Online shopping or online retailing is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, and virtual store. An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center; the process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping.

In the case where a business buys from another business, the process is called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping.The largest of these online retailing corporations are eBay and Amazon. com, both based in the United States. Retail success is no longer all about physical stores, this is evident because of the increase in retailers now offering online store interfaces for consumers. With the growth of online shopping, comes a wealth of new market footprint coverage opportunities for stores that can appropriately cater to offshore market demands and service requirements.

Some example of online shopping are amazon. com , zalora. com and mudah. com.

There are advantage and disadvantage of online shopping. One of them are you can search for exactly what you’re looking for quicker. There are many online stores who specialize in a certain type of sofa or style that you may be looking for and a quick Google search will bring you to that site. If you love knowing the newest styles, or having unique pieces then online shopping makes it easier to do so. Next, Instead of driving around wasting gas or spending hours on the bus in travel time you can visit all the stores that you’re interested in at once.

This eliminates time going from store to store to see what is available and at what price. Furthermore, it is easier to find discounts on the sofa you’re looking for by “Googling”, going on EBay, Amazon and many other websites out there offering deals. Online stores usually offer online specials as well, and there are multiple websites dedicated to sharing these deals with you. The disadvantage of online shopping are you are not allowed to check the item personally to see if it is described perfectly by the seller.

Online hopping doesn’t permit you to touch the product, try it on yourself, and take the item the same day you’ve purchased it. You will still wait until it gets delivered by local couriers. There is also a great possibility that you get scammed by fraud sellers who makes online stores for the purpose of stealing money from online consumers. These frauds would promise you things about the item, give you testimonials of how reliable they are, and by time you purchase the item, you will not hear from them anymore and you don’t get to have the “so-called” item you bought.Next, Another reason why some consumer refused to buy online is the risk the uncertain payment method online and the fear of being a victim of identity theft. The usual method to pay for your items online is by using credit or debit card.

You are required to provide your credit card information to process the payment. Fraudulent sellers would put you at risk by stealing your account and personal information together with your credit card details and then making their own account using your contact information.Sometimes, sellers would let you pay for an overpriced shipping costs that far exceeded the original shipping rate. These scrooge sellers would offer freebies enclosed with the item you purchase, but would hike up the cost of shipping even though they already gained profit from the sale. As a conclusion, having access to online shopping has truly revolutionized and influenced our society as a whole. We have to be alert about the advantages and the disadvantages of online shopping so that we will not being cheated while online shopping.