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What Do People Dislike About Online Shopping

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What Do People Dislike About Online Shopping?

In an industry where double-digit growth has previously been the norm, it would seem
hard to imagine finding much dissatisfaction amongst its consumers. Online shopping,
one would gather, offers benefits that would attract anyone who has a computer with
access to an internet connection. Although not everyone has that access (in the
United States over 50% of the US population is now connected to the Internet), those
that do are not 100% convinced that online shopping is the way to go.

In finding out about the why, what and how of online shopping, you may be surprised by
why people shop online, what they dislike about shopping online, and how online shopping
might change to continue growing in the future as it has in the past.

Online buyers are shifting a greater share of their purchases from the traditional brick and
mortar stores to the web in search of more convenience, cost savings, and broader product
selection. These three “whys” of online shopping were found to be consistent throughout
the research for this article. According to an October 2008 report by Forrester Research,
in a survey of 1000 adult online buyers, 48% expect to find the best values online (that’s
up from 41% in 2007). In a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project entitled
“Online Shopping:Convenient but Risky”, the whys were similar. Of the people surveyed
for the report, 78% stated convenience while another 68% cited saving time as the reasons
for shopping online.

Further evidence of the reasons why people shop online was reported in June 2008 by
ERetail in their “Top 100 Online Retail Index” . The major factors for shopping online were
financial(26%), gas prices(16%) and the economic outlook(14%). Additionally, 34% of those
surveyed said they planned on spending more money shopping online. If financial and the
economic outlook are about savings, then gas prices (not driving to the store?) is about
savings and convenience. And of those planning to spend 34% more, they probably have
found out about the broad product selection.

If the “whys” of people shopping online seemed consistent, then so will the “whats” of things
that people dislike. It’s not surprising that in an industry with such dramatic growth (more on
that later), technology glitches and process management have combined to create some
dissatisfaction. That those same areas of dissatisfaction are consistent tells us that those
areas can be improved if not totally eliminated.

In a Nielsen Consumer Report/Global Survey conducted in February 2008, the top security
concerns regarding online shopping were reported. The first concern was not receiving the
item(s) purchased or receiving different item(s) than what was purchased. The second
security concern was that personal information would be sold to a third party. Lastly, the third
concern was financial information being stolen. Referring back to the Pew Project, it was
reported that 75% of those surveyed were concerned about both financial and personal
information being secure. The other area of concern was regarding the amount or the way
which online shopping information was presented, with 58% stating they found that information
to be overwhelming. The Privacy Rights Clearing House, a report titled “Online Shopping Tips:
Ecommerce and You” cited the number one concern of online shoppers as a combination of
Pew research piece. Those online shoppers in the Privacy Rights piece declared that not only
should the payment and product process be secure, but that both the financial and purchase
information be simplified, not in any way overwhelming.

If Ecommerce growth will be fueled to some degree by increased spending of current online
buyers, then attracting new online shoppers seems to be a key factor in the equation of
continued growth. However, although online shoppers agree to the benefits (convenience,
savings, selection), most also agree on the detractions (financial and personal information
security, the purchase process). Let’s take a look at some of the numbers to see how change
could affect growth.

If we look back at the Forrester Research report of October 2008, we find some of those
interesting numbers. Forty-seven percent of online shoppers plan to spend the same amount
in the next twelve months. Further stated, 27% plan to spend more and 26% plan to spend
less money. By my math, that adds up to basically flat growth. The US Department of
Commerce projects the 2008 growth for online shopping to be about 7% (the DOC tracked the
industry’s growth rate at 20% plus since 1999). Additionally, eMarketer reports the 2008 holiday
season (November & December) grew at about 10%. Combining the DOC and eMarketer
findings, we do see some growth but not at near the double-digit rates of years past.

So what’s an industry to do? Referring again to Pew finds an interesting analysis. Pew
measured the combined effect of making non-online shoppers comfortable with some of the
hesitancy of shopping online. The data gathered reflected financial/personal information, the
purchase process, along with the previous “whys” regarding savings, convenience and
selection. Improving the confidence of non-online shoppers in these areas could have an overall
impact of as much as 12% growth. If you consider that some of the drop-off in growth may be
due in part to economic concerns around the world, then sustained ecommerce growth seems
very much a potential outcome.

