresh ocean seafood but don’t live near the ocean, you don’t have to resign yourself to eating “previously frozen” seafood from your grocer’s freezer. Thanks to the Internet, you can easily order seafood online and enjoy the tastiest fish and shellfish available. Some of the best seafood markets in the country will accept your orders online and ship seafood anywhere in the country with next day shipping. That means when you buy halibut, salmon, tuna or other delicious and healthy ocean fish online, you’ll get all the benefits of living right next to the wharf.

If you’re considering placing your first seafood order online, you should look for these things to make sure that you’re buying the best quality seafood available and making your purchase safely.

Contact Information

Check the website for contact information to make sure you’re dealing with a real seafood vendor, not a re-shipper. Any legitimate seafood market will post their address on their About or Contact page as a selling point. When you order seafood from a fish market located on or near the wharf, you know your order will be far fresher than if it has to be shipped inland. When it comes to seafood, a few hours makes a big difference in flavor.

The contact page should also include a telephone number you can call to ask questions or follow up on your order.

Shipping Policy

A reputable seafood vendor will provide you with the details of their shipping policy. It should tell you the shipping price, how they delivery shipped seafood and the store’s shipping timetable. The shipping policy should also include any additional charges for special handling, such as Saturday shipping, and the company’s refund policy in case of delayed or lost shipments.

Secure Order Page

A secure order page won’t make a lot of difference to the flavor of your seafood, but it’s vital to protecting your personal details when you order seafood online. Before you send your credit card number or any other personal details, check to make sure that the address in the URL bar of your browser starts with HTTPS:// instead of HTTP://. The S lets you know that your information will be encrypted when your browser sends it so that no one else can read it and access your credit card information.

Of course, you can look for other clues that you’re getting quality seafood when you buy lobster or other seafood from an online vendor – good pictures, descriptions that are accurate and informative and information about cooking unfamiliar seafood are a few factors you might take into account. If you want to be sure that you’re getting high quality products when you order seafood online, though, check the contact details, the shipping policy and the order page for the information you need to know.