Online Shopping

One of the big things used in todays society is the internet and one of the most handy services availbale on the net comes through online shopping. Online shopping is a online service which allows you to buy and sometimes sell products. These websites can range in variety from grocery shopping, technology, bidding websites such as ebay and specialsed online shops.

Online shopping is revolutinary it lets you buy anything you want with a click of a button and you are certain to find what you want with the millions of online shopping websites that are in use. One of the biggest markets for online shopping is clothes shopping. There are so many websites over the internet letting you purchase clothes. Almost every highstreet shop has an online shop aswell making it easy to find what you want. One website that is brilliant for showing online shopping is Sainsburys. Sainsburys is a supermarket but their websites offer much more than groceries. You are able to buy Food and Drink, Home and Garden products, Appliances, Technology such as Mp3s and Mobile Phones, Entertainment, Toys and games, Sports and leisure products, clothing and much more. You are even able to get insurance quotes on their website. Many websites such as sainsburys and tescos now have a feature which remembers what you nought last time and so can predict what you may want to by next, this makes it easier to find the items you want with no searching around to find the product. All the things here are in one place making life for shoppers much simpler and hassle free.



Survey of womens experience and views on online shopping



Aswell as online shopping, shops now use lots of ICT equipment which makes the whole process of buying products easier.

EPoS- EPoS also known as electronic point of sale. This is the solution that uses computers and other electronic terminals along with devices like barcode scanners using lasers to instanlty capture the transaction and store all the information. EPoS then is able to automatically update the stock, when the system shows that the stock is low it can then also automatically gets re-ordered. The EPoS system is so effecient and this ICT is vital in the running of shops now as it saves so much time and effort. Online shopping makes it easier for customers as it means you dont even have to leave the house to do your shopping, if you are pushed for time and dont have time to go out you buy stuff quickly over the interenet and most things can be delievered within a short amount of time. Online shopping opens you to an huge selection of different products and for many high street shops it is a very good service to use as there are more sizes and stock online.

Chip and Pin- Another big aspect of ICT in shops is the Chip and Pin System. It was not very long ago when the Chip and PIN system did not exist and instead everyone had to sign for the things they wer buying. But chip and pin has made the process of buying quicker and easier. The concept of chip and pin is quite simple to understand. On your credit and/or debit card you have a little electronic chip where your personal pin and other pieces of information are stored on. When you insert your pin into the chip and PIN device it then makes sure that the number you type in is the same that is stored on the chip.

Self Checkouts

 Self checkouts are machine that enable you to purchase things yourself with no need for cashier staff to scan all your products for you. In self service checkouts the customer can scan the barcodes of the items they are buying and once scanned it will come up on the screen. The self checkout knows how much the product weighs and will notice if there is extra objects in your bagging area making sure you cant steal from the shops. Once it weighs the product to make sure you have put your brought objects into the bagging are it will let you continue with your purchase. Using self servcie checkouts are quite easy and simple to use once youve got the hang of it. At first you may not be able to scan things very quickly but once used a few times you can quickly finish your purchase. You are then able to pay for your products using cash or card and many checkouts also now allow you to scan vouchers and specialsed points card e.g. Nectar cards and Boots advantage cards. The checkouts arent completely self use though as there will be an attendant nearby manning a big group of the checkouts, as they need to verify your age if you are buying certain products and to help customers if they get confused. A few advantages of self checkouts include a reduced checkout time, a sense of privacy when buying products and retailers will need less staff. Disadvanatges though can include much longer service time if you are unable to use the checkouts, sometimes the software can also mess up too bringing stress to many different people. Another disadvantage is the scales many times the checkout will fail to realise that you have put your item in the bagging area, this especially happens when you ahve weights fluctuations like when you are buying fruit as some apples may way less or more than thought.

Aswell as EPoS, Chip and Pin and Self Checkouts there are also other pieces of ICT that are used in Shops

• Keyboards
• CCTV




The graph above shows the how UK citizens
use onlien shopping


• Stock Contol
• Controlling the temperature of fridges and freezers in supermarkets
• SEC (Shelf Edge Computers)
• Scales

Advantages of Online Shopping

·         Many websites offer the products you want for a lower price.

·         Much easier than going out to the shops and buying the stuff you need. So much more convenient.

·         Great if you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to go out.

·         There is so much choice online and you are almost certain to find the thing you want. You will never find anywhere with more choice than the internet.

·         Many companies are trying to make more people shop online so offer discounts or free postage and packaging if you order something online.

·         Can buy anything anytime of the day internet is open 24/7 unlike shops.

·         Price comparison sites let us buy the things we want for the cheapest that they can find.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping

·         If you buy something off the internet and it is faulty the products can be hard to return and many companies have a policy which means if you do not return it within a certain amount of days you cannot send it back.

·         One obvious disadvantage is that you have to wait for your items to arrive sometimes this can sometimes only take a day or two but some websites can take forever to send you your items.

·         Some websites can also be scam websites. This can lead to fraud and all range of different problems.

·         Another disadvantage is that many websites may be based in different countries so shipping charges to bring over to this country can be very expensive.

• Some websites can also be very misleading and make you think you are buying a completley different product to what you actually are.

To find out some extra information about about online shopping i surveyed 10 members of mty friends/family on how they use Internet shopping and their views on it.

Below are the graphs i produced from the

results.

To the right show the results i gathered from the question "How often do you use the internet to buy products". With the most popular answer being twice a month at 40%

From the question "Why do you online shop?" the most popular was "Because it's convenient wuth 9 out of 10 people agreeing with this statement.

 

 
 

On the right shows the results from the question "what products do you buy online?" there was a variety of results from this question but the largest catergory was CDs/ DVDs with 7 out of 10 people buying these over the internet. 

The fourth question i asked was about their experience with online shopping and if they found it more enjoyable than visiting with 60% saying sometimes or no. People commented that there are things they like more about online shopping like easy use and easy to find all the products but many many people said they just enjoyed the "feel" of actually going into a shop.

My final question was "Would you recommend online shopping to others?". For this question the results for online shopping were quite good with only 1 out of 10 people saying that  they would not recommend it.