Small Businesses vs Online Shopping
In today’s world, the internet has truly taken over. With everything available at your fingertips, whether that be confirming that bit of weird, pointless trivia your discussing with your work colleague or finding that perfect gift for a special someone. You can even get your groceries delivered straight to your door! Online shopping is a convenience that has changed the world. Yet, as great as this fact is for the consumer, it has led to some issues for independent business owners who just can’t compete with the online megastores. As a shopper, should you be shutting down your laptop and going out to support those small businesses? Is online shopping all that great in reality?
Customer Service
One of the benefits of physically going into a store is being able to ask someone for help if you can’t find what you’re looking for, or if you are unsatisfied with a product. Online stores do have their own customer services, but it requires you to communicate via phone or email which often only results in frustrated exchanges. At least being able to talk to someone in person usually means the issue is resolved a lot quicker and is a more satisfying experience for the customer.
Convenience
In theory, online shopping is more convenient for the consumer as it allows them to avoid busy shopping malls and have their purchase delivered to wherever they want. This is great, but what about the times a product arrives and isn’t quite how it seemed on the website? In these cases, the customer must go through the efforts of sending back their purchase within a certain time frame in order to receive a refund. This can happen with physical stores too, but usually being able to see the product up close before you buy it helps to avoid having to do that.
Great Deals
Some physical stores have great prices, however, being online allows the customer to search for the best deals worldwide. From shoes, hair products and books, you can even find places like www.pharmacyonline.com.au for discounts on healthcare products. For those that are trying to save or get a kick out of finding amazing deals, online shopping is probably better for them for this purpose.
Variety
Going to your local mall with the same stores can get repetitive and although their stock will change, you’re probably going to know what to expect each time you go in. Sometimes this is perfect when you’re looking for something specific, but online shopping does give customers the ability to see products from other towns, cities, states and countries all over. This is a huge range of variety, not to mention it can be fabulous when you are looking for something truly unique for yourself or someone else. You might even find something you never thought existed or you’d like. It provides access to treasures all over the globe, and that is pretty amazing.
Most businesses, small and big, have some form of website to sell from therefore making online shopping a lot easier for most people. Although, even with all the positives of buying things over the internet, it still is important to support independent business, whether that be going into your local seller’s store or buying their products online.
