Tuesday 03 December 2024

Online Shopping Rises Like David Defeating Goliath (offline retail)

Shopping has an intrinsic relation with the modern woman. We women are too fond of shopping. A woman who does not like online shopping is almost treated like an alien who has landed from outer space! If you ever come across such a woman, I bet you are going to ask her twice or even thrice to confirm if she is really not into shopping that much and then probably form an instant opinion about her. This is our sweet and smart personality dear. We like to spend hours together, shopping for clothes, shoes, bags, lipstick and whatever we need. Who said women are impatient? And what more, according to psychology, shopping is actually a woman’s emotional journey. Wondering why? Well, this is because shopping uplifts our mood whenever we feel down. “Retail therapy” as it is called can act as a stress buster too.

Nowadays, with the development of technology, the new age concept of online shopping has made our task easier. You now have these emerging online shopping sites to fall back on, whenever you feel depressed. Befriending the online shopping websites, you can now afford the luxury of sitting on your couch and browse the catalogues with elan. As matter of fact, online shopping is the new age method of going shopping because very of us feel the need to visit the actual offline stores in today’s day and age.

Online shopping, sometimes called e-tail (electronic retail) is a form of e-commerce that lets you buy products or services directly from the sellers over the internet. The earliest online shopping sites went into business in around 1992 and online retail business assumed a significant proportion of the retail market. This was during the first decade of the twenty first century. As more of us started to own personal computers, big retailers began to sell their products over the Internet. In India, we started knowing about these online shopping websites three or maximum four years ago. Before that we were happy to run to our favourite stores in the market. So, we all are witnesses to the rapid rise and boom of online shopping in India in the recent years. Some say that it is due to the “Cash On Delivery” option of payments which led to our enlightenment and consequently to our uninhibited access to these online shopping sites.

With the trend of online stores in India, the number of online shopping sites has also increased by leaps and bounds. Online sites for each and every need and thought are now available to you. You can buy dresses from sites which sells products at very low rates directly from wholesalers. There are a bunch of websites for shopping apparel.  Websites for shape wear, hygiene wear, skin care, cosmetics, lingerie, home and kitchen accessories, watches, luxury items, jewellery, eye wear are all readily available to you. It is an unending list of names of online shopping websites. We all are so much caught up in our daily home-office-home routine that often you may face difficulty to go to an offline store. A few clicks will get you everything you need!

There is no denying the fact that online shopping has gained more popularity than the earlier mode of in-store shopping. This can be attributed to the fact that it makes shopping easier. It saves our time. We no longer have to go all the way to the market to buy things. Also, online shopping websites offer attractive prices. This allows us to buy items at discounted prices leading to major cost benefits. Additionally, online shopping makes it easy for us to buy things from anywhere in the world. If an item is not available in India, you can buy it from online shopping sites. What more, you can even compare prices before deciding to buy a certain product.

On the flip side, online shopping has given rise to compulsive shoppers. Most of us spend a lot of time on the internet every day, where the various ads catch our attention and we give in to splurging. Honestly, many times I have ended up buying something which I do not really need. Also, there are certain security concerns. While shopping online, there is a risk of exposing confidential financial details to hackers. Although anti-virus and anti-malware applications keep dangers at bay, but almost every week, we do get to hear about these untoward incidents.

Online shopping has several positives and negatives. However, the positives outweigh the negatives. What we really need to do is use anti-malware anti-spyware software to monitor closely and keep our common sense handy, to be the perfect, street-smart online shopper. In this context, I would like to mention StalkBuyLove which stands out from the mass market retail websites. StalkBuyLove offers exclusive and trendy women’s fashion and creates scintillating collections geared towards the modern woman. I personally loved it and I’m sure you will too!

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