In closing, because online shopping is such a dynamic industry, the technical and processing
aspects will only continue to improve. As those two areas seem to be at the root of any
dissatisfaction with online shopping, those improvements are probably in place and taking
affect. Making online shopping a better experience benefits all of us –
those who provide it and those who use it.

Jackie Caggz
NeverPayFullPrice Online Shopping

Online Shopping For Filipinos, Advantages And Disadvantages

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The popularity of online shopping in the Philippines are becoming more apparent nowadays, especially when different business establishments today have come to use the internet to do their business. Online gift shops, flower shops, apparel shops, toy shops, and online philippine buy and sell shop are among the kinds of online shops that Filipinos have established on the internet. So what made online shops so popular in the Philippines or in other countries?

Advantages
The most common advantage that online shops or any other kind of online businesses is its convenience. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have Internet access both at work and at home. A visit to a conventional retail store requires travel and must take place during business hours. Searching or browsing an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of a physical store. This is much preferable for a lot of Filipinos, especially those Filipinos working abroad. Because of online shops, Filipinos that works abroad can easily and conveniently philippine buy and send gifts or any other kinds of stuff to their families at their own leisure.

Though online shopping have opened up new possibilities for both consumer and business, several problems have also been cited from online shopping. One common problem is fraud and identity theft.

Disadvantages
Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store. Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases using stolen credit cards or fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase. With a warehouse instead of a retail storefront, merchants face less risk from physical theft.

Being new in this trend, many Filipinos have already been a victim of fraud and identity theft. Many business establishments in the philippine buy and sell business or any other kind of business have also been under attack of these problems. To lessen such incidence, a number of resources have offered several advices on how Filipino consumers and other consumers can protect themselves when using online retailer services. These are:

* Sticking with known stores, or attempting to find independent consumer reviews of their experiences; also ensuring that there is comprehensive contact information on the website before using the service, and noting if the retailer has enrolled in industry oversight programs such as trust mark or trust seal.
* Ensuring that the retailer has an acceptable privacy policy posted. For example note if the retailer does not explicitly state that it will not share private information with others without consent.
* Ensuring that the vendor address is protected with SSL or Secure Sockets Layer when entering credit card information. If it does the address on the credit card information entry screen will start with “HTTPS”.
* Using strong passwords, without personal information. Another option is a “pass phrase,” which might be something along the lines: “I shop 4 good a buy!!” These are difficult to hack, and provides a variety of upper, lower, and special characters and could be site specific and easy to remember.

Although the benefits of online shopping are considerable, when the process goes poorly it can create a thorny situation. This is why its very important that before making a purchase on an online shop, make sure that every documents or any other security measures are present.

Online Shopping – Practical, Economical & Fun Method Of Shopping

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Major changes are taking place in the world today. Some of them are favourable and some of them are unfavourable. Online shopping is one of the favourable changes that have taken place. The emergence many online shopping companies providing great services and products online has limited the scope of physical market and widen the scope of online retail stores.
The word favourable is used along with internet shopping is because people find it really easy to shop online rather than going out to the physical markets, driving their cars in crowded roads, carry cash and bank ATMs etc. All you need is one computer with internet and you can buy from a pin to plane from vast internet shopping portal.
The main advantage of internet shopping is that it allows people to browse through many items and categories without leaving their house, to compare the prices of as many shops as they want, and also to order as many items as they can afford without having to worry about how they will transport them, because the online shopping websites also deliver the things to the buyer’s home. Furthermore, the Internet is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so you don’t have to hurry or worry about finding a parking spot.
Some people yet think that online shopping not that good as it seems to be. They believe that it has a fake spark. Well no doubt affordable internet shopping has spark but it is not at all fake. Online shopping India companies offer great offers and different schemes to make your shopping more affordable.
Another advantage of online shopping over the physical market shopping is that internet shopping is wider in scope as compare to any other form of shopping. You can choose from a variety of products offered by different internet shopping companies. Other features like free home delivery, credit card payment, bank payments, after sale support, detailed information about the products etc can makes the internet shopping more attractive and worth taking.
After you’ve done some online shopping you’ll see how easy it is and you’ll quickly get used to it. Soon you will know what the best shopping websites like www.megashophut.com able you buy the things you need in very easy and fast way, saving a lot of time and trouble. Online shopping is the most practical, economical and fun method of shopping, that is perfect for everyone.

