Due to advancement of technology, businesses came up with a new method called online shopping which would allow potential customers to order their merchandise without having to travel long distances. The changing needs and preferences of consumers, change in technologies, and the desire of the business organization to make good revenues and to improve the customer base led to the evolution and existence of online shopping.
Online shopping provides many choices to consumers than the traditional bricks-and-mortar retail stores. Online shopping is shopping while online or while on the internet. A lot of shoppers are using the internet now-a-days as internet provides a lot of advantages to the shoppers. It saves time and enables them to avoid crowd. Certain products are substantially cheaper and allow customers to purchase product from anywhere, anytime in the world. An excellent example is pizza hut which provides the option to customers to order pizza through online.
Online shopping also enables consumers to chat live online with a service agent when they have queries while shopping on the internet. There is a facility for a "Live Help" at india plaza. There are customer support representatives to attend to customers and they can chat with them in case they need some urgent information or help.
By shopping online, customers are able to compare prices easily; many large retailers display affiliates links and will refer their customers to similar products, which again adds to the variety of products available here. The process of buying products through an online store has become rather refined. Business provides customer care by answering their queries, sending e-mail after purchase and follow up after the post purchase. Consumers can also visit websites if they have any clarification with the product usage and performance.
Successful retailers enable the customers to locate the specific information they require through a combination of keywords, natural language queries and category-based browsing. The website of toyota is a good example that provides adequate information to customers and enables them to get the required information quickly and easily. Another example is leapfrog, which gives consumers an opportunity to find information quickly and easily. From the leapfrog website, the company is able to automatically answer 4,000 consumer questions per month. Online shoppers generally use credit cards. However, online business enable users to create accounts and pay by alternative means such as: debit card, cheque, postal money order, money bookers and wire transfer, to make payments.
There are few online shopping methods based on contract, consumption and payment.
- Consumers pay online and consume online (e.g online gaming softwares, music)
- Consume online and pay offline (e.g matrimonial ads)
- Contact and pay online and consume offline (e.g., Travel, books, clothes and electronic goods)
The step by step online shopping process at e-bay is given below.
Online shopping process at e-bay:
- Open www.ebay.co.in
- Register your details by clicking register command located in the upper left section.
- Fill out the form and select password.
- Once registered, you could login to the website in order to purchase items. But if you intend to window shop, then you need not log in but search through the search tab.
- Now upon logging in, search for the item of your choice.
- Mostly, there would be a number of sellers selling the same product. It is wise ti choose a dealer who has a pay pal option.
- PayPal is a service where there is security for the product you buy. The way it works is that the seller who has paypal option has to deposite a certain amount with EBay in order to sell his product. In case of unresolved issue with the buyer, you could complain to eBay and eBay would refund the money he had deposited. So, pay pal option is a must.
- Now that you have selected a seller you can buy through a few different ways.
- Bidding- You could bid for items by placing your bid. Your bid has to be a little bit more than the current bidding, at the end of the period, if you have the highest bidder, then you will be notified by email and you could furnish your credit card details and purchase the item. There is a time frame allowed after the bidding for you to pay for the item. if you refuse to buy eBay will black list you and it would be hard to purchase an item with the same ID in future.
- "Buy it now" Option is where you could buy an item at the quoted price before the bidding finishes. So, if you are interested in an item and the quoted price, then you could go for this option. Remember, the seller should have pay pal.
- You could pay through cheques and direct debit.It is essential to read through the conditions before buying.
- While searching, you could narrow your results by setting the various filters located in the left hand side of your eBay screen.
- You could review the seller by looking at the feedback he has received from customers which should be available on his profile.
- If the seller is located nearby, then you could send an email to the seller for personal pick-up thereby reducing the postal charges.
- Most products come with a separate delivery cost, so it is essential that you factor in the location of the product.
Advantages of online shopping are:
- Convenience
- No pressure shopping
- Saves time
- Comparisons
- Availability
- Tracking
- Saves money
Disadvantages of online shopping are:
- Delay in delivery
- Lack of significant discounts
- Lack of touch and feel of merchandise
- Lack of interactivity
- Lack of shopping experience
- Lack of close examination
- Fraud
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