Almost all areas of our life are transferred to the Internet: education, work, and shopping. More and more stores are moving to the Internet. The reason for this decision may be the current situation in the world – Coronavirus. Due to the possibility of contracting the virus, many people choose to stay at home and use online services, including shopping. Online shopping is definitely convenient. You do not have to leave the house to buy your cherished cosmetics, food, or even a new blouse. Let’s explore the Advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.
The main reason why we decide to buy online is low prices. In brick-and-mortar stores, these prices are often inflated, and thus we overpay. However, it should be noted that e-shopping has both advantages and disadvantages. In this article, I will try to present a few of them.
Advantages
Everything we need
On the web, we have access to products from all over the world. Thanks to courier companies, we have fast and cost-effective delivery. Searching for goods that are difficult to find in stationery stores and ordering them to the store and waiting for their delivery is very time-consuming. On the Internet, we can find and buy exactly the same goods that we need.
Time-saving and convenience
The most important thing to remember is that it is not just a matter of time, but also a matter of money. When shopping in a stationery store, we have to reckon with traffic jams or queues to the cash register. Many people decide on this type of shopping because of more attractive prices. Some cosmetics or clothes we can buy at really bargain prices.
Delivery to a specified place
By buying online, we can order items to be delivered to our home, and thus we save a lot of time because we do not have to go to the stationery store in person and wait in line for the goods.
Better Control
It often happens that while shopping conventionally, we spend much more than planned and end up buying goods that are not exactly what we wanted (but we can’t find anything better). When shopping online, on the other hand, you do not need to let the store’s inventory decide what you are buying. You can get exactly what you want and need.
No crowds
Everyone would like shopping in brick-and-mortar stores to be efficient and quick. Unfortunately, this is not always possible due to the crowd of people. Especially during holidays, weekends, or upcoming holidays. Even when we take our children with us, such a trip may turn out to be a disaster instead of a nice trip. In addition, it is not easy to find a parking space in such a crowd. All these problems can be avoided by purchasing online.
Disadvantages
Shipping issues and delays
Even the biggest and best online courier companies and online retailers have their bad days, so there is no way you can ensure a timely purchase. Sometimes items get lost, removed, damaged, or delivered to the wrong address. Such cases happen more often than you can imagine.
Internet scammers and swindlers
Perhaps the biggest threat is the risk of encountering dishonest sellers. Some people privately list goods on various auction sites, such as AliExpress or eBay, and may be sophisticated in deceiving customers. There are several types of e-shopping fraud:
- credit card fraud,
- phishing (this is a type of attack based on e-mail or SMS messages. Internet criminals try to deceive people and make them act according to their intentions. They try to impersonate courier companies, network operators, bank employees, trying to trick our login data e.g. bank accounts or social networking accounts),
- hacking,
- identity theft
- fake websites.
There are many other scams that people, unfortunately, fall into or become victims of. Therefore, before each online purchase, you should carefully read the information about the products, retailer, website, etc.
Buying blind
One of the crucial arguments against e-shopping is the fact that there is no possibility to touch and see the goods you are buying. Therefore, they may differ slightly or significantly from the attached photos or description. It is especially troublesome when buying shoes or clothes, where it is difficult to choose the size without first trying on. Moreover, not all online stores offer the option of returning or exchanging goods. So, if we do not like the blouse or it is too big, we will lose money irretrievably. On the other hand, take look at our article about saving money here.
Conclusions
E-shopping can be fast and convenient. We save time, which we would have to spend on getting to the store, standing in long lines and waiting in traffic jams. However, making purchases over the Internet we must be aware that we may run into fraudsters, who will only want to defraud us of our money, or even our personal data. Therefore, let’s be vigilant when choosing a store or seller, it is sometimes worthwhile to reach out to other customers who have used the store before us and only then decide to purchase. Take a look at other opinions about online shopping on Quora.