Multi Vendor Shopping Cart Software Benefits

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Nowadays online shopping cart is very common in use for running online stores that allows you to sell one vendor products. But multi vendor shopping cart is completely a different setup where more than one vendor of different industries can sell their products. There are a lot of multi vendor shopping cart software benefits, some of them are stated below

Multi vendor shopping art software allows every member a separate store house for selling his products. As we know shopping cart is kind software to create your own shopping website.

Shopping cart acts like an interface in between your business website and its infrastructure.

This is a good and mostly used technique for expanding your business online. As we know currently online shopping is the trend followed in most of the countries, especially in US, Canada, Australia and Europe its very common to shop online.

Today everyone is bus in his/her daily routine life and do not have much time to go out for ever single product/service he/she needs. Hence people preferred to shop online as much as possible. Here companies need an online shopping website that allows people to come and shop online. This is the time when companies need Multi vendor shopping cart software for creating their own shopping website.

That multi vendor shopping cart software allows you to create an online store where people come, compare and select products/services of their own choice. And most amazing thing is all this happen virtually, virtually means people do not need to visit a store physically also they cannot see or feel the product physically. There are more benefits of shopping cart software

Auto responders:
Multivendor shopping cart software allows developing an auto email responder for all vendors. This is not just for sending mass-emails but also work as auto responding to customers emails.

Affiliate programs:
You can run an affiliate program for promotion purpose as well as you can set an approval step that helps you to get affiliates you want.

Product Management:
Multi vendor shopping art software allows you to create very secure download areas for products and space of shopping cart service.

Customer Support:
As multi vendor shopping cart software user as well as shopping service provider you may need help at any time. For this shopping cart software has customer support option. Also you can get tutorials and multi vendor shopping cart software team has professionals for your help and you also need some active specialists for your customers help.

These are just a few important multi vendor shopping cart software benefits that can give you an idea about importance of shopping cart software.

Are There Still Unsecure And Safe Shops Online

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Let us say you found a $50 tablet computer online. Seems like a great deal. You feel wonderful that you chose not to shop at those branded retail online stores or you would not have found that great buy. The site even had those legal looking disclaimers and it asked all the right information about shipping details. And there was that thing that said it was secure. The question is, it is really secure?

The rule of thumb with online shopping is that if you have no clue from which business you are buying anything from don’t even try to shop there. You will risk losing money and personal information.

Security does not always mean convenience all the time. Most online shopping sites are open 24×7 from each and every corner of the globe. They try to vie for your attention by offering deals and attractive offers like comparison pricing, free gifts, discounts and free shipping. Most people who would like to save on gas and time, find shopping online very appealing.

However, are there still unsecure online shops that can wreak havoc in your life? The answer is yes.

If you would like to shop safely online, you need to abide by some basic security considerations:

1. Reputable online shops mean better protection. Shop with the more popular online retailers. Bigger retailers have more to lose if their reputation for security gets tossed out so they ensure that their sites are protected as much as possible. Their reputation is at stake if your information gets misused through any laxity of security on their part.

2. When you are in doubt, check out the retailer. If you find a great deal at an online store you have never heard of, look at their home page. Click the contact us link and look at the information. If there are no verifiable phone numbers and there is only an email address available, avoid that retailer like the plague. If there is a phone number, it would be best if you can try to call. If no human answers, or if the human can’t give you answers that make sense, do not risk shopping at that site.

3. Having encryption does not always mean security. When you shop online and you are about to enter the credit card information take a look at your browser’s address bar. You need the “http” to change into “https” plus a closed padlock icon needs to appear on the page. This padlock informs you that your information is secure. If that padlock is nowhere to be found and the URL does not change to “https” do not enter your credit card information. Even when there is the padlock and the “https”, it won’t hurt to look at the company’s privacy policy.

Another rule of thumb is that if the URL contains numbers in the beginning, like http://100.67.180.101@670%7878%, chances are, it is a scam.

4. Avoid using shared computers. Shared computers, especially the kind you see at a cyber-cafe is never safe. Many hackers can install a small device called the keylogger on the back of the keyboard. It is a device that captures everything you type. There are times when the keylogger is installed as software and therefor very hard to detect. The best thing to do is to avoid using shared computers when typing important information as credit card details or passwords.

5. Never pay with a debit card. Credit cards offer more protection. If a retailer tries to rip you off, you can always dispute the charges. With debit cards, the money is immediately credited to the retailer and it may take many months to get your money back if you ever actually get it back.

Shopping online can be a safe and secure experience provided you use your common sense and abide by certain basic security suggestions as those outlined above.