Technology has changed everything for us and this also includes shopping. There is no need to drive up to a supermarket or a mall to get the things that you need. You can now order it at the comfort of your home and you get the stuff delivered to your house. Isn’t that really convenient? It surely is. There are new things coming up in the online retailing and the technology is really transforming our lives. You can order gifts and you can even order products from other countries with the help of online shopping.
Online shopping surely has a lot of benefits and there is no denying to this fact. In addition to this, online shopping also has some of the disadvantages. The main purpose of writing down this article is to share the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping with you.
So, we will start by talking about the advantages of online shopping and then we will jump to the disadvantages of online shopping.
Starting with the advantages of online shopping, we have listed some of the major ones below.
Advantages of Online Shopping
1. Ease of Shopping
Online shopping offers the ease of shopping. There is no need to stand in queues and there is no need to visit the market which is miles away from your house. In addition to this, you are also saved from crowded places and the pain of travelling in extreme cold or extreme heat. Online Shopping has surely made it easy to compare the stuff that you need in a single click. You can compare the specs and the price as well very easily. Isn’t that a great deal about online shopping?
2. Home Delivery
You don’t have to visit the place and get the stuff home because of online shopping. You often get free home delivery because of the online shopping and this is certainly a great thing to follow. In addition to this, you are saved from the pain of carrying heavy shopping bags. Apart from this, you can also order furniture, refrigerator and other bulky goods with the help of online shopping and all this is delivered to your home. You don’t need a pickup truck anymore to get your things home.
3. Offers and Availability
Apart from the benefits mentioned above, the offers and availability of things at online stores are higher. You get a lot of offers which you would not get in offline stores and in addition to this, you can also check for the availability. While shopping physically, you will have to visit another store to check for the availability of something that you need but this is not the case with the online shopping. You can check a different website for availability.
4. Return Policy
The return policies are also usually great and they are quite user-friendly. If you ordered a pair of shoes and if it doesn’t fit you then you can simply replace it and the delivery agent will collect the shoe that doesn’t fit you and he will deliver the right size. This is true for almost anything apart from electronics.
5. Sending Gifts
Sending gift has also been made easy with the help of online shopping. You can go ahead and send a gift directly to the person whom you wish to send a gift. This is made possible via online shopping. If you take the offline route then you need to purchase the gift first then wrap it up and then you need to visit DHL or FedEx to deliver the gift. So, a lot of people now resort to online shopping for sending gifts as well.
So, we have talked about the advantages of online shopping.
Let us now look at the 5 disadvantages of online shopping.
Disadvantages of Online Shopping
1. Bad for Physical Retailers
Online shopping is surely bad for brick and mortar retailers. They are not able to match the offers and people prefer purchasing from online This has impacted the business of the physical retailers and it is something which is the greatest disadvantage of online shopping. In a way, that is also impacting the employment of the people negatively.
2. Easy to Cross Budget
While you are shopping online, you are spending via card and it is a well-known fact that people tend to spend extra when they are using their card. So, you can end up crossing your budget easily if you are involved in online shopping. You need to be very strict with yourself so that you do not end up making this mistake.
3. Risk of Fraud and Counterfeits
Another problem with online shopping is that the customers have reported receiving fake products and they have also reported receiving broken products. This is another problem with online shopping. While you walk to a physical retailer, you can be assured that the product is genuine and it is not defective.
4. Waste Generation
Online shopping also generates a lot of waste in terms of packaging A lot of logistics are involved while you shop online and this is certainly creating a negative impact on the environment. When you choose to buy the stuff from a market, you save up on that wastage of the packaging material which is a part of the online shopping.
5. Return Policy
Return policy was listed as an advantage of online shopping but many times, it can also turn out to be a disadvantage. This is mainly because of the fine prints and there are products which can’t be returned. So, a lot of people prefer buying the products from brick and mortar retailer so as to eliminate the need for returning the product.
We tried to cover up all the major advantages and disadvantages of online shopping. In addition to this, you can now judge if the advantages are more than the disadvantages or if it is vice versa. You can choose your shopping medium as per your choice.
Santosh Kumar is a Professional SEO and Blogger, With the help of this blog he is trying to share top 10 lists, facts, entertainment news from India and all around the world.