Compare and Contrast Essay: Online Shopping vs. In-Person Shopping
Over the recent year shopping has taken two turns, the have the most classic form in person shopping and online shopping. They may be similar in their basics but online shopping and in person shopping are different based on the experience, time consumption, and the variety and availability of the items. They may be but the environment changes the situation a person is in and the interaction one has go through home or in an actual store.
Experience is a major component in shopping be it experience with the way a shop or way a website is set up. Amazon and target are two good examples in the difference between online and in person. While shopping in amazon.com consumers can expect to find almost anything with ease and minimal problems, but there can be other factors that can lead to problems. For example, consumers internet can be slow, or their phones could be cut off because they forgot to pay their bill. In person shopping does not have problem with slow internet or forgotten phone bills, any shopper can browse and find what they need or finds something that they might have needed but forgot. But in person shopping also has their downside for instance a shopper may forget the list of items they need or run into other fellow customer that will bother them believing them to be an associate of the store. In the end online shopping experience has a better impact on the shopper.
Another component is time consumption. Many shoppers are workers as well and need to organize their day to be early to their jobs and have time for their shopping for home necessity. Online shopping is time consuming but can be controlled because it can be done from anywhere. A consumer can be at home shopping and getting ready for work and still make it in time. But of course, there are consumer that get stuck and stay online shopping locked onto their screen looking for items they need or just want. In person shopping is good because you can browse on your way to work early in the morning and get your necessities and leave easily. But there is the possibility of getting stuck in traffic. Traffic can happen at any given time and a shopper can shop and then find out they are stuck and would be late for work. Given the time consumption of each online shopping comes to the top for less time consumption because traffic wouldn’t faze it at all.
Lastly it comes down to variety and availability. Variety and availability brings in more consumer to look and buy for items they need. Online shopping can have variety to the max. You have many shops at your disposal and can move to each site with ease. The chance of online shops to not have the product are low and if they don’t have what a consumer need then their other websites. With shopping in person, the chance of items being out of stock are higher than online. The shopper then must leave and go to another store where they may or may not have the item they need. In online shopping a consumer can find almost exactly what they need no problem but in person shopping chance are almost less than half of online shopping making online shopping more convenient.
In the grand finally of online shopping and in person shopping consumers can have better experiences online shopping. Time consumption would go in favor for online because of its flexibility of location and speed of looking for items. For variety and availability online shopping come out as more favorable.
