Pros and Cons of Online Shopping - Essay Example

On-line Shopping Introduction This is a completion of the curriculum for Business Information Technology. It involves the Electronic Shopping or On-line Shopping and the Traditional Shopping. The aim of this project is to evaluate the safeness and effectivity of On-line Shopping. The first part of the paper will present a short history of online shopping. It will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping. At the later part of the essay is the propose plan using Gantt chart on how the project will undergo the evaluation. At the end of the essay is the conclusion and opinions about the topic. Internet nowadays is a part of our daily life. Transactions from different field are being done thru the internet. And now shopping is done not only in the department stores or malls but at your living room as well. The use of IT technology has been increasing; computers are no longer treated as luxury but as a necessity and are important in our daily transactions. One subject that has been gaining popularity in the internet is the on line shopping. The objective of this paper is to be able to present to the readers the pros and cons of on-line shopping. This is done by presenting the personnel experience of some persons during their encounter in online shopping. Another objective of the study is to evaluate the e-business that has been gaining the popularity. Most articles that I encounter about e-business presents one conclusion, that a company would not make it in the international market if they were not able to penetrate the online shopping. The paper will also discuss the complexity of the design. This will include the effectiveness and safety of the said design. What is On-line Shopping Online shopping is one aspect of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, relates to a variety of business dealings conducted online. They include service providers selling services, and retail businesses selling items to customers. They also include auctioneers who create marketplaces where citizens can buy and sell goods, and business to business commerce. All of these transactions are done via the Internet. Retail business is the biggest part of electronic commerce. Instead of shopping in the traditional way, such as going to an actual retail outlet, using telephone shopping or mail order catalogues, online shopping allows companies and consumers to make their business transactions over networked computers. Online shopping could be defined as the buying and selling of goods over the Internet. Just about anything can be purchased over the internet. Examples of items consumers can buy are computers, cars, clothing, airline and event tickets, food, and pharmaceuticals. The most popular products purchased online were flowers, computer hardware and software, books, consumer electronics, music and videos, toys, and wines (Summers, Gardiner, Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2003). http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Online_Shopping The Advantages and Disadvantages of On-line Shopping On-line shopping benefits all; young and old, disabled and able and others as long as you know how to use it. There are things that are considered as an advantage in using the system. The advantages and disadvantages are enumerated in the table below. The purpose of presenting the advantages and disadvantages of on-line shopping and traditional shopping will help the reader decide whether to use the system or not. Another objective is to analyze the process of on-line shopping. The plans objective also include on how to convince a person to use the online shopping. Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages On line shopping Traditional Shopping Time Unlimited - you can purchase online anytime you want. No closing and opening hours You can shop at limited time only. Availability One will be able to know right away if the item is available or not and where it will be available. You need to drive from one location to another just to find the item you need. You have wasted your time and effort. Comfort You don't have to line up to pay for what you buy. Just enter some data and then you will be having your item anytime soon. Retail store or shopping malls are always crowded. There are also some incompetent shopping assistant. Shelf Space This does not require shelf space. Limited shelf space. Price You can check which retail store offers the best price. There are some stores that post the item is for sale but actually it is the price You will have no choice but to buy the item since you need it. After several days you will find out that the item is much cheaper from the other store. Security Because of the modern technology there are cases wherein the identity of the person are taken away from him by simply accessing the on line services that he used. No threat for stolen identity. The above mentioned advantages and disadvantages are only the major differences of online shopping and the traditional shopping. In some countries like the Asians only a few numbers of their population are using this design. Unlike in the United States, Europe and other developed countries, most of their people are using this system, which is why their shopping malls are not that crowded. On line shopping grew massively in the late 1990's. In 1997 more than 41 million people were using the online shopping services. But during year 2000 to 2001 on line shopping collapses because of the Y2K bug which scared the IT world. However online shopping was able to recover and is now catering from billions of individual worldwide. The only main concern in using online shopping is the fear that someone might be able to use the identity of someone else and eventually penetrate the transactions being made by that person. Someone should design an online shopping with full security to avoid such incidence. The process of online shopping is as simple as 1,2,3. To be able to shop online the individual should be connected in the internet. Upon connecting a person can enter the retailers' website so that he can choose on the items that he wants. The most popular online shopping website is the e-bay and the e-biz. If you want to shop for books including reviews for it log on at Amazon.com. The payments are done by entering some details about the credit the buyer is using. The items are either delivered or pick-up depending on the customer's request. This is the stolen identity happens. The credit card company's assured the user that their account