Pros and Cons of Online Shopping
With increased use of Internet, more and more people are drawn towards online shopping. This means of buying products has gained immense popularity in today's times. Earlier, Internet was only accessible to people of developed countries, but recent revolution has made it accessible to almost all parts of the world. With increased awareness, people now flock towards Internet for shopping. The concept of shopping goods through online services has been highly recognized and accepted, as it provides several benefits to the customer. However, every good aspect has a bad side to it and this is applicable to online shopping as well. The advantages and disadvantages of this kind of convenience shopping are listed below.
Advantages
- The best part of online shopping is that you can shop from home. There is no need to go to the mall to purchase the item you need. You just need to order and it will be available right at your doorstep.
- As you shop from the comfort of your home, you save on gas and time that would otherwise have been spent to reach to the nearest store and look for the desired product.
- It is convenient and easy! You do not need any degree to learn online shopping. All you have got to do is, visit the website, search for your product and buy it. Your product is just a click away!
- Shopping online gives you the privilege to shop whenever you want. The stores are never closed and you can do your shopping 24x7.
- It provides variety to the buyer. You don't need to jump from shop to shop to look for varieties of a product available in the market. The options available online are many and this is one of the best features of online shopping.
- Shopping from malls and stores makes it difficult to compare between features and prices of products. Shopping through websites provides simplified comparison of products and helps in deciding which one should be purchased.
- Many websites device special discount schemes from time to time to attract customers. You can always buy products under such schemes and save a lot of money.
- It keeps annoying salesperson at bay. Aggressive salesmen often pressurize you to buy their products. This harassment can be simply escaped by shopping using the Internet.
- The first disadvantage is that there is a time lag between you making the payment and the delivery of the product.
- You cannot try out the product before buying it. Many people like to try things out before making the payment. This feature remains missing when you buy a product online.
- High shipping costs often add up to the total cost of the product. Companies usually set very high shipping costs, which add to the total expenditure. Also, if the product is shipped from another country, you are liable to pay extra taxes for it.
- The payment mode may not be secure. With increased security issues, making online payment through debit or credit cards might be an insecure mode of transaction. It is therefore important to check whether the payment gateway is secured or not.
- Possibility of product damage while shipping cannot be nullified. If the product received is damaged, it may again take several days for replacement or the company may not provide any replacement at all.
- The ease of shopping can be extremely dangerous for shopaholics, as they may get provoked to buy many items at a time leading to unwanted expenditure.
- The incidence of billing errors is high and if you encounter one, you will again have to follow a long procedure and wait for several days before the error gets resolved.
- You need to have a debit or credit card to make a purchase. Very few websites give you the option of paying cash or check on delivery.
