So, you are wondering why online shopping is growing like anything? The major reason behind this is that more people are going online for shopping and compare things with each other before buying them.
There is an increasing demand of clients in the present times which encourages them to shop from online stores rather than offline stores. The big players are offering a huge range of products at very reasonable prices which help the customers to purchase any product anytime, anywhere.
The clients are provided with 24×7 services, making the experience of online shopping more enjoyable. So, here we have got some reasons why online shopping is growing.
Overview
In the last couple of years, online shopping has grown in popularity as an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Online shopping offers a much wider variety of products and is far more convenient than visiting a local store.
Tons of research shows that people love buying things on the Internet. The reason is simple: Online shopping makes life easier. It’s faster than driving to a store, you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for, and you can get it delivered right to your door without leaving your home.
The trend toward buying goods online has been explosive in recent years, with billions of dollars changing hands each year through Internet transactions.
Here are some major reasons why online shopping is growing:
1. Online shopping is convenient
Online shopping is comparatively more convenient than local shopping because you don’t have to worry about an outlet’s opening and closing times. The online shops are available anytime.
With e-shopping, no need to stand in the cashier’s line and wait for your turn. It is an effective way of shopping that has no crowds or queues, and the people can also avoid any hassles with the physical parameters.
In online shopping, you have to place the order of your product of interest, and the product will be on your doorstep ASAP. More importantly, you can also research your product’s manufacturer, quality, ingredients, and price range just by sitting on your couch.
Furthermore, you have multiple choices of any brand or product you are looking for, which means a diverse variety of products, and no one is pressuring you to buy the product from their silly promotions.
From the seller’s perspective, you have a variety of inventory posted online for review, rather than being stuck with displaying them on your limited shelf spaces in the shop. Moreover, the store owners can get relief from troubles like shop-lifting, and armed robberies, as there would be no physical liability for the owners.
The business owners manage their supplies, inventory, hot items, products with the least click-through rates, just with a click of a button, all by themselves.
Furthermore, you have multiple choices of any brand or product you are looking for, which means a diverse variety of products, and no one is pressuring you to buy the product from their silly promotions.
From the seller’s perspective, you have a variety of inventory posted online for review, rather than being stuck with displaying them on your limited shelf spaces in the shop. Moreover, the store owners can get relief from troubles like shop-lifting, and armed robberies, as there would be no physical liability for the owners.
The business owners manage their supplies, inventory, hot items, products with the least click-through rates, just with a click of a button, all by themselves.
Also read: Is eCommerce Business Profitable
Saves precious time
Today, the only rival of money is “time.” The main reason online shopping is growing is that it saves your time.
Saving your time in terms of shopping saves your time to get the lowest price product of suitable rating and review, which is also the main reason for most people choosing this mode of business, rather than the physical one.
People who use the online way of shopping are trading immediately to get the product on their doorstep effectively.
Some clients have no tolerance who are concerned with time, and that is why they use the online mode of shopping to avoid crowds or queues.
Some clients understand that they cannot receive the product now, and to overcome the delay, they can pay the extra shipping cost to get their order as soon as possible.
Moreover, the online mode of shopping works round the clock 24/7 hours.
If you are selling the product, you can sell by resting while the clients can browse and buy from you anytime, but in manual shops, it is not easy for the seller to rest until the shop is open.
3. Global Catalogue
The advantage of online shopping is that it is easy to compare one product with another in terms of its quality, quantity, and price. Most people use online shopping platforms to compare their products of interest because it is easy to research any brand’s product online at any time.
Your customers have access to a significantly larger variety of products than they would in a typical physical store. You can literally buy anything on the internet today, including clothes, furniture, electronics, toys, and more. If one store doesn’t have what you’re looking for then chances are there’s an online retailer that does have it and will ship it straight to your doorstep.
4. Reviews
In online shopping, client reviews can be the best revealer of a brand regarding its quality and trustworthiness. Such transparency is the most significant upside to the e-commerce sector and why online shopping is becoming the go-to pastime for many people.
There is also the rating option in which the buyers rate the product according to the quality. One-star rating refers to poor quality, while a two-star rating refers to satisfactory, a three-star rating refers to an intermediate, a four-star rating is the sign of a good product, and the five-star rating refers to an excellent quality of the product.
This rating and review feature of e-shopping is beneficial for the buyers to distinguish whether they buy the particular product or not. It is also a critical factor in making or breaking a deal.
