Author: VMT Singuillo
Source: articleage.com
Shopping in the "brick and mortar" world is a lot of hassle not
just in the US but even worldwide during the holiday season. In
many countries, the crowds in the malls are just too much; the
waiting in lines is unbearable; too much traffic in nearby
shopping centers; the battle for bus and taxi transportation
among commuters exist. For those of us who use our cars in going
to the shopping malls, imagine how hard it is to find a parking
spot during the crowded holiday season!
Fortunately in the highly developed countries where online
shopping exist and people can afford computers and internet
services, the hassle of holiday shopping is a bit minimized.
Imagine the comfort, all you do is sit in front of your
computer, hook up to your internet service, search for a product
in your favorite search engines, choose the product you want,
click a button to order, fill out the necessary payment
information, and you are done! All you need is wait for the
order to be delivered down to your doorsteps.
While online shopping is a lot comfortable than doing shopping
in a nearby mall, always remember that you will have to pay for
the shipping and handling expense. If returns or exchanges have
to be made, you will incur extra shipping charges which may not
be refundable - depending on the policy of the websites
concerned.
Today, here is a typical shopping scenario during the holidays.
Jane goes to a shopping mall to buy a cu
ckoo clock or a grandfather clock for
an uncle. There is too much traffic in going to the mall which
takes her almost an hour to get to the parking place alone. Upon
arriving at the parking lot, several turns have to be made until
a vacant spot is located. Jane would be lucky is she finds a
spot immediately upon arriving at the parking lot.
While inside the mall, the shoving and pushing of the crowds
have to be avoided. Jane goes to one store and finds the clock
she wants. She takes note of the price and goes to another store
to search for a better price. Unfortunately, the other store
sells the clock at a higher rate. She then goes back to the
previous store. Upon talking to the sales clerk of the
availability of the clock, she finds out that it has now been
sold out. She then goes back to the other store. If the cuckoo
clock in that store is still available, she buys the clock and
waits in a very long line taking so much of her time just to buy
one cuckoo clock.
Suppose she does not find the cuckoo clock, she now goes home
and shops through the internet. While shopping in the internet,
she finds shopping in less than 30 minutes.
This scenario is now common in the US. No wonder many people now
are simply taking advantage of online shopping. As holidays
come, more and more people are now simply shopping online at the
comfort of their homes or their offices.
As expected, with the advent of the internet, there will be a
surge of internet sales year after year after year.