Today’s market have changed a lot. People seem to be unsatisfied my malls and stores, another shopping platform has become a trend- Internet shopping. According to Alexa, ebay.com ranks at 21 globally. More surprisingly, taobao.com, a major online shopping site in China, ranks at no.13 globally. Why all of a sudden, Internet becomes a popular shopping place?
According to a Nielsen survey, 81% of shoppers consider being able to shop at any time as the most attractive feature of online shopping. 77% of shoppers think that saving the time of navigating in crowds and waiting in queues is their major motivation. Another survey conducted by Synovate showed that 67% of shoppers consider the lower price the biggest advantage of online shopping, followed by the availability of free shipping as the second most important consideration.
From a personal perspective, I sometimes shop on ebay because it’s more time-saving to shop online. It could take me a whole day walking around in the mall and waiting in line to pay (especially during Christmas). It simply doesn’t worth the effort and the time to wasting a whole afternoon looking for a tank-top or a hat. The advantage of Online shopping become the most obvious when I know exactly what I need. For example, once I want to buy a bottle of perfume for my friend as her birthday gift. I knew the name and size of the perfume. Therefore, I could purchase it online about half a month before her birthday, which saves me the traffic time if I shop in stores and some money since it’s cheaper online. However, I would not say that online shopping will completely replace traditional shopping. Some advantages of traditional shopping such as the pleasure of browsing in different stores, being able to actually try on the product, and the convenience of returning or exchanging the product are irreplacable . Moreover, shopping together in malls is an important way to socialize for women. It is not only shopping itself, but also the pleasure of hanging out with friends that bring people to the malls.