Online Wine Stores - Secured web sites can be trusted

Over the past 15 years, the Internet has exploded and pretty much become a necessity in our everyday lives. We used to call people from our only phone in the house to catch up on recent events and news. Paper mail was used to send cards to wish people Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas. The library was an important public resource as we used to go there to reference a subject we were interested in.
Shopping was all done on foot by physically walking into stores and browsing products, trying clothes on to see if they fit, taken the goods to the register to purchase and generally paying with cash. While some of these things still remain part of our lives, the Internet has changed how we do day to day things dramatically. Could you now live without email for more than a week or two (and no, being on vacation doesn't count!)?
One of the main things the Internet has bought us in online shopping, which allows us to purchase products while sitting in the comfort of our own homes. The wine industry is no different in this world of online shopping, although it has been a little slower to catch on than a lot of other industries.
The difficulty with the wine industry is that the product range is beyond comprehension. If you walk into your local liquor store, it's not uncommon to see 50% or more of the floor space taken up by wine products. This adds a certain complexity to the online wine world.
With this in mind, there is a large world out there when it comes to online wine stores. There are literally hundreds of stores offering an almost exclusive range of wine, and some at a very exclusive price. So what is the easiest ways to tell the better ones from the not so good ones?
Therein lies the ultimate question and one which could be asked of any industry on the internet. As with any online store, security is the most important thing. The most important part of any online store is what's referred to as the digital certificate. This certificate encrypts (or digitally jumbles up) any information that is sent between the person buying and the store so that unsavory people cannot read the important information as its being sent across the internet.
How can you tell if an online wine store has a digital certificate? Generally at the time of purchase (especially when you are entering credit card details), the web site address should change from http:// to https://. If you enter a screen which asks for your credit card details, check if the address starts with https://, if it doesn't, don't continue. Don't buy from a store that doesn't have this type of security as its putting your personal information at risk. It's not that the store can't be trusted, its other people on the net that take advantage of such stores that can't be.
If you stick to that one golden rule in relation to security on the internet, you will be well on your way to enjoying your shopping experience with online wine stores without the worry of somebody "looking over your shoulder".