1.
Intro
[Let’s enter the
topic(online shopping) from now on]
The modern people living now are often
described as the busiest creature ever. They are knocked down by so many works,
works, and works. Actually they seem to have no time for themselves. To cure
them, the technology has made something drawing them out of the misery. One of
the special inventions is E-commerce which is called online shopping. It could
provide modern people another buying option besides traditional shopping. All
the shopping process can be done in your home through the internet.
[Global B2C E-Commerce (Online retailing)’s booming]
The online shopping now seems to be highly emerging as
you can see in the picture above. It shows the explicitly upward trend of new
way of shopping. Even the growth rate is to be reduced a little amount, the
sales are expected to grow continuously in the future.
Then, can it be the dominant way of shopping in the
future? Let’s have a look at some
characteristics of online shopping mainly about benefits and costs. And there
will be my recommendation about being smart shopper.
2.
Benefits
of Online shopping
[This video shows how it is difficult to shop offline especially when
time is running out.]
When you think of offline shopping (as seen above
video), you can see how many benefits online shopping provides. Those factors
are driving the enormous growth of online shopping as you can see in the graph above.
Let’s see what those are from now on.
2.1 Saving Time
Definitely it saves your time. (Relatively
with Traditional shopping as seen in the video above) The only thing you should
do to buy something is just a couple of clicks. That means you don’t need to spend your time browsing the stuffs back and forth on your
feet.
2.2 Huge information accessible
You might get just a few explanations by sales
person when you visit the store. However, if you choose to shop online, you can
easily access uncountable information which can help you comparing the prices,
designs, features and so on.
2.3 No limit in time and place
If you can access internet with any devices, you
can do shopping anywhere and anytime. You don’t need to worry about the distance and the closing hour of the
store. It is no problem for online shopping because it runs 24/7.
2.4 Easy to get stuffs
What makes online shopping more convenient is
that the stuff you choose is going to be delivered just right to your home or wherever
you are. And even it’s getting more faster
so it takes much little time than before.
3.
Costs
of Online shopping
We’ve
just figured out what are the positive factors of online shopping. And now we
are going to see what are the weakness and flaws of online shopping.
3.1 Physical experience
The most critical drawback of
online shopping is the lack of physical experience. No matter how hard it
tries, it can’t provide the
tangible and intangible experiences the offline shopping gives. The atmosphere
of the store, the impression of the real product, and most of all the joy of
shopping is only available in the offline shop.
3.2 Annoying process
It has somewhat annoying process to buy online
also. For example, if you want to exchange the stuff with other size or get a
refund, you have to pack it up on your own again and call the delivery man by
making appointment. It can make you kind of stressful when you are busy to
process it.
3.3 Waiting time
Even though the delivery system has been
highly developed, you still have to wait until it gets to your home. The time
it takes differs according to the environmental factors such as weather, strikes
of logistics, traffics and so on. It would be a problem if you need something urgently.
3.4 Personal Information
There arising a huge issues about improper
uses of your information you put to register the shopping mall. The membership
program may give you a good chance of deal, but it also can trigger data
spilling.
4.
Future
way of shopping
We’ve
found what are the benefits and costs of online shopping until now. Then, what
do you see the future way of shopping? Is it going to be online or just be
remained offline? In my opinion, even the online shopping is growing harder, it
cannot be a dominant way of shopping. Following the factors I described before,
there are some points which online shopping never overwhelm such as the physical
experiences. Other things such as annoying process and waiting time, and
personal information are going to be solved as the process getting developed.
However, the physical experience is different thing not to be satisfied
online.
[This video shows how the smart shopper behave when doing shopping]
[This site introduces useful apps to help smart shopping like Best
buy apps in the video]
To solve this problem, you need to be flexible and smart
to use the both way of shopping. Because It can let you (1) take benefits and (2) reduce costs.
(1) Benefits you are mainly expected to get: Saving Time, Huge Information.
(2) Costs you are mainly expected to reduce: Physical Experiences
The flexible shopper is the one who uses the each channel as it is combined (as seen in the video). For example, when you decide to shop offline, just go and browse the items in person and get a great physical experience while you have all the information in your phone or tablet. Or you can search information and compare the prices before visiting the store. If it is more expensive to buy in store, you can just buy it online on the spot. These activities can save your time and expenses while attaining physical experiences. In that way, each way of shopping completes your shopping experience perfectly!
(1) Benefits you are mainly expected to get: Saving Time, Huge Information.
(2) Costs you are mainly expected to reduce: Physical Experiences
The flexible shopper is the one who uses the each channel as it is combined (as seen in the video). For example, when you decide to shop offline, just go and browse the items in person and get a great physical experience while you have all the information in your phone or tablet. Or you can search information and compare the prices before visiting the store. If it is more expensive to buy in store, you can just buy it online on the spot. These activities can save your time and expenses while attaining physical experiences. In that way, each way of shopping completes your shopping experience perfectly!
[Be the smart shopper!]
(source: 
