Online shopping is the trend followed by people all around the world irrespective of their ages which allow the consumers to buy any product or service through the internet without going directly to the respective stores for shopping purposes. Online shopping is increasing day by day because, it is convenient and customers can visit webstores as they sit in front of their computers which in turn saves time. Consumers can buy huge variety of items like books,clothes,household appliances and the list goes on. Despite the benefits of online shopping many people prefer to visit stores physically as online shopping has some disadvantages. In this article, I had elaborated the various pros and cons of online shopping so that the inputs might be helpful before purchasing anything online.
ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE SHOPPING
Online shopping has many advantages than that of conventional shopping.The use of internet as a shopping medium has enhanced the quality of online shopping over traditional shopping.Due to the competitive nature between products ,some products can be purchased cheaply when we try the online mode.Below I had given the top 5 reasonts to prefer online shopping.
NO RUSH AND NO CROWDS
The crowds can give a real headache to people while shopping during festival and on special occasions. But in online shopping you can leave the crowds behind and can enjoy your holiday shopping . Another added advantage of online shopping is that it provides discounts during festival seasons which is quite similar to that of conventional shopping. So, if you don't want to mingle among crowds while shopping then choose online shopping as it cater your needs .
DISCREET PURCHASES
Online shopping gives you complete privacy which buying products like lingerie and undergarments which many people feel uncomfortable to purchase in crowded malls and also they feel embarressed to enquire with the vendor about the desired product.
RESEARCH AND COMPARE THE PRICES
Online shopping has the advantage of comparing the prices of the same product in different stores so that, you can buy the product at the cheapest rate but in conventional shopping you are forced to buy the products at the predetermined price which was set by the vendor.It also give an excellent platform to share valuable information with other shoppers.
CONVENIENCE
Online shopping provide a new and a convenient venue for exchanging all types of goods and services. You can search for the products you're looking for quicker by the comfort of sitting in front of your computer at home. Also, online shopping provide services 24 hours a day which enables you to shop anytime you want.
VARIETY
Shopping online provides you the luxury to search variety of products at all levels which is not possible to find in a physical store because of the limited number of products available . There are several instances of people going to a local store after spending their hard earned money only to find their desired products displayed as out of stock. But in online shopping you don't have to witness such a grave situation as the online shopping portals display the availability of products while ordering the products.
SENDING GIFTS TO FRIENDS
Shopping helps you to find some special kind of gifts because of the versatile nature of products available in the online store and after selecting the gift it makes it easier to send the gifts to friends or relavites irrespective of their geographica location. There are many websites available to purchase and send gifts to your loved ones.
DISADVANTAGES
Now you might have come across many advantages of online shopping but one must not jump to any kind of conclusion about online shopping because of the disadvantages associated with online shoppping. Let's see some of the drawbacks of online shopping.
SHIPPING CHARGES
Shipping charges is a huge drawback for online shopping as most of the sites in online shopping charges a huge amount for shipping. Some websites offer you the facility of free shipping only if the total purchase price exceeds the certain amount which was set by the sellers. But most of the indian online stores won't charge any shipping charges .
AWARE OF ONLINE FRAUD
Shopping online sometimes can defraud you by means of selling some low quality products because of lack of communication between the seller and the buyer and in few cases the description of the product might differ from the actual product which you ordered and as a result you will be delivered a low quality product.
DELIVERY TIME WASTAGE
The main disadvantage of online shopping is that the time you should wait before the product is being delivered as you will not receive the product immedietly and this problem occurs due to shipping delays. Another problem with delivery is that ,you have to be at your home everytime to recieve your product because the date and time of your product delivery will not be prespecified.
ONLINE SECURITY
Before doing any kind of shopping online you must make a thorough research about the legibility of the store and also about the website because the spammers are making use of the huge demand for online shopping.Making payments online is safe but it can't be guaranteed so, before making any online money transfer be aware of the hackers.This is the main reason for a customer to buy products on a trusted and a legitimate website.
PHYSICAL CONTACT IS NOT AVAILABLE
Online shopping dosen't allow the luxury of buying clothing items as buying clothes is a huge risk because you will not be able to know whether the cloth looks good for you or not . You can select the size and colour of your cloth but you don't have any physical contact so the quality is always a big question mark.