Online shopping

Here is an example of how online shopping may work:

This is an example of how online shopping works when using the Tesco website. The first thing that you must do is register and in this case giving details such as e-mail address, postcode and club card number. In most businesses the first step of online shopping would be to register however some of the register criteria do change from company to company.

Once you have registered you are able to sign into your account and proceed with the online shopping. When you have browsed through and chosen a product that you would like to purchase you are able to add the item to your basket and go to checkout. At the checkout you would need to provide details such as name, address however this should already be inserted as you provided these details when registering. Finally you are able to choose the type of payment that you will use to purchase the item. Most businesses would require for you to use a credit or debit card to purchase your goods however some do allow other types of payment methods, such as payment on delivery this is when you pay for the item in cash when the product is delivered to your home.

Growth in online shopping

As more and more customers are shopping online that results in far more money being spent online. Businesses earn a vast majority of their profits in the run up to Christmas. According to the leading e-commerce trade body IMRG shoppers spent £4.98bn in 2005 during this Christmas period and for 2005 as a whole it calculated shoppers spent £19.2bn. Here is a graph from the IMRG to show the growth in UK online shopping from Dec 2000- Dec 2005.

Tesco is an example of a very successful company online. According to the research company comScore, Tesco has a huge 66% of the UK’s online shopping market. In 2006 Tesco took an average of 30,000 orders per day which amounts to £2.5m. Other successful online companies include Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Advantages of Online Shopping

The many advantages of shopping online rather than physically going out and buying the product, here are few that I believe are the most important to people when buying online:

• Shopping online can be very convenient as it can be a quick and easy process. It also has the convenience of being able to shop in a comfortable environment (your own home). Another benefit is the ease to find products when doing online shopping as you are able to search for products as soon as you enter the website using a search box or other links, this is a big difference from actually going to the store as you spend time looking for the product.
• Online shopping also allows people to compare prices on the product in a quick and easy way. This cannot be done in a very effective way if you physically go to the store as it would take a long time to compare prices from one store to the next. Once you have found a product you want to purchase you simply can do so with a click of a button rather than waiting in queues.
• At times some online stores give special online deals which can’t be found on the high street.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping

There are also some disadvantages of online shopping. I have chosen a few which might give people reasons as not shop online:

• Online fraud is probably the biggest reason as to why people are cautious of online shopping. Some people find it hard to trust websites with their personal information and their payment details. Identity theft is still a big concern as hackers can break into websites and steal personal information such as name, address and credit card numbers. To protect their networks e-commerce websites can install anti-virus software, firewalls etc. General advices given to consumers on this matter include using websites that they are familiar with and trust.
• Another big problem with online shopping is that you don’t have the opportunity to physically encounter the goods as websites only provide images. This means people may purchase items from the internet which is quite different in real-life. This can also be a tool for fraudsters on unreliable websites as they can describe a product which on the internet may satisfy however once delivered it won’t be what was expected.
• Another disadvantage of online shopping is the waiting that you will have to do for the product to arrive. In a store you can purchase the goods and take it home straight away however with online shopping you must wait for you product to be delivered.

Overall I feel online shopping can be a very useful tool, especially for people who may not have enough time to shop in stores. This can also be useful to the elderly as they do not need to leave the house to purchase goods that they would like. There are some issues that still need to be resolved such as online fraud and security.