Online shopping witnessed expenses of £ 178 million per week during January 2009. This means 3.7 percent of the total retail sales are through internet shopping. During 2008, online retail sales experienced a steady and steep growth rate. It contributed 3.1 percent in January 2008 and rose to 3.5 percent in December 2008. This trend is expected to continue because more and more people show interest in this shopping arena.
Online shopping is very convenient and attractive buyers with favorable offers. Almost every thing that can be bought appears in various online stores. It is impossible to summarize the entire list but some examples are books, gadgets, accessories, clothing, food, film, music, shoes, health and fitness products, cosmetics, meals, and travel tickets, etc. Various kinds of products add to the excitement of buying online. The best vacation packages for the largest purpose in the world are planned online in short distances. Even food joints accept shipping orders via the internet. Online shopping avoids worse time and money that is not necessary.
Initial fees for starting stores including land prices, stock costs, construction levels and many hidden costs. Additions for these costs are the cost of running from the store. On the other hand, selling online products does not require very low initial settings and costs. This allows attractive discounts for transactions and making economical internet shopping for buyers and benefits for sellers. This is a Win-Win situation at both ends. Cost reduction is forwarded to the buyer as a discount. This encourages customers to depend on e-shopping for everything. Web stores offer discounts throughout the year and transactions become very profitable during the peak season. Discounts vary from one shopping portal to the other for the same product. Everyone tries to provide their products at the lowest price to attract customers. Therefore shopping sites reduce their profits by offering large discounts to increase volume. This requires a shopping comparison concept. There are many sites that offer comparisons between the same product prices on different sites. This allows users to see all offers in one location and make the best purchase. The company and shopping portal distributed discount codes to attract internet buyers to their sites. The code number can be inserted before leaving the shopping portal to take advantage of the discount. Online shopping will be interactive and consumers share their views on various social spending communities and blogging sites. They provide their personal experience with products to help others make the right choice. Social shopping brings pleasure and excitement for shopping experience.
Some other aspects of internet shopping need careful attention. First is free shipping advertised by the seller. It’s not really free because shipping costs are included in product costs. Dealers receive shipping costs depending on distance. Therefore products sent from nearby locations attract low shipping costs and other additional fees. Online dealers provide a warranty for their products but the return is difficult because remotely. It requires users to send back the product and pay additional fees in many cases. Maintaining the privacy of information supplied by buyers is another important problem. There is no law that prevents this and seller free to get your information. These information leaks produce more direct marketing, e-mail spam and telemarketer calls.
