The Pros and Cons to Online Shopping.

Shopping online is becoming more and more popular, as most people don’t have the time (or the patience) to stand around in the long queues filling up the shopping malls. With one click you can enter a world where everything is sold in the same place. Clothes, electronics, DVDs, CDs and even stationary can be purchased with one simple “click” of the left mouse button. Sound too good to be true doesn’t it, well obviously there are cons to this fantastic invention as I discover while exploring this fascinating phenomenon call “The Internet Mall”

The benefits:

The benefits of online shopping are as follows: a huge variety of products for shoppers to choose from, which creates more choice for the purchaser. The suppliers are able offer more discounts and the products are still sold at competitive prices. Products can be outsourced from all over the globe which makes it much easier to find products not readily available in your country. The best part about shopping online is most certainly the fact that you can do it from the comfort of your own home.  

The bad bits:

Of course to every high there must be a low, and online shopping is no different. Although it’s possible to get almost everything on the internet, it’s hard to establish the condition in which you’ll be receiving the product, which means a lot of trust is involved when buying from the internet. See that amazing coat you love? Well, unfortunately, there is no cyber fitting room – buying clothes is a risky operation as there is no way of knowing whether or not it is going to fit, and returning these items isn’t as easy as taking the receipt back to the store for a refund.  

How secure is this?

According to Ruud Boer, the internet shopping world is relatively secure. Of course the shopper needs to be on their guard as mishaps can occur. Much like internet banking, personal details aren’t readily available on the site. A log-in user name and password needs to be authorized before any shopping can commence. Absolutely NO banking details are taken from the sites, as they give you liberty to pay from whichever account you choose. Boer continues to say that identity theft is the biggest concern with shoppers, as this is could give them a bad name within the credit bureau. Obviously if you have a well thought out password, this isn’t likely to happen.

Life made easier.

Online shopping allows us to keep a paper trail of all of our purchases and is quick and easy to use. Even though you may not receive your purchase immediately, you have done the purchasing in a less stressful environment. Best part is when the parcel arrives, who doesn’t enjoy getting a parcel? Buying gifts for family and friends is made easy due to the large variety online, making sure that your gift will be unique. 

So get yourselves out of bustling malls and never ending queues, and get shopping online… where the world is really a click away.