Online shopping- a boon or a bane?||Problems due to online shopping||Benefits due to online shopping||Evergreen GD topic||

Online shopping
Introduction: 

Online shopping can be considered as sub – category of e-commerce. Online Shopping in India has gone very famous and these a day’s mostly people are buying products online revealed by an online survey done in India. It is actually very simple; if you have internet connection then you can do online shopping. 

There are many schemes on online shopping and most of the people do online shopping to get the maximum comfort by allowing shopping themselves from their home. India is a big market that is growing day by day. 

Online shopping revenue of India was $14 billion in 2012 and number of online shopping users was 19.2 million. Online shopping has doubled to $14 billion in 2012 from $6.3 billion in 2011. This figure is likely to reach $ 38 billion by 2014. In this fast paced competition, the Indian online shoppers have specific expectations for online shopping websites in INDIA. 

First of all, in India on line shoppers have started expecting the option to return items purchased online, and some retailers already have made doing this convenient. Further, the retailers believe that this option is quite necessary to develop consumer trust and confidence in online shopping. Secondly, free door-to-door shopping is very much needed, say online shoppers. Already many online shopping websites are providing these services. But, even today there are certain limitations regarding this. 

Today, in India online shoppers have been trained to expect Common problem in online shopping. There are many online shopping retailers in India like Flipkart, YepMe, Myntra, Lenskart, Snapdeal, HomeShop18, Naaptol, eBay, Junglee, Healthkart and many more. Well, Letsbuy was also there, but it was acquired by Flipkart to bring the most out of it. A few years back, Flipkart was the only king in the online shopping jungle, but now it has got competitors like YepMe and many more as they are also doing well.

 Apart from these things, there are some questions which come in the mind of a person doing shopping online for the first time. These questions are mentioned below. 

1. Are these services real? 

2. Will I be able to do exchange? 

3. What if my product turns out bad? 

4. Will the product reach to me in time? 

5. After paying the money online, will I get the product? 

6. Will the product last long? 

Problems due to online shopping:

1. Receiving wrong products: Many a times the product received are not of the same quality as promised customers have this fear since many of them wrong products or those are unfit to their expectations. 

2. Damaging products in transit: This happens usually, in long distances, product gets damaged in the way and then customer fails to avail its benefits. They are totally at loss then.  

3. Delay in delivery of products: Companies located at far of distance tends to more                  delivery time. This is another feature due to which customer are not satisfied with online      shopping. 

4.Concerns When Buying from Foreign Companies: Problems with online shopping can           be especially difficult to resolve if the seller is located in a foreign country. Before you         order, you want to know how the item is priced and when it is converted to U.S. dollars         (if listed in a different currency); whether the retailer will ship to other countries; the             likely length of time it will take to fulfill the order; any applicable special duties or taxes.     As a general rule, though, you should approach international online orders with caution.  

5. Watch out for Any Scams When Buying Online: In addition to general problems with            online shopping pertaining to legitimate retailers, you also need to be aware of the                  various kinds of scams targeting online consumers. Some suggestions for avoiding scams      are listed below:

• Be careful of "Gray Market" Items: So-called gray market goods may be either illegal sold in a way that sidesteps regulations, or unintended for the market. You may get something that doesn't work properly or which has instructions in another language. Also, merchandise gray typically warranty.  market lacks a 

• Make Sure You Understand Shipping Charges: A retailer may try to squeeze a profit from heavily discounted items by tacking on an extremely high   shipping rate, most of it not actually used for shipping.  

• Other online scams include phishing and spoofing and identity theft (which is not limited to the Internet). Consider speaking with a consumer protection lawyer if you are unable to resolve one or more problems with online shopping.  

Benefits due to online shopping: 

• If you have internet connection and like most people who use the Internet, you will  probably purchase something online within the next month or two.                                    Because you have so many choices, with a world of products at your fingertips and you  don’t have to waste gas or deal with parking hassles, mall crowds, and long lines. You can prefer online shopping to avoid all these problems. 

• Best thing about shopping online is that we can do it barefoot in the comfort of our home without any difficulty.  

• Purchase with Care Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to shopping online.  

Reasons for growth of online Shopping in India:

As per an article by Amritanshu (2012), describe many reasons for the growth of online shopping in India. The trend of online shopping is increasing day by day.                        These days’ people don’t have time and eye-catching offers are the two main factors boosting the online shopping stores these days. Books, Electronic items, accessories, apparels, movie tickets, insurance policies and air and rail tickets booking almost all the products that are available in the market can be purchased from online stores.You can also book a car and a house online. Online shopping is still not very popular in India but the rate is increasing from last 2 to 3years.                                                                                      After watching the advertisements of online stores on television consumers visit web sites but they don’t do shopping. 

According to a survey conducted most people avoid doing transactions due to fear of online theft and some thinks that online stores are not reliable. This is a common phenomenon but slowly people will get used to it.                                                                                    Especially we are expecting a big change in the next generation. Online shopping is getting very popular among young folks. Big Players like flipkart, jabong, myntra, homeshop, ebay are some popular online stores offering products with high discount .These stores are not just shopping stores but they are wholesalers that are selling their products like a retail store at wholesale price. They are not just offering discounts they provide a facility of retiring the product within 30 days if buying if found defective. Online shopping is all about selling and buying goods or services using internet. 

The overall market of ecommerce in India is expected to grow by $200 billion till 2020. In last two decades, the country has come a long way. Computer and internet have become available in almost every home. This has created a market for online shopping in India. For online shopping, there are only two things to fulfill:- first is to generate trust and second make yourself discoverable. 

These days’ people don’t have enough time to go to market to purchase goods so they prefer online to purchase the item. Also, India’s population mainly youth, who prefer using internet for main activities like in collecting information, marketing, etc. Also the consumers have become quite smart and are looking for ways which prove they can make profitable purchase. 

There are many reasons which made Indians ready for online shopping:- 

• The changing attitude of consumers leads to development in online shopping. In old days, consumers referred going to the markets for shopping. However, online shopping provided them with comfort and also a chance to avail on various kinds of offers which helps the consumer to save money. Thus, consumers have now started developing habit to buy goods online instead of going to market. 

• These days, people have become internet friendly. So, online shopping is becoming a comfortable option for the people. It is believed that around 75 million household are ready for online shopping in India.  

• Many companies have entered the market of online shopping in India and these provided consumers with the best of options while sitting at home only. These big names are investing in the ecommerce market from a long term perspective rather than small term. Thus, the e-commerce market is to grow even more bigger and better in times to come. 

• Sectors like travelling and retail have already proved to be successful in the field of e-commerce. These sectors have already made a lot of profit through the online market. The success of these sectors has encouraged other sectors to enter the market of online shopping and this is precisely the reason why the online market has expanded so quickly in India. 

These are some of the reasons which make India a suitable market for online shopping. However, there is still a slight bit of disinclination in the Indian Consumers especially persons between age group 45-60, regarding online shopping. Ultimately this hesitation and reluctance will go with better services and offers and this is precisely the reason for believing that the market for e-commerce will only grow in India in times to come. 

Flip kart, Superbazaar.com, OLX.com, Snapdeal are certain online shopping websites that have created opportunity in the Indian e-commerce market. Many other small time companies are entering into e-commerce and this will make this market as a competitive market.

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