5. Product Comparision
Due to this reason, clients can also easily compare the price range of the particular product with another provider of the same product. They can decide accordingly from which provider they have to buy the product, without moving shop to shop, door to door.
Besides the convenience of side-by-side product comparisons, online shopping allows the user to get their items from absolutely anywhere worldwide. A person from Brazil can import their favorite laptop from China in a few seconds without visiting the shop in person.
6. Cost-Effective
When do we hear of online shopping, a question arises in our minds: whether online shopping is cost-effective or not? The online way is the cheapest way of shopping than offline shopping because there are more deals, sales, offers, and coupons.
There are many special events, such as Black Friday, 1-1 sale, and Cyber Monday, in which the clients can get amazing deals, sales, and coupons on expensive products.
Due to the logistics and resources saved for the companies, the companies can also offer more incredible discounts, deals, combos, and sales.
Many of the stores also give the reward after a particular amount of shopping, and if the client crosses that specific shopping limit, they will get the bonus reward in the form of a coupon or some discount.
Some platforms even offer referral codes and links to earn you some extra cash for your next purchase. Such reasons make the online shopping mode a way to go for the future.
If someone wants to buy clothes, shoes, furniture, and electronic devices, online shopping is the best way to get your product of interest because you can quickly get offers on your product, such as cashback and free-of-cost shipping.
Moreover, for electronic devices and gadgets, the online shopping mode is the best way for shopping: users can directly purchase from the online outlets without having a shop owner taking their bargains. Also, the pre-launches and prebooking for companies like Samsung and iPhone can provide you with the latest tech in your hands in no time.
Also read: Complete Guide to Start an Online Store
7. The Biggest Market
Online shopping is now one of the biggest markets in the world. In this modern era, everything is going digitized, and everyone wants to do any activity in this era wants to do at their fingertips. Online shopping not only saves time and money, but it also provides business opportunities to everyone, no matter how small or big their business is.
It is difficult for many people to launch their business or products quickly and cost-effectively in offline shopping. But in online shopping, there are equal opportunities for everyone to launch and grow their respective companies.
Online shopping was one of the biggest markets globally, and during pandemic days, the market grew even more prominent. According to the report of Verizon, the American cellular data giant observed a 75% increase in cellular network usage by the beginning of the first phase of Lockdown.
From this point onwards, online shopping went up at a whooping pace, which crashed multiple sites in a few days. During the pandemic, online shopping became the only source of satisfaction, entertainment, and business for many people.
Places where physical contact was zero to none, benefitted heavily from this situation, and the customers and the business owners went home equally satisfied. During that time, people heavily relied on online shopping mode, and the numbers say so.
Online shopping broke all the records, and according to CNBC, the individuals spent $900 billion more during the pandemic year (2020) compared to the preceding year. Many people are aware of this online shopping method due to this pandemic and due to its benefits, many people change their manual way of shopping into online shopping.
It provides global coverage of any product anywhere in the world where the internet facility is available. Moreover, the seller can easily monitor in which region the product demand is high or in which area it is low and can easily target the audience where the high demand of the product is required.
The seller can also improve the quality of the product while reading reviews and ratings of the clients. This platform provides a user-friendly facility to both the clients and the seller. This online market is growing every day and becoming more advanced, and it is becoming the source of income for many people.
In online shopping,” the sky is the limit,” one can sell as many products as they want to, which means there is no limit. In online shopping, product diversity and a wide variety attract people. It also allows the people to order any product of their interest from any region of the world.
There are no restrictions on geographical location. More importantly, the client can research the product. It also provides individualized recommendations and services to the clients, which allow the seller’s suggestions to the clients.
It helps the client hunt the excellent product of interest and customizes options such as color, size, design, etc. It also provides 24/7 customer service to tackle all the problems faced by the client using the product unlikely in manual shopping.
8. Several Mode of Payments
There are alternate ways of payment such as transferring money through a bank while giving information of the credit cards or by the debit cards and e-checks etc. It also includes third-party exchange money services such as Easy Paisa, Jazz Cash, PayPal, amazon pay, googles pay, etc.
As this is the digitalized era and technology is advancing day by day, one can also easily pay through digital currency or blockchain technology such as bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. These various modes of payments are made available for the customer’s easiness.
These methods are available for the customer to avail themselves at their pleasure. If they feel comfortable in using online banking to clear their bills, then that is what they shall opt for. Most of the youth do not like to carry cash with them. Instead, they would opt for the transfer of credit from their bank accounts directly to the seller’s account.
