Shopping: Online vs. Brick and Mortar Stores
Online Shopping is the Way to go
Online retailing started small; in 1995 Amazon.com launched its shopping website and a year later EBay opened their e-retail doors to consumers, thus changing the way consumers would make purchases. Consumers are faced with similar shopping challenges, they have the hard to shop for friend or family member that results in a cash gift, or they find that perfect shirt, in a color they love, but the store is out of stock on their size, so they either settle on a color that they like in their size or they join the 167 million others in 2012 by shopping online. It is predicted that in 2016 E-retail spending will increase by 62% over the amount spent in 2012. Online shopping offers many benefits over their brick and mortar counterparts, including access to thousands of stores, easy price comparisons, and the ability to shop from home. Online shopping provides thousands of stores right at the consumer’s finger tips. Traditional stores often stock three colors of a shirt in each size, whereas an online retailer could provide an extensive selection of sizes and colors of the style shirt offered in the traditional stores. Keeping with the online shopping era, traditional stores like Macy’s, Sears and Walmart have set up websites that offer more inventory than they can display in their retail floor space. These retailers also offer “Online only” merchandise, and sale prices. Online shopping has provided people that do not live in large cities with shopping malls, the ability to shop those stores without making a day trip to the city. With online retailers like Amazon.com, Ebay.com and Shopzilla.com it is possible to shop thousands of retailers on one website, even stores in other countries. Another advantage to online shopping is the ease of finding the best possible deal available on a purchase. If a consumer were looking to purchase the new Apple iPad mini 16GB, they would find it available at many retailers,
Online retailing started small; in 1995 Amazon.com launched its shopping website and a year later EBay opened their e-retail doors to consumers, thus changing the way consumers would make purchases. Consumers are faced with similar shopping challenges, they have the hard to shop for friend or family member that results in a cash gift, or they find that perfect shirt, in a color they love, but the store is out of stock on their size, so they either settle on a color that they like in their size or they join the 167 million others in 2012 by shopping online. It is predicted that in 2016 E-retail spending will increase by 62% over the amount spent in 2012. Online shopping offers many benefits over their brick and mortar counterparts, including access to thousands of stores, easy price comparisons, and the ability to shop from home. Online shopping provides thousands of stores right at the consumer’s finger tips. Traditional stores often stock three colors of a shirt in each size, whereas an online retailer could provide an extensive selection of sizes and colors of the style shirt offered in the traditional stores. Keeping with the online shopping era, traditional stores like Macy’s, Sears and Walmart have set up websites that offer more inventory than they can display in their retail floor space. These retailers also offer “Online only” merchandise, and sale prices. Online shopping has provided people that do not live in large cities with shopping malls, the ability to shop those stores without making a day trip to the city. With online retailers like Amazon.com, Ebay.com and Shopzilla.com it is possible to shop thousands of retailers on one website, even stores in other countries. Another advantage to online shopping is the ease of finding the best possible deal available on a purchase. If a consumer were looking to purchase the new Apple iPad mini 16GB, they would find it available at many retailers,
References: Palmer, Kimberly.(2007) News & World Report. Vertical Web Media, February 27, 2012 www.internetretailer.com/2012/02/27/e-retail-spending-increase-45-2016 voices.yahoo.com/the-convenience-benefits-shopping-online-2178580.html