SHOPPING
About
Shopping acts as a stress reliever and is the best way to make life more interesting. Getting the best item that suits the consumer’s needs with the best available deal. Experience is an important factor to determine the best products that cater to consumer’s requirement and affordability.
By the middle of the 17th century, with the emergence of the middle class, markets paved the way for shops and shopping centres. More and more people started flocking to these shopping centres as they could purchase all the items required under the same roof.
Food and shopping are closely knit requirements. Hence evolvement of large food joints within shopping market became a concept to attract consumers.
Shopping became a recreational activity, and the consumers became choosy, about the place they wanted to shop. It gave rise to the building of large glass windows before shops that enabled the culture of windows shopping. Consumer glanced through the windows to decide whether the shop satisfied their requirements.
It also gave the retailers to display their best products behind the glass windows luring the consumers to their shops. Retailers took great care in lighting up their shops aesthetically and arrange their products in neat racks and paying extra attention to cleanliness.
Customer satisfaction gained prime importance as the retailers realised that a satisfied consumer would return to their shop and bring along their friends and relatives.
To keep a consumer happy and satisfied, large multi-storied shopping malls with all the modern facilities came to existence. These malls have shops catering to different requirements of the consumer.
Complete with parking facilities, comfortable seating arena, fast lift service, movie theatres and eateries they presented consumers with a whole new experience.
Advancement of technology brought about a new concept of online shopping. Online shopping saves a lot of time and energy of consumer; they can buy products or services from a seller without any intermediary over the internet.
They can compare different products; select the product that best suits their requirements from the comfort of their home, thus providing them with a whole new experience.
Online Shopping - Advantages
Online shopping gained popularity as they are open 24×7, and a consumer can place their order anytime by selecting their required items over the internet. During the festive season, the consumer can avoid standing in long queues and the rush for their turn to purchase.
Consumers can get all the information about the product and browse through the reviews and check the prices before making their decision. These stores stocks, all kind of products to enable their customers with a wide variety of choice.
The products are checked thoroughly for their quality and genuinity before handing them over to the consumers. Online shopping also depends upon customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer stays with the online portal long and also brings along their friends and relatives, thus increasing the number of consumers.
Moreover, during festive seasons these online shopping sites provide discounts and other benefits like free delivery and cash-back schemes’ to attract more consumers.
Online Shopping - Disadvantages
Online shopping can be done by a consumer, who is educated and has a basic knowledge of internet and browsing through the websites. In countries like India, despite the popularity of them, a substantial chunk of people still prefers to purchase the products directly from the shop.
Internet speed and connectivity is also an issue, but all the major cities in India are now connected with the internet. Same is the problem with other parts of the world as well.
Another reason being the consumer prefers to physically examine the product they are purchasing. Online shopping does not facilitate this aspect. The consumer has to rely on their choice of the product before they get delivered.
Lack of robust consumer grievance infrastructure also hampers online shopping. The consumer does not know how or whom to contact for their grievances with the product they have purchased. All the major online retailers already have a robust grievances cell in place.
Some consumers feel unsafe to share their credit/debit card information with the online portal. They prefer doing cash transaction instead. The online portals also have the option of cash on delivery for such consumers.
Objective
Online shopping has many advantages, though the disadvantages are legitimate, with a correct policy like a refund and replace of damaged products and robust customer care centre online shopping portals have bridged the gap of customer dissatisfaction to a great extent.
Sitting at the comfort of their home, consumers can purchase any product online based on their reviews any time of day or night, thus providing them with great flexibility to carry on with their work.
The objective of this section is to provide the consumers with an honest and unbiased review of products under different categories. Helping and guiding consumers to go for the right product based on their choice and affordability.
Shopping provides a great experience with the knowledge of products, often helps the consumer to decide to purchase the product making it a great shopping experience and making life more interesting.
Sports Goods
Sport is an athletic and competitive leisure activity that requires physical and mental effort and skills and provides entertainment as well as encouragement to participants and spectators alike.
Sports also contribute to physical fitness as well as mental well-being along with social interaction. Sports also demand different set of sports goods and equipment.
Daily Goods
Daily Goods or Fast-moving consumer’s goods (FMCG) are the goods that have a smaller shelf life and products that are highly in demand. These products are affordable and sold quickly from the shelves of any market.
Consumers purchase them regularly, and they are used in every household every day. Products such as food items, toiletries, personal care, stationeries, beverages, and laundry products to name some.