subject: Online Shopping- A Growing Phenomenon [print this page] The latest trends in online shopping show that its customer base is going to increase consistently in the coming years. It is a phenomenon that will only expand in the future. This phenomenon was started in 1992 when Charles Stack started the first online book store. The craze soon caught on with eBay and Amazon opening online stores.
Today no business can survive without an online presence. It is estimated that e-commerce is more than a hundred billion dollars industry in the US alone. Today almost anything can be bought online. From books to furniture to air tickets - everything is available online.
Growing Customer Base
Initially only the rich used to shop online. However, today most people shop online. One of the reasons behind this trend is the increasing confidence on online shopping. Online businesses, Google, Microsoft and other concerned people have gone to great lengths to ensure that buying goods online is a safe and hassle free process.
Today more than 50% of the internet users worldwide are also active internet shoppers. This proves the confidence that people have on online transactions.
Safe And Easy
Not only is s buying online safe, but it is also very easy. All that a shopper needs is a computer, internet connection, bank account and a credit card or debit card. Shoppers can use the internet search engines to do their online shopping. Just type in the word in the search box and you will be provided with a list of online merchants who are offering that product.
With a click of a mouse a shopper can compare deals from literally hundreds of online merchants. Compare the deals and pick the one that you think is the best. Shoppers can pay with a credit card or debit card. Many online merchants also offer payment by postal money order or checks. Shoppers can also opt to pay cash as delivery payment option.
Making It More Attractive
In order to make online shopping attractive to customers, online businesses are continuously coming up with new ways. For instance, it was noticed that in order to increase the customer base, online businesses would have to deliver the orders fast. That is why today many e-commerce sites will deliver the product from the area where the customer placed the order. This not only cuts the time it takes to deliver the good but also reduces shipping costs.
It has also been noticed that shoppers do not necessarily go on search engines to look for products. For online purchasing many customers follow the word of mouth. In other words, many shoppers will buy a certain product because their friends, family members or acquaintance referred it to them.
In fact, today online shoppers are following online shopping advice on their twitter accounts. Twitter followers are recommending the latest shoes, mobile phones, movies and much more.
Today many online businesses are on twitter. They are using the twitter to learn more about their customers and using this information to come up with ways to spice up their offers.
In the future online shoppers can look for more services from online businesses. With more and more benefits being attached to online shopping, more and more people are going to use this option in future.
