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Online shopping means logging onto internet, looking out for the item
/ goods you desire, putting that in your virtual shopping basket, making
payment against the purchased goods and then wait for the ordered goods
till it arrives. The cycle which is mentioned is just a part of the whole
process. Its only the customer�s perspective. Digging a bit, Online
shopping is exploiting a network of vendors who have presence in the
internet world, using internet to make purchase, using all the available
security for Online payments, placing the order for merchandise and
exploiting all possible services that are associated with the whole
network, which you are using like support services (mail based, chat
based, voice based), shipping services etc.
I do a lot of online shopping. If I come to know about any online e-store,
I definitely take out time to visit it and check it for the product range
and ease of shopping and also about the services it provides to customers.
This I do not do because it is a part of my job, buy I do this because
it�s my passion.
The online stores are nothing but an extension of retailing. In net
terminology it is known as E-tailing. If you go by definition, it is
�E-tailing refers to retailing over the internet. Thus an e-tailor is a
B2C business that executes a transaction with the final consumer.
E-tailors can be pure play businesses like Amazon.com or businesses that
have evolved from a legacy business, Tesco.com. E-tailing is a subset of
e-commerce�
It is crucial in any e-tailing business to keep the shopping process
simple, fast, and consistent. The average time to shop keeps getting
faster at just over four minutes with less than five clicks in the process
from product selection through checkout.
I personally look for the sites, which are fast to load, got a lot of
information about the displayed products, good prices of course should be
there and which gives the price comparison with other big players. Apart
from this, I look for the customer related services. This includes no
value added service Also if the site has got any section which is
updated quite often for latest articles, latest trends on the online
shopping and about the product details / description. The normal practice
which I follow is to rely on the search engines for the desired product.
Thanks to Google that it gives impartial results and very precise ones.
Though it does not work on semantics, but most of the time it gives
desired results. Many comparison websites are there to find out
competitive rates, I like bizrate.com as you can get many vendors for the
same products. The normal process which I follow is to look for at least 5
websites, evaluating them on different parameters like pricing, ease of
shopping, security of transaction, guarantee of the product, return
policy, after sales service, general services to customers etc.
Pricing: Pricing plays a very important role. A Lot of distribution
costs are gone if you purchase online directly from the supplier or any
distributor. You can get amazing prices if you invest some time for
looking out different websites for the same products. Lot of price
comparison websites are available to assist you out in this. I rely on
bizrate.com
Ease of shopping: Ease of shopping is also important for any customer. The
website should be very much user friendly. A customer should not feel lost
while surfing and searching for the products. Amazon.com is quite a good
website. The process of shopping is more or less same at every website.
But few people provide very good interfaces and very good support at every
stage so that the customer feels very good about it. Bluenile.com is a
very good website selling diamonds. Though the diamonds are expensive as
compared to other websites, but the way of presentation and the support
services put them apart from others.
Security of transaction: Security of transaction plays a very
important role. A customer should be taken in confidence that whatever
information he is going to disclose for the shopping, will be kept
confidential and will not be disclosed. Any leak in this information may
result in huge financial loss to the customer. I look for various security
certificates, their validity, certifying authority, pad lock etc before
committing any transaction. Verisign security certificate comforts me.
Guarantee of the product: Guarantee of the product and quality of
product are other important issues. You should know the product which you
are going to purchase should be worth of the price you are paying, should
meet the prevailing quality standards and should carry a valid guarantee
or warranty. It is advisable to check and ask for the guarantee and
warranty of the product before placing the order from the vendor who is
selling it online.
Return policy: Return policy is very important if the product is
costly, say jewelry or some computer accessory of electronic good. I like
the websites with precisely defined return policies. This makes customer
feel that they will not be at loss if the product does not meet their
expectation.
Customer Care services: Customer services are back bone to any e
commerce business. They are the mouth piece of any online web store. This
is the front which can decide which website is better in today�s scenario.
Almost all the website have security, all have good quality of products ,
but the point where one scores over other is the class of customer
service. I like the website with chat support and very less turn around
time for the query posted.
After doing this analysis and speaking to the representatives through
mails I zero on one particular website and place the order.
Pros of Online Shopping
� Variety of products
� Vast range of quality
� Good pricing
� Bargain deals during holiday / festive season
� Quality products
Cons of online shopping
� You can not touch and feel the actual product you are ordering
� Your privacy may be encroached if the website share your data with
others
� Sometime the quality of the product does not meet the expectation
� Difficult to decide the authenticity of the vendor
I hope this will help you in certain extent when you shop online.
Cheers,
Himanshu Singh
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