The impact of online shopping

In the last few years, we have changed the way we do shopping. While shopping earlier meant going to a mall or shopping complex and choosing items, the concept is now being rewritten! Nowadays, we buy more things online, from the comfort of our homes, rather than stepping out. Online shopping is a huge industry in India that has made an enormous impact over the last two years. Why, indeed, has it made such a huge impact?

The biggest impacting factor that drives us towards online shopping is its convenience. Going outdoors for shopping generally involves having to brave the traffic jams, struggling to get a parking slot and conforming to the individual shop timings. On the other hand, we can shop online at any place and any time, even at midnight lying on our bed! The second factor that online shopping brings us is its vast variety of choices. A shop, no matter how big, can never store as many products as a large e-commerce website! We have the ease of comparing prices just within a few clicks and choosing the product we want, from among a variety of brands. We are able to get access to the top brands from across the world. It also allows us to customize our designs exactly the way we want! For example, I can make my own design, put it on a t-shirt or a bag and have it delivered to my doorstep.

The third factor which has a great impact towards our shopping choices is, undoubtedly, the price. Online shopping offers sellers the flexibility of giving us products at much cheaper prices as they do not have to bear the additional expenses of running a shop, and still make a profit.

The e-commerce industry in India has become really competitive with the likes of Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal leading the pack. There are many other specialized online stores too that cater to specific groups of buyers. In this fierce battle, the real winner is the customer. Online retailers (or e-tailers) have begun to give us all sorts of added benefits in order to lure us into buying from them. Most of the leading sellers now offer same-day delivery as an option. The mobile apps have also been revamped, giving us the comfort of ordering products on the go. The standard of products has increased tremendously – one of the biggest apprehensions that come to one’s mind when ordering online is that they are not able to see and hold the product directly before buying, hence there is always a slight amount of doubt when ordering something. This is an opinion more commonly expressed by members of the older generation. Online retailers have strived to negate this as much as possible by providing standard quality products with return and refund options as well!

Online shopping is a booming trend in India and its impact is only bound to increase in the coming years. And I’m definitely not complaining!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.