Technologies help make our lives easier. The internet is probably the single most significant technological breakthrough in this millennium. It brings people information, entertainment, social interactions and generally make our lives a lot easier. The most significant function of the internet is e-commerce and online shopping. Within the short space of a few years, the volume of online sales has grown substantially. It helped create some of the world's largest companies. As more and more people are shopping online, traditional retailers are feeling the pressure. Many major retailers have already closed down as a result of online competitors.
What is it about online shopping that is making people ditch thousands of years of human tradition of physical shopping?
Home Delivery
These days we expect everything to be delivered to us. If we can have takeaway meals and letters delivered to our door, why not everything else that we buy? Online shopping comes with home delivery by default. The purchase is completed online and the seller dispatches the goods via a courier service and the goods are delivered to the buyer's door. Although sometimes buyer has to pay for the postage but he/she saves on the cost and hassle of travelling to the physical store.
Large Choice
Given that the buyer doesn't have to physically travel to a store, he/she is not bound by the distance of any sellers. Ordering something from the opposite end of the country feels the same as ordering from the same city. This allows the buyer to explore all the sellers that are out there, which means more choices, better qualities and better values.
Hassle-Free Browsing
We all know how stressful shopping can be if the shop is full of people or you can't seem to find what you are looking for. Online shopping solves both problems. You can shop from the comfort of your own home and online shops let you search their catalogue with a few clicks of a mouse. You will instantly find what you are looking for. If the seller doesn't have what you want, you will also be able to instantly go to another seller.
Cheaper Price
Many online retailers do not have to cope with expensive retail space because their website is their retail space. Maintaining a website is just a fraction of the cost of running a physical store so the seller can pass the saving onto its customers via lower prices.