The action of going to the local grocery store with a list is starting to become less common due to the increase of online shopping and delivery options. The question is, is this a good or bad concept for the average person?
The more popular virtual shopping becomes, the easier it gets for families to be efficient, punctual, and stress-free. A task that commonly occurs about once a week is mostly eliminated, saving fuel and time. And groceries aren’t the only items being delivered, as almost anything can be delivered in this day and age. This allows for not only a decrease in effort required to shop, but also a more flexible chance to customize products. This is because being able to shop on the internet allows people to request certain orders. Rather than having to walk through a local retail store and having to choose what color sweatshirt you want out of the ones available, you can usually choose from many more options online. Obviously, it is possible for certain colors to be out of stock on the websites of stores, or it’s possible to customize products in-store, but there is usually a better chance of finding a larger variety online to choose from when it comes to many different products.
But is online shopping always a good thing? Online shopping eliminates the action of going to a store and purchasing a product. Although this might not seem like a big deal, it is. One of the factors that is lacking in online shopping is the ambiance of the store. Stores create a vibe to the place, from its decorations to the attitude that employees have towards customers. One might argue that the website may be nicely organized and laid out, and that the on-the-phone customer service is helpful, but the actual experience is lacking. If people start to stray away from shopping in person, the actual joy of shopping in person could become rare.
Also, it can be tricky to keep track of what you are going to buy when shopping online, which can lead to you spending more than you would if you were shopping in person. After adding an item to your virtual shopping cart, you don’t see the item until you press it on your cart again, or it may show up on the side, but it is easy for your focus to be on what other products you want to buy. But, if your shopping is being done in person, you see the different items in front of you in the shopping cart you are pushing around. So the next time you go to add something to the cart, you see how much you have already added. This makes it easier to consider if an item is worth spending money on or not.
It is important to consider possible additional costs of online shopping as well. Sure, there are the external costs of spending money to get to the store, but the experience makes up for that. But when buying something, such as clothes, online, you don’t always know if you are going to get the correct size since it is not physically in front of you. Your trust in ordering the correct one is based on what the company has posted on the website or other people’s reviews. After you receive a product that you want to return, you have to spend the time and effort to send it back, which could possibly have a shipping cost as well.
So, is online shopping good or bad? Depending on how you look at it, there are both pros and cons to this shopping method, but one should not be chosen over the other. Instead, it is best if a balance is maintained between the both.
