The Benefits of Shopping Online Are Many
Some people still refuse to shop online. Whether they are concerned about security or not being able to actually hold the product they are purchasing, they simply don’t understand the many benefits of shopping online.
Almost every major retailer has an online presence now. Some are simply informational, while most allow a person to purchase products and services from the comfort of their own home. Several businesses have closed their doors in favor of selling their products online.
A major advantage an online retailer has over a traditional “brick and mortar” company is its greatly reduced overhead cost. Online retailers only require one distribution center to serve all of their customers, which means they only have to pay rent and utilities for one building, and they only have to pay for one group of employees. Traditional businesses require numerous retail outlets and several warehouses to supply them, each of which has its own rent and utility bill each month, not to mention the massive force of people required to serve their customers.
Many retailers (including retail stores, restaurants, and many more) actually offer lower prices to their online patrons to encourage them to order online. This is because a computer is able to process hundreds (or thousands) of orders in rapid succession — far more than a human could hope to accomplish. What’s more, a computer doesn’t expect a paycheck, nor does it get stressed when phones are ringing off-the-hook. This saves the company money, and provides fast and reliable service to their customers.
Because of the amount of money a company is able to save by selling their products online, many online retailers have dramatically lower prices than their offline competition. There are even services that allow a person to see prices for a product from several different suppliers, eliminating the need to shop around for the best price.
One major concern among shoppers is identity theft, or the theft of their sensitive account information. What people fail to realize is that this is a concern at conventional retailers as well. With cell-phone phishing (people snapping a photo of your credit card) and dishonest cashiers, this can happen at your local grocery store far more easily than it can happen online.
Most reputable online retailers have worked hard to address these concerns by utilizing encryption. Encryption “scrambles” your information before sending it to its intended recipient (the retailer). This means that any would-be hacker is unable to decipher your personal information. You can tell if a website is using encryption as a padlock icon will show on your browser, and the site’s address will be preceded by “HTTPS:” instead of the usual “HTTP:”, which indicates a secured website.
With security and substantially lower prices, the benefits of shopping online can be amazing, saving you time while reducing what you must pay for products and services.
