Yes

by Jennifer L. Thompson

Created on: November 05, 2008   Last Updated: November 19, 2009

Online shopping is quickly becoming a preferred choice for many, and is clearly the trend of the future. Yet, the question may be asked, is online shopping a better way to shop? For the growing sector of us who love the joys and benefits of online shopping, and answer is easily yes. The reasons are countless, as are the advantages.

Some of the more popular reasons why so many are changing their shopping habits and coming to view online shopping as a better way to shop can include:

Choice: No need to take a trip to the Mall of America or to search through numerous trade shops to find something unique. With a quick web search, countless choices are available to look through and find that special something.

Time: The time-saving factor is tremendous, and after all, as the old saying goes, "time is money". If busy consumers can spend their money on taking time for going to a store, or spend their money on saving time while shopping on the web, the choice is easy. Less trips to the store equals more time with less expenditure, therefore, more money in our pockets with more freedom to do as we will.

Cost-Savings: After a good many years of shopping online, I still find the cost savings often to be tremendous, sometimes by as much as fifty percent or even more. Coupon codes for percentages off, free shipping, rebates, freebies and sales abound, more so than they could in any store. With these, just as often as not, the supplier can offer a bigger percentage off to online shoppers, due to cutting out the expenses associated with supplying a store first, then the store supplying a consumer.

Along with these things come savings sites such as eBates.com and others, which will give you cash back in the form of a check or Paypal payment when you do your online shopping through these sites. I recently received a payment for twenty-seven dollars and twenty-five cents back for spending about a hundred and twenty on items I already buy for the household. With some of these items on sale, I received the value of what spending about two hundred and fifty in many offline situations would give me for the same purchase. Since then, I have accrued another ten dollars in my account towards the next ebate, all for buying what items I could otherwise spend far more on in going to a brick and mortar store to buy.

(The key to this kind of online cost-savings is to research and buy what items you need or desire, and, as in any situation, avoid any impulse shopping.)

Product Availability: Can't find something in your local area? There is sure to be someone on the internet who is thrilled to offer it to you. Gourmet foods, green products, psychic services, organic clothing or furniture, art supplies, designer clothing, or even lifestyle products that may not be readily available in some locales, all can be found online. (Are you a new ager living in a rural area, a vegan living in a small town, someone who loves designer bags, or someone else that may have a need to shop for the unique?)

Security: Gasp! The dreaded internet security issue. So many are afraid of what could only happen if certain precautionary measures are not taken. Do you currently have successfully operating security software installed on your computer (I have come to find Norton to be indispensable)? Does the site you wish to buy from have some type of creditable service such as Thawte, Verisign, or Paypal to validate it's legitimacy and/or keep your transaction safe? If so, then you are safer than you could be with giving any brick and mortar store clerk the opportunity to seek your pin number, or to give you incorrect change, or to miss the fact that your sale item did not ring up at the sale price. Those of us who love to shop online have no qualms about its security with certain measures in place. As you would in any scenario, stay out of anything that would seem a bit seedy and you'll be alright.

Mom and Pop Services: Many online stores are valid mom and pop style shops with hand-made or hand-picked, quality items and/or services that could only be found through someone's most original artform. These are some of the true treasures of what we have available online. I have found some of the best quality and most functional products through shopping online sites such as these, and in doing so have become a long-term customer of online stores such as God's Country Botanicals (creators of unique, natural, quality products of a kind still otherwise unavailable in my locale, yet that I use).

Going Green: Less gas used in not having to drive to a store, less carbon footprint. Less energy consumption through not supplying these items in stores, less carbon footprint. Less overage, less waste, less money spent, more green.

For these reasons, yet many more, it is easy to see that, yes, online shopping is a better way to shop, even for the average internet user. If you haven't yet experienced it, why wait?

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