Online Shopping -The Good and Bad -

What Is Online Shopping and what are the Good and Bad about it?


Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet without an intermediary service. An online shop, eshop, e-store, Internet shop, webshop, webstore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping centre. The process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. The largest online retailing corporations are EBay and Amazon.com, both are US-based. Apart from online retailing corporations, there are also many forms of online business such as Selling in Social Websites, Forums, etc.

 Some of the Online Merchants

Have you ever shop online? How is your experience? 

Have you never shop online? Why? 

Why are people afraid to shop online?

And why online business will be a business system that will be the future of business? 

My Experience

I started my online purchase since 2008 and it was a Motorola bluetooth headset that cost RM2xx. Online purchase had never cross my mind as there are too much of online fraud cases. But I decided to try a purchase since the price difference between Sabah and KL price are around RM100. So when I decided to transfer money to the company, I am crossing my finger hoping it won't be a fraud. 3 days after the transaction, I received the item in a perfect condition. Since then, most of my gadgets I started to buy from online seller.

What about you? Do you have any good or bad experience to share? Feel free to share in the comment below.

To me, everything in this world is not perfect and there are always room for improvement. I would like to take this opportunity to share the Good and Bad about online retailing.

THE GOOD

1. Most online store are open 24/7. You can shop at your own convenience. 
2. You do not need to Q for hours just to pay during the Sales Promotion.
3. Similar payment method as retail shop. Most online store accepts Credit Card, Debit Card, Cash transaction via online banking, paypal, etc.
4. Some online store put up buyer's testimonial, reviews for your reference.
5. You do not need to go to US or Italy to get your favourite brands. You can stay in your room and everything is just a click away.
6. You can get cheaper price for the same item you pay in the retail store. 
7. You won't get ROBBED or worse, RAPE & KILLED while getting to your car in the CAR PARK! I'm sure you read newspaper and there are so many cases happening recently
8. Comparison of price. You do not need to go to the next store to write down the price before deciding which store sells at a cheaper price.
9. No pressure. You can spend as long as you want in the online store to browse the items without a salesperson following you as if you are a thief.
10. Spoilt for choices. You can't find the items you are looking for from this seller? Just move to the next seller. Again, it just a click away. 

THE BAD

1. Hidden cost. In retail, you pay for what written on the price tag. For online purchase, you might need to consider some of the hidden cost such as delivery charges, handling fees and tax especially if you are buying from overseas.
2. Some international online store are not available locally. For example, amazon do not ship most of the items to Malaysia.
3. You can't try or inspect the item. Most of us like to feel and touch before we decided to purchase. For online purchase, while most offers warranty against manufacturing defects, it will cause inconvenience if the items are found to be faulty.
4. You can't talk / consult immediately when you need to. Only a small percentage of web store offering online chat to assists buyer in their FAQ.
5. Security and Privacy. This tend to be the biggest concern for online user. When you buy online, you expose the risk of revealing your credit details to the store. I have friends that bought movies ticket and his card are used for unauthorised purchases by someone he do not know. However, most Online Store are aware of this and it's recommended that one should be paying attention to HTTPS protocols, installing free spyware removal tools, knowing how to identify online scams and hoaxes, surfing anonymously, and keeping your Web usage private are all smart ways to address any privacy and security issues.

Those are some of the Pros and Cons of buying online. For those who wanted to know more, you can google up for more info. I mentioned that online selling will be the future of business and these are some of my thoughts.

1. Online Store eliminates the need of retail shop thus minimise the cost of the business. This will enable seller to sell at a lower price while maintaining their profit margin.
2. Accessibility. Everyone can shop online with their computers, tablets and even mobile phones. You can buy not only from the shop in your neighbourhood but also from neighbouring countries. You can shop anywhere even when you are in the TOILET!
3. Personal Safety. While most system have their flaws, you can only lose money when shopping online while you endangered yourself when going to the retail store. Technology improves every day and so does internet security. As long as you took precautions on the security of your computers, you can minimise the risk of fraud. But how many shopping centres improves their security in the mall? Take a minute and think about it

Cheers....