E-commerce versus traditional commerce

Currently, we have the option of shopping without leaving home. What's more, e-commerce not only saves time, but also money, because you can often, e.g. at online auctions, find the same goods as in traditional stores, but offered for a much lower price.

The Internet offers many possibilities, but will online shopping replace their traditional form? Will ordinary, human walks in a shopping center become a thing of the past over time? Despite the popularity of e-shops, many people still shop in a standard way, and during the weekends, shopping centers are almost full of people who miss shopping after a week of work.

Online vs traditional shopping

The future is one big unknown, but we can already see how e-commerce is becoming extremely popular and how many opportunities it offers to clients. So let's compare online shopping with traditional ones, thanks to which we will be able to judge cautiously which form suits us better.

E-commerce - does it really save our time?

As you know - time is money, and purchases made in a traditional way do not allow us to save it in any way. And it is not even about getting to the very center, but about a certain characteristic phenomenon of "soaking" in the shopping center. By entering it, we can be sure that we are lost for at least a few hours. We are attracted by attractive banners, websites with the words: PROMOTION, and from time to time we are reminded that we still had to buy something, although we do not urgently need this thing, but "since I'm already in the store".

And imagine that we could spend this time, for example, on completing an additional order, meeting friends, walking in the park instead of the shopping center, spending time with the family. There are many better and more fun ways to spend your free time than flying with your tongue on your chin around the mall. E-commerce saves valuable time. Nowadays, even groceries can be bought online, e.g. at Tesco.

On the other hand, online stores offer us a much richer assortment, which translates into spending a lot of time in front of the computer in order to find the best and cheapest product. What's more, even though we do not have to leave the house, such a large and attractive offer on the Internet can make us buy much more than we need.

So it turns out that the big time savings on e-shopping is not entirely true. Unless you have a really strong character - I buy the necessary thing and close the browser. In a way, we can save time when shopping online, but some people live next to shopping centers and can reach the store in a few minutes. Everything then depends on what we want to buy, how far we have a stationary store and whether we are focused on buying one specific thing or looking at various products offered.

Is e-commerce buying a pig in a poke?

Many people complain that when shopping online, they cannot touch, smell or check the defectiveness of the goods. Therefore, they prefer traditional stores, because they can tangibly test the product there - try it on, look at it, smell it, etc.

Meanwhile, more and more e-stores introduce the possibility of checking the product before buying it. They send the client a draft and allow him to familiarize himself with the product - eg demos of games or programs, etc. Probably most of the consumers will say that still a small percentage of companies provide such an opportunity, and unfortunately even the best product descriptions and presentations are not enough. But on the other hand, in traditional stores, many products cannot be touched, and when trying on clothes, you can never be sure who has measured them before.

So, both forms in this matter have their advantages and disadvantages, and on the stubborn you can stick to many aspects of both one and the other.

Electronic payments - an obstacle or a convenience?

Apparently, people are still afraid of paying with a card for purchases, because they consider such transactions not safe. Meanwhile, this mainly concerns the elderly, who are cautious about this type of solutions. Many traditional stores do not have the option of paying by card, which can be troublesome if we do not have cash with us. Therefore, online shopping is much easier in this respect, because we do not have to go to an ATM to withdraw money - and we save time again.

Does e-commerce allow for better spending control?

When buying products in online stores, we always have a small icon with a basket in front of us, next to which the sum of our purchases is written, thus we constantly control how much money we spend. Additionally, by creating an account in the e-shop, we can check the history of purchases and analyze our expenses. People who deal with home budget planning can easily save all the data and fully manage their finances.

In traditional stores, we can only collect receipts, which, firstly, can get lost, and secondly, after some time, it will be difficult to find yourself in such a large number of small receipts.

Attractive prices

E-hande is said to offer more attractive prices compared to standard stores, but do we remember that we have to add shipping costs to these prices? In addition, in traditional shopping centers there are often promotions that come close in price to a cheaper product from an online store with postage counted.

24h shopping

Well, in this matter, e-commerce seems to have a significant advantage. Imagine that at 2 am you wanted to buy a new mobile phone, here you are, you can do it online anytime and no one will close the door in your face at the last minute.

However, ordering the goods does not mean receiving them immediately. You usually have to wait a few days until we receive the package home. Meanwhile, despite the fact that in the case of a traditional store, you have to wait until the morning, you can already have a given item in your possession in the morning.

The above examples show that there is a certain balance between e-shops and their traditional form. In addition, the individual taste of a person is assessed, because for some a specific defect is an advantage, and for others the other way around.

Certainly, e-commerce offers opportunities that a traditional store cannot offer, especially for entrepreneurs, in terms of promotion and globalization of e-stores and the reduction of certain costs. On the other hand, many customers are traditionalists who prefer to stay in the standard shop form. Thus, the dispute as to which form of shopping is better is not resolved and remains to be assessed individually.