However, when conducting payments, one should ensure that the source is trustworthy and does not enter confidential bank account details without proof of validation. This note takes us to the first significant con of this shopping mode: online scams.
The odds of users getting scammed online are relatively high than in a physical situation. Most websites use third-party servers to conduct payments which are at a higher risk of being hacked.
But, let this not discourage anyone. Nowadays, most websites have proper and trustworthy modes of payment installed. They demand a few details that the banking account owner can only know.
Cryptocurrency is the new trend nowadays. Almost all tech-savvy companies and individuals actively promote them through various discount deals that can only be availed by individuals who use cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc.
Still, some people do not trust these latest modes of conducting payments. For such people, the option of “Cash on Delivery” is available.
This method is the easiest as this method is what people are most familiar with. Also, this method eliminates the mistrust factor since they are only paying for what has already reached their doorstep.
Whatever your taste might be, you can use that mode of payment which makes you comfortable. Sometimes, mishaps occur, leading to the customer receiving the wrong items. Even though the odds of such events are pretty minimal, there are ways to repay the damage to the buyer.
As such, if this unfortunate mistake occurs with you, you can ask the selling company for a refund.
The critical thing to note here is that the option for ‘refunding’ is only available for items guaranteed by the company to be returnable.
If this issue arises, send a picture of the wrong or faulty product and a picture of the order details that indicate your actual requested item at the company’s designated address or email address. You will soon receive a confirmation message from your seller.
Afterward, if your complaint is found to be genuine by the company, you will be told that a refund in-store credit or shipping of your actual product will be completed within the next 8-12 working days. It is up to the customer whichever of the two options they opt for.
If this mistake is made by a reputable online shopping platform, the customer is given a gift voucher of some kind as an apology for the bad experience. In my opinion, that’s a win-win for the customer team!
FAQ: Why online shopping is growing
History of online shopping?
In the late 1970s, online shopping began in the U.K. Yet, the actual mass popularity of online shopping started with online shopping giants like Amazon and eBay in the early 90s.
Such online businesses completely changed the world of online shopping forever. Since then, online shopping has been significantly growing due to its effective methodology and payment method.
What online shopping is?
Online shopping is the form of electronic commerce that helps people buy and sell products directly at their fingertips with the help of the internet anywhere, anytime.
The digital platform provides the global coverage of your respective product, whether you want to buy or sell. The individuals can also research their products of interest time effectively. While saving time, it also allows the user to buy or sell the product anytime and anywhere you are.
How can we buy or sell a product online?
The answer is much more straightforward. Firstly, to buy products online, you need to visit your favorite online store. Secondly, to sell online you need to start an online store or sell on eCommerce marketplaces.
Why Online Shopping is Growing?
The world of today is a ‘fast world.’ In such a world of competition, why should shopping be a slow and time-consuming affair? Gone are the days when people used to spend their entire day looking for a particular item, and by the time they found the desired article, the day would have run away from them.
In this modern-day, the customer needs to enter only a few keywords into the search engine and Voilà! Like magic, the desired product appears on their screens. That too of various qualities and prices.
The customer can easily purchase whichever one suits their needs and demands. Online shopping is the future of the era where the sky is the limit. One can easily find new brands and review the quality of the product and research it as well.
Online shopping is convenient, user-friendly, and saves your time, energy, and money. And due to these reasons, many people have changed their traditional shopping into an online way of shopping.
The online mode of shopping helps everyone grow their businesses even during pandemic days, and it is the safest way of shopping because one can easily avoid public places. The fast-shipping method allows everyone to sell or buy anything they want at any time at any location.
Conclusion
In the next couple of years, shopping from an online store will be a routine activity for you. There is already a big revolution in the e-commerce sector where both the virtual and brick-and-mortar stores are trying to get their fair share.
With this kind of growth in the e-commerce sector, it’s no wonder that so many people are interested in jumping on the bandwagon.
Modernization has changed the way we live our lives. It brought along better technology for us to use, as well as a more convenient lifestyle. With the arrival of e-commerce, communication is much easier and more convenient than it was before.
Nowadays, you can use your computer to shop online and place an order in the comfort of your home. You don’t have to bother going out and wasting money and time on gas just to go back to the store just to return an item or buy something that you forgot, or by yourself if there wasn’t anyone around to accompany you.