Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping

This post is on the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.

With the current fast-moving digital technology, many things had moved online including online shopping.

I believe most of us have shopped or purchased online, at least when you booked your Airasia Now Everyone Can Fly tickets. I myself had done some online shopping.

Thus, I listed below the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.

Advantages and disadvantages of online shopping

Below is a listing of the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.

Advantages of online shopping

Lets’s start with the list of the advantages of online shopping:

1. Save your time

If you are someone who spends most of your time in the office and only go out during lunch hour, you know how valuable is the lunch hour for you.

Or, if you are a busy stay-at-home mum, you will find it hard to go to the store with your kids around. For conventional shopping, you need to plan for your trip and most probably you will need to spend some time from the journey to the store.

But, through online shopping, you save your time with just a few clicks on your computer mouse. Within a few days, you will receive your items at your preferred location.

2. Convenience

This is much related to the first advantage above, save you your precious time.

It is also very convenient to shop online. For example, to purchase an air ticket at the ticketing counter, you will need to drive to the location, park your car, get your queue number and wait for your number to be called.

But, with online shopping, you will get your airline ticket done in just a few minutes at the comfort of your home.

3. Available 24 x 7, anytime and anywhere

For conventional shopping centre, the business hour is limited, usually ranging from 8 am to 10 pm. But, for online shopping, the online store is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all year long.

So, you can shop and order any time of the day and from anywhere, as long as you are connected to the internet.

4. Cheaper price

Due to lower maintenance costs in terms of workers and business premises, online stores are able to sell at cheaper prices compared to those items in conventional stores or supermarkets.

And strong competition between online stores also gives buyers an added advantage for having cheaper prices.

Some more, if you purchase in bulks, you can get even more discount as well.

Other than the price itself, you might be interested to read my sharing on how to save money while shop online.

5. More choices

In some locations, their desired products might not be available at their local store. So, an online store can solve this issue.

The online store also provide more choices for its shopper. Besides, it is much easier to browse the available item from a web browser rather than walking in the store.

And it is easier to go to another online store compare to go to another different conventional store. Which again, help you to save your shopping time.

6. Readily available information

Usually, for the online store, the product information is readily available on the site. Buyers are free to access the information and some even provide instant replies to questions related to their products.

Some buyers like me, prefer to read the available information on the products rather than having a sales assistant bugging me or following me around.

7. Product reviews

Most of the online shops also come with product reviews.

This is especially helpful in providing more information for potential buyers. Positive products review will definitely help potential buyers to make better purchasing decisions.

Disadvantages of online shopping

And now, the disadvantages of online shopping are as below:

1. What you see online is not what you get

For online shopping, there is no testing before purchase the products. The picture of the product might look great on the website but when you received it, it looks different.

For example, a dress that looks very nice on the online model might not look nice on you. So, for a purchase that you need to try, to test and feel it, online shopping might not be a good idea.

2. Chances of fraud sellers

For experienced online shoppers, this might not be a problem. But for novice shoppers, might be cheated by fraud sellers.

Upon receiving the payment, they might not receive the promised products.

So, it is best to check the rating of the seller before do any online purchasing. Be sure only to purchase from good rating sellers.

3. Misleading information

To impress their potential buyers, some online shop owners might provide misleading information about their products.

Therefore, it is advisable to read more especially on user reviews before purchasing the product online.

4. The online payment security issue

For online purchases, most payment modes are online as well. Because of this, there is a higher chance of payment security issues.

Be sure to shop at secure stores. At least, the possibility of credit card fraud or other online payment method fraud is minimized.

6. Disclosure of personal information

For any online purchase, the buyer will need to disclose their personal information to the seller. This is for payment and shipping purposes.

The scary part is you never know who’s on the other side viewing your personal information, which includes your home address and contact number.

7. Digital device and internet service requirement

To be able to shop online, you must have a digital device with an internet connection. And some basic internet knowledge as well.

That is why most of the online shoppers are younger generations. Not many grandma and granddad shop online.

8. System down

When the system (either yours or theirs) is down, you can’t perform online shopping.

But, usually, the system won’t take so long to be back operating as usual.

9. Expensive shipping fee

For some products, the shipping fee might be more expensive than the price of the purchased product.

For example, to purchase a set of skincare from the US, the cost of shipping from the US to Malaysia can be more expensive than the skincare product itself.

10. No human touch

For conventional shopping, there is always sales assistants whom we can ask for advice or for help. But, for an online store, you will have to help yourself.

For a purchase which you need some human touch, it is better to get it from the conventional stores. Only after you are confident about which product you wish to buy, should go online shopping.

11. The long wait for delivery and item lost or damaged

Depending on your location and the type of delivery service you are paying for, the waiting time can be quite frustrating.

Sometimes, items can be lost or damaged as well.

Final thoughts

Based on the above information, it seems like the disadvantage is more than the advantages. Nevertheless, I still believe online shopping has a very promising future.

And I can see that more and more efforts are being carried out by online sellers and delivery companies to smoothen the online shopping experience.

Lastly, is there any point that I missed out on? Feel free to share with me.