Online shopping or e-commerce is a concept whereby consumers buy services or products through the internet. The process involves the consumer visiting the vendor’s website and searching through a variety of services or products that are on offer. There is a shopping search engine embedded in each of the websites involved with the business (Manzoor 2010). This can be done through computers, tablets, laptops and smartphones. Online shopping can be in the form of Business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Business (B2B).

On most occasions, people pay for the services and goods purchased via online shopping through credit cards and debit cards. However, there are some companies that allow users to create accounts, which they can use to pay by alternative means such as cash on delivery, billing to mobile phones, cheque, electronic money, postal money order, gift cards, wire transfer or invoice among others (Manzoor 2010). Upon acceptance of payment, products are normally delivered using a variety of ways including shipping, drop shipping or in-store pick-up.

People are currently embracing online shopping in a favorable way in the present compared to how it was in the past. eMarketer estimated global e-commerce sales in 2015 to be around $1.6T USD. There is a projection that this will grow by 20% by the end of 2016 (Paul 2015). This shows that the industry will continue to grow as time passes by. Among the reasons that have resulted in the growth of e-commerce is the ease with which people can now access the internet regardless of their geographical location. Online stores are also regarded as being convenient since they are available 24 hours a day (Manzoor 2010). Online shopping also offers consumers an opportunity to compare prices and a variety of brands. This leaves consumers satisfied knowing that they chose the best from the available options.

References

Manzoor, Amir. 2010. E-Commerce: An Introduction.  Saarbrücken: LAP Lambert Acad. Publ.

Paul, Ross. 2015. “Just How Big Is The Ecommerce Market? You’ll Never Guess! – Lemonstand Ecommerce Blog”. Lemonstand Ecommerce Blog. http://blog.lemonstand.com/just-how-big-is-the-ecommerce-market-youll-never-guess/.

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