The impact of Online Shopping
Primarily, our economy is based on consumption of goods – whether that consumption is through walk-in stores or on-line purchasing. If we were to focus our purchasing activity solely on the internet option, tens of thousands of people would lose employment. At this point with the enormous increase in on-line shopping over the last five years, the reverse may also be true. We are already beginning to see some effect of the downturn in consumption in the rising unemployment statistics. Thus, this raises the larger question- How do we create an economy that is not so slanted toward consumption while at the same time keep people employed? This is an umbrella question and a real puzzle.
There is a possibility that The High Street may shrink as we start to do more of our shopping online. Finding exactly what we want, Finding the cheapest or most competitive pricing.
When online shopping works it can be great but when it fails it can really mess things up. Delays in dispatching orders; orders that never show up; incorrect orders etc all cause problems. Sometimes it is a dive into the unknown. At present credit card companies are taking the brunt of this. Sooner or later they will change their way of operating to cut their losses.
Online shopping also has a great impact on the environment. With the increase in delivered products via online shopping, trash has increased to a vast extent. For instance, according to the Department of Sanitation, New Yorkers left more than 8,300 tons of cardboard and mixed paper at the curbside in the first full collection week after the Christmas According holiday, a 21 percent jump over the same period last year.
In terms of packaging, on-line shopping may be consuming more than would be involved in just picking it up off the shelf and using your own reusable shopping bag, however by buying it on-line you are removing the need for the shelf all together removing the need for an entire building that normally exists between the warehouse and the consumer. A big negative impact online shopping has had on environment is the amount of non-recyclable materials that come with products ordered online. These hard to recycle materials are basically bubble wrap, foam rubber and expanded polystyrene. This expanded polystyrene is also known as Styrofoam. Buying clothing online can lead to greater carbon use if you frequently return items because you cannot try them on first (wrong size or cut, for example).
For this, delivering the same products with less packaging is advisable to stop the environment from being ruined. An effective solution would be developing two-way packaging that eliminates the waste.
Online shopping has taken the world by storm and will continue to do so for long. But, a little care has to be taken to make sure its impact is always positive and never negative in our lives and the environment. If this is done, then all combined together, this shopping experience with all its procedures will prove to be beneficial to one and all!