before i say something against online shopping, i must confess that i do buy many things online. from books to groceries to gadgets, everything i order online.
but this does not mean that i am a big fan of online shopping. i buy things online to save time and to avoid the traffic jams and the polluted air. moreover at times it saves money because of the good discounts available in online shopping websites. but not all discounts are genuine. as they first increase the price and then give discount on increased price. but that happens everywhere, in online shops as well as in retail shops.
five reasons why i don’t like online shopping:
1. online bill do not hurt so much as the bill paid in cash – because in internet everything we pay by plastic money. so you don’t feel the pinch that you have paid a bill of few thousand rupees. give 100 bucks in cash for buying something and it will pinch you much more than spending 1000 bucks in online shopping. so most of the time you end up buying more things online and at times you don’t really need those things. i feel, when you buy product in real time then you actually buy things which are really needed.
2. you cannot see the product in real time – many times what you have seen in internet is not the same product what you receive. sometime the color is different or you misjudged the size of the item. so you end up feeling cheated or fooled.
3. carbon foot print – it adds to pollution. because your ordered product might be located at a store in a different state and it has to travel all the way to your home. so to save carbon foot prints its always best to buy things locally. moreover lot of plastic, card board and thermocol packaging is done for the safe delivery of the product which again adds to the pollution. some companies do such a good packaging that its a real task to retrieve the product !!!.
4. addiction – many times you just buy things just because you want to feel good. or at times there is a sale going on and you buy products just because they are cheaper and not because you need them. the discounted price looks so attractive that you end up buying it. so online shopping can at times be addictive as well unnecessary. remember, addiction of any kind is bad. avoid it. always have the control over yourself to say NO for things which you don’t need it.
5. price factor – the most disappointing factor is value for money. sometimes the product is not worth the price what i have paid for. in online shopping it is difficult to determine the quality and the actual worth of the product. best solution for this is to order products from reliable brands only.
i have learnt over a period of time not to buy things when i don’t need it. one of the best trick is not to visit the websites when you don’t need anything. secondly, don’t open the emails with discount coupons.