1. Introduction, Background and Rationale:
Online shopping is a modern concept which has grown in popularity with the rapid global growth in e-commerce. Apparently, many customers are attracted to this new concept of shopping because of the various benefits and offers of the internet. Online shoppers can enjoy the opportunity to shop at any time whenever convenient using an electronic device without the pressure of going to the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. It also allows browsing through seemingly never-ending options for merchandise or products not available in local stores and can let customers evaluate the different online stores to make comparison between items and products, their brands and prices which is difficult and time-consuming
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Customers go through this process to purchase products or services over the internet. Online shopping is done through an online shop, e-shop, e-store, internet shop or online store without going to the brick-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall to buy products or services.
Lazar (2016) highlighted on online shopping as one of the most valuable industries nowadays. About nearly 80% of the entire US population has shopped online; 50% have made more than one purchase. This equated to 198 million US shoppers in 2014 or about 78% of the entire US population according to Business Insider. This can be explained due to oft-mentioned notions that online shopping is convenient and a time-saver to most Americans (Horrigan, 2008).
Montaldo (2017) in a recent article indicated that marketers or e-commerce business owners can offer better deals in online shopping compare to brick-and-mortar stores because the expenses of running a physical store are far greater compared to an online store and considering the less operational costs to meet the needs of the customers, online stores can therefore lower the prices of the products to become affordable to customers. Although this does not imply to replace the traditional retail stores, it is clear that online shopping can better offer customers competitive prices, deals and
One of the opportunities we have in today’s world is whether to buy online or go to a brick and mortar store to do our purchasing. The two offer great sales and promotions along with selections from which we can choose. As online shopping and brick and mortar may seem similar; however, both differ in pricing, convenience and selection.
According to MarketLine, the world online retail market expanded by almost 18% in 2010 and is predicted to reach close to $435 billion in sales. The market is expected to reach a 90% growth by 2015 and exceed $827 billion in sales. Listed in an article “Ecommerce Growth Statistics”, the average amount spent by each consumer is expected to rise from $1,207 per year to $1,738 per person by 2016. That is a significant increase. That shows that people prefer to shop online than going to the actual store in today’s society. Shoppers will spend on an average of $327 billion online shopping in 2016, which is about 45% from $226 billion in 2012. It is very evident that consumers will drive ecommerce into the future; especially e-retail. In just a few years, purchases online will be more profitable than ever, with others products and services available to purchase such as mobile and social allowing consumers to shop to their convenience. For retailers and
When you are shopping via the internet you are able to see many different items that many different stores are offering at one time without having to go to each store to look at the items you want to see. According to a consumer poll the top reason people shop via the
Amazon and eBay attracted the most unique visitors each month to their global e-commerce sites. Forrester Research Inc. estimates that the global online population will be 2.32 billion in 2014. Online shoppers have more options than ever before. Used, hard to find items, and collectables are more accessible thru online shopping. Online shoppers no longer need to drive from one store to the next to find the best deal, and there is no need to stand in long lines making shopping online fast, easy and enjoyable.
Business like Amazon wants to make buying item from their business easier for customers. This is why Amazon offers E-retailing which gives customer option to go shopping online. The internet has had impact change on consumers shopping habit as shopping online has numerous advantages which is why online shopping continues to gain popularity. Some of the advantages of E-retailing is that it’s convenient as consumers are able to go shopping at home which could help them save cost on travelling and also gives consumers an option to compare prices of different products as there are wide range of products being sold online.
Online purchasing is becoming more and more practical thing for contemporary customer. It is explained by high internet penetration in every country, lower cost than in retail network, door to door delivery. Internet plays an important role nowadays; therefore it creates a new market, which sometimes is quite difficult to measure. Online shopping is different from the B&M shopping due to the fact that there is no physical presence of goods, from other standpoint internet is able to sell way more services and motivation and decision making process directly connected to the feedbacks.
According to the latest trend, the online purchase is putting pressure on retail stores to go online to increase their sales and revenue. To gain more customers retailers are showing importance to optimizing a mix of online and offline tactics. Researches have shown that people tend to look online before purchasing any products. Moreover, a company’s websites and email generate business for both online channels and offline stores.
The traditional retail market has been transformed by technological advances. The internet today has allowed consumers to purchase various products from home ranging from apparel to groceries. The online shopping market has grown significantly within the past decade, leading to many online e-commerce startups such as Amazon, eBay, and mobile start-ups such as Instacart. While e-commerce provides convenience for shopping, it has created major disruption to the traditional shopping industries. Traditional retailers have since faced bankruptcy due to their inability to compete with such start-ups. The traditional American toy store, Toys R Us, announced its state of bankruptcy just last month due to a significant decline in sales. More and more consumers are turning to online giants such as Amazon to purchase daily items as a result of convenience. According to the Washington Post, Toys R Us is just one of more than 300 retailers to file for bankruptcy this year, as Americans ditch the shopping mall in favor of their laptops, smartphones, and tablets (Bhattarai, 2017). Shopping which used to require walking or a vehicle trip to stores is no longer required for consumers with online shopping. Online shopping has appealed to consumers worldwide by encompassing the business aspect of service convenience which constitute saving time and/or effort (Jiang, Yang, and Jun, 2012). For consumers whom have busy lives and those whom are physically disabled, online shopping is a positive
The idea behind this study is of great significance because e-commerce (online shopping) has grown tremendously since the turn of the century. It has shaped the way people do shopping for the most part.
The trend toward shopping using the Internet is growing faster than expected (Cramer, 2014). Since Internet has become popular medium for people to shop, more companies then launched online shopping platform. With this new platform, they were able to do sales directly to their customer.
Online shopping and in- store shopping are different in various ways. Online shopping has become an increasingly common staple of life in the 21st century. It is popularity can be credited to the fact that convenience highly valued in our world today. Online shopping is most convenient for individuals that don’t have time to go to the store. If you’re busy with an online job or online classes then online shopping can sometimes be more convenient. It’s also convenient since you don’t have to drive, catch the bus, wait in a long line, or deal with not being able to find item. All you have to do is type in the item you are looking for and it’s there. Once you find the item, you can order it anytime because online stores never close.
Online shopping as a new medium for retailing creates a number of different advantages. One of these is that it is considered to be more convenient to shop online compared to the traditional way of shopping. The convenience at tributes that online shopping provides are less effort, being able to shop at home, time saving and being able to shop at any time of the day.
Nowadays with the ever rapid development and increasing popularity of the information technology, shopping on the internet has been a fashion especially among the youngsters. But some people think brick and mortal stores are better than online stores. In my opinion, online shopping has more benefits in modern capitalist countries. Although traditional shopping can buy merchandise directly, online shopping is not only more convenient for people to buy it, but it is easier to compare goods than traditional shopping, and it also promotes economic development and promotes the development of other industries.
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the Internet. These business transactions occur either business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerceand e-business are often used interchangeably. The term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to transactional processes around online retail, (SearchCIO, 2015). In other words e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services online.
Online commerce was introduced to consumers in the mid-1990’s, and in the years since, it has grown exponentially. It started out virtually nonexistent and has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Nearly every retail sector has entered online commerce; clothing, electronics, home, health and grooming items, even food and groceries are starting to gain traction online. Online commerce sites rival traditional brick and mortar stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as other big-box stores. As online retailers such as Amazon continue to expand, many brick and mortar stores have been making their way online, indicative of an increasing movement towards online commerce. With more than 80% of the online population having made an online