To best of my knowledge nearly everyone I knew so far who owns a computer or a smartphone has shopped online and bought something for their near and dear. But, how safe is online Shopping for an individual?
Is it unsafe to buy online? The products available online are real branded products or fake (imitation products)? Is it expensive to buy online vs buying in store?
I am sure these questions have haunted you at some point or the other. Few questions have been answered and few still remain unanswered etc.
So in this article, you will read about “Everything about the online shopping: advantages and disadvantages”
Online Shopping
Online shopping has been a new trend in shopping stream especially in the Indian market and it has completely changed the way people are buying goods on a day to day businesses. Due to the technology advancements, this came into reality. As of now, you can buy anything from the online shopping platform, i.e. right from vegetables to heavy electronic goods and they are delivered straight to your doorstep for few extra bucks. Isn’t cool it?
So where do people shop these products, what are they called?
Well, they are called e-Commerce (i.e. Electronic Commerce) websites and m-Commerce (i.e. Mobile application)
Example: Flipkart website, Flipkart Mobile App etc.
Where user creates an account with Flipkart and does online shopping.
What is E-Commerce?
E-commerce is a platform where buying and selling transactions happen over the internet, unlike the conventional business where the transactions happen in person.
So how do the businesses set up stores?
Well, companies set up online stores and provide a user interface where they can browse through the products based on different categories. In this business model, there is no physical contact between the buyer and the seller.
Is it any good for the buyers?
Yes, it is definitely good for the buyers like you and me because of the following reasons:
Online Shopping is Comfortable
Customers can buy anything and from anywhere as far as they have access to the internet and a computer. They can go into one of the online stores, choose their required product and place an order and pay for the product online. Yes, all these activities happen at your fingertips.
Online Shopping Price Varies
As customers have access to multiple online stores they can go ahead and compare the price of the product. Based on the comparison they can order at their will and can get the desired product at fair price. Most of these online stores do run a lot of discounts and coupons so they can avail these benefits and get best deals.
Easy To Set Up Online Business
Well, most of them wanted to get into business and do something with their life. So setting up an online store is much cheaper compared to have a physical store. So this might be a worthy opportunity for you to start your new life.
Customer Reach
Implementing appropriate social media marketing strategies and having a strong social media presence (like Facebook page etc.) will definitely help you to reach much wider customers compared to traditional stores.
Prompt Payments
The payments will be prompt and everything is available online so there is no question of Black money, so you pay taxes and whatever the profit you make is legit and you don’t have to worry about anything.
Every technology advancement we humans make there is always a flip side associated with it. In this case, we have few disadvantages as well.
Poor Quality Products
It is always risky to buy products online because you can only see the product images but you cannot simply feel the product physically. So there is a chance of buying poor quality products. In this case, we online stores offer product returns so we advise you to check their return policy before buying online.
Frequent Shopping
As online shopping is convenient you end up making few unnecessary purchases which are not actually required. So make sure you use these only when you are in real need.
Online Shopping Awareness
As online shopping is still new for few customers, they tend to give out confidential information to others. This is not a best practice and online stores have to educate their customers.
Online Sales Support
After sales support is also another big hurdle to pass through. If you are not happy with the product you end up having long conversations with the customer support teams to express your observations. Most of the time this is not in person conversation so the resolution is not quick and it not perfect.
Online Shopping Delivery
In few cases, delivery of the product may not meet the expectations set by the online stores.
By going through the above points we cannot completely say that online shopping is good or bad but it has its flip side as well. So we advise you to make a wise decision in terms of buying a product online. Please do research about the product before buying the product by reading other customer’s reviews.
So happy online shopping and if you have more tips to follow, please do comment so all our readers can get benefit out of it.