is safe. Causes of Lost of Revenue for Commercial Website Why some shoppers were not able to finish their online shopping and abandoned their shopping card The reasons for the abandonment are as follows: (Galliford, 2007). Hidden charges at the checkout Having to register before buying The buyer was comparison shopping and found a better deal The shipping costs were too high The buyer didn't have time to complete the checkout process The product was out of stock There were no clear delivery details No phone number was provided The checkout process was too long The buyer was uncomfortable with the checkout process Review of Literature In the study done by KCB336 New Media Technologies students, they have come up on reasons why many people are still hesitant in using online shopping. Their study resulted in 69% of internet shoppers felt that online retailers should do more to make them feel secure, yet only 15% reported to know others who had experienced credit card misuse advocated her trust for online shopping when she claimed. Because of the concern of the customer in the security measures, retailers employ a number of security measures, including cryptogrpahy and authentication to help the online transactions safe. Cryptography can provide authentication and integrity for electronic transmissions if properly implemented. Authentication is defined as goal of knowing that a particular user is authorized to take an action. Personal identification numbers (PIN) and passwords are the most widespread types of authentication. Based also on the study done by the New Media Technology (2004), another key issue aside from the security is the privacy. To further ease customer apprehension, many online retailers provide privacy statements which state their stance on sharing customer information with other businesses. Many companies stated that they did not share customer details. In addition to this, online retailers also employ cryptography to ensure that computer hackers cannot easily obtain any stored personal information that companies keep regarding their customers. Some companies only installed privacy and security measures after problems had occurred. Their lack of preventative methods was attributed towards the difficulty of implementing security measures, the high costs associated with these measures, and the continual need to update programs as new technologies and threats emerged. Internet-based transactions expect to make up 25 percent of all retail transactions in the next decade according to the study done by the New Media Technology (20040, therefore it is imperative for online retailers to continue to provide a secure, private and trustworthy shopping environment for their customers. Those who can best provide this climate for online shoppers will be the retailers who attract the most customers, and ultimately enjoy the most profits. According to Changchit, Douthit, and Hoffmeyer (2005), the success of online businesses relies heavily upon their ability to attract and retain customers. The better an online business understands the needs of these shoppers, the higher the chance that they can attract and retain customers. Their study includes factors that are important for the consumers. A study compared the experiences that customers have at a brick-and-mortar store versus online shopping. A main difference in the two experiences is that traditional storefronts are able to provide customers with the immediate sensory experience of touching and feeling proffered products whereas online storefronts are more limited in offering physical experiences with their products. Internet customers may have the visual experience of seeing what they are interested in purchasing. They are limited in their ability to touch or feel the merchandise until after delivery. The lack of the physical experiences touching and feeling available in traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts may be a reason why an online business has not risen to the level that some thought possible in the early 1990's. To overcome this obstacle, online businesses need to focus on satisfiers outside physical experiences with products. They need to convince customers that touching and feeling the merchandise are less important than what they can offer via an online shopping. This study intends to explore which factors are perceived as important to online customers when shopping on the Internet. (Changchit, Douthit, and Hoffmeyer 2005), Methodology To be able to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of online shopping we will be conducting a direct survey to collect the data for this study. It will be done by presenting the questionnaires to shoppers at local malls. The survey questionnaires will be from the previous study questions pertaining to the electronic commerce shopping behaviours. These questions will be designed to gather data on the subjects' perceptions toward online shopping as well as their demographics. To validate the clarity of the questions my supervisor will be evaluating the survey questions thoroughly. The survey will consist of questionnaires that will identify the effectiveness and the security of online shopping. The participants involve will be divided into 2 groups, the user of online shopping and the non - user each group composed of 50 persons each group. From them we will find out further the reasons why not all people are convinced to use such service. This methodology will provide answers on the following objectives; to present the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping, to educate people on e-business and its popularity, to know the convincing factors to encourage the people to use the online shopping and to show the process of online shopping. The conclusion of the project will be discussed depending on the answers provided by the participants during the survey. The answers will be tabulated and presented into writing the responses of the participant in the questionnaires. Reference: Changchit, Douthit, Hoffmeyer, March 2005 Online shopping: what factors are important to shoppers http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0OGT/is_3_5/ai_n16619676/pg_1 by KCB336 New Media Technologies students, October 2004, Online Shopping - Customer Concerns http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Online_Shopping_-_Customer_Concerns Online vs. Traditional Shopping, 2003-2007 www.shoppingnavigator.co.uk trends/overview-shopping trends htm. Online Shopping Trends, 2004-2007, consumers union of US www.consumerreports.org Read More