Evolution of Online Shopping
In this report the topic that is chosen for the ICT innovation is Online Shopping. Recently online shopping is being used by a larger section of people all over the world. The online shopping became popular in the time because the online shopping is convenient as it saves lots of time and energy of the people. Online shopping is a form of e commerce which is used by people to buy as well as sell products with the help of internet. There are numerous vendors that provide the privilege of online shopping to people.
In the further report the discussion will be made in the background of online shopping. Research review will be made on the online shopping and the description will be given on how the technology evolved and how it is applied on the business.
In the recent time online shopping has gone through many evolution. Now the online shopping becomes an essential thing in the human lifestyle. The pioneer of the online shopping is Michael Aldrich. Michael Aldrich launched a system in the year 1980 which enables the people to buy goods and make transaction using the electronic system. After that in the year 1990 Tim Berners-Lee created the first server and browser of World Wide Web. And then the server and the browser opened for all to use in the year 1991. In the year 1995 Amazon.com launched their online shopping site in the same year eBay also launched their online shopping website (Jiang, Yang and Jun 2013). And after that the scenario changed as many websites has emerged after the time period. And in the current time there are so many websites that are providing the online shopping. At first the online shopping is only used by accessing the websites but in the recent time in the generation of the smartphone the online shopping can be done by using the application that are made for the different vendors of the online shopping (Laudonand Traver2013).
There are several different application of the online shopping. It provides a huge benefit to the human being by saving the time and energy of the people. The online shopping is used for promoting a product and make it available to common people. Customer service and product support is also provided by the online shopping vendors. The online shopping is applied to increase the brand awareness among the people (Lian and Yen 2014).
Application of Online Shopping
As discussed that in the recent time the social media become a necessity for the human life style. It is because of the benefits that the online shopping provides (O. Pappas et al. 2014). The benefits of the social media are given below:
The biggest perk is the convenience. The online shopping can be done at anytime from anywhere without putting almost no effort. There are no limit of shopping and there are various way to pay the amount for the goods that the user want to buy. Online websites are available 24/7 thoroughly without any interruption (Al-Debei, Akroush and Ashouri2015). All kind of goods are available under a hood which is very convenient for the user of the online shopping.
In the online shopping websites there are various attractive deals are given. The price of the online product are relatively lower than the offline market. The reason behind the low price is because the products are sold direct from the manufacturer and there are no intermediate between them. Many online websites provide several offers like coupons, discounts, and several bankcard offers (Hsin Chang and Wang 2011). The products of the online websites only have to pay the sales tax no other tax is applied on the product which reduces the cost of the products.
The choices of the product in the online shopping is huge. The user will be able to get all kind of goods of different brands all in one place. The user will be able to shop from the retailer from any part of the world. With the variety of the product the stock is also high in the inline shopping websites.
The extra expenses of the online shopping is zero as the user will be able to shop from anywhere. The people who choose the traditional shopping ends up investing more on the extra expenses like the transport, food and other expenses.
When we go to the market sometimes it happens that we end up buying something that we does not have any plan to buy. It basically happens because of the shopkeepers influence about the product. The stock is also low so we don’t get the desired things. In the online market we are able to choose the product that we want and from a huge amount of products (Lian and Yen 2014).
From the benefits it can be said that the implementation of the online shopping in the business has helped the businesses to grow faster. The businesses now able to generate a good amount of revenue by investing low cost.
Benefits of the Social Media
With the vast amount of benefits there are lots of issues that are incorporated with the use of online shopping in the business. The issues of the online shopping is more or less same for the each vendor who provide the facility of online shopping (Wu et al., 2014).
The issues of the online shopping consists of quality issues, delivery issues, logistics issues, issues with the online payments, issues of additional charges, and the most important lack of product security. These are the issues that are affecting the business while implemented on the online shopping. Because of these issues customer trust breaks and the customer ten tends to avoid those websites. These affects the business as the business can face a huge set back if the customer satisfaction is not met properly.
The case study of a company that is chosen for the assessment is the case study of amazon prime services in online shopping. In the case study the main topic of the discussion is about the loyalty scheme of the amazon prime services. The case study says that the program of the amazon prime is very easy to understand. The user who will sign up for the first time will be greeted with lots of benefits and offers. The case study also says that the choices are broad of choosing the item and the delivery speed with the shipping method. The prime also come with specific products in the online shopping segment where only the prime members are only able to buy the products and avail the offers (Ritala, Golnam and Wegmann2014). There are several things that the case study shows that need to be corrected by the company. Usually the price of prime membership is quite high. It is not affordable by everyone. The customers get confused because they are not provided extra offers for availing the prime membership, so they feel that they did not get advantages for being honest to the company (Pappas et al. 2016). In case of the online shopping many user get benefits but there are users that are not able to get the benefits as the case study shows the both segment of the facts.
The recommendation will be given for improving the customer experience and to reduce the issues with the online shopping. One of the main recommendation that will be given is of the product security the online shopping websites vendor must provide security of the products. The delivery needed to be on time irrespective of the orders (Hsu et al. 2013). The digital payment gateway must be secured properly. The product and the service policies must be clear so that the user will be able to read the policies before purchasing any kind of stuffs. While listing the products the additional charges must be mentioned that for which purpose (Ashraf, Thongpapanl and Auh2014). If these things incorporated properly so the online shopping and the business will be gain a huge amount of customer those will be able to help the business to gain revenue.
Issues
Conclusion:
From the above report it can be concluded that in the recent year the online shopping has emerged a lot and it became an integral part of the human life. In the above report the evolution and the application of the online shopping is described in the context of business. The above report also discusses the benefits of the online shopping and the issues that are related is also discussed. The case study of the amazon prime service is assessed where the benefits and the limitations are mentioned. A recommendation is made for the online shopping that hoe the online shopping will be able to meet the requirement of the customer. it is said that if the customer is satisfied with the service then the business will be gain a huge amount of revenue from the customers.
References:
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Lian, J.W. and Yen, D.C., 2014. Online shopping drivers and barriers for older adults: Age and gender differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, pp.133-143.
Lian, J.W. and Yen, D.C., 2014. Online shopping drivers and barriers for older adults: Age and gender differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, pp.133-143.
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Pappas, I.O., Kourouthanassis, P.E., Giannakos, M.N. and Chrissikopoulos, V., 2016. Explaining online shopping behavior with fsQCA: The role of cognitive and affective perceptions. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.794-803.
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Wu, L.Y., Chen, K.Y., Chen, P.Y. and Cheng, S.L., 2014. Perceived value, transaction cost, and repurchase-intention in online shopping: A relational exchange perspective. Journal of Business Research, 67(1), pp.2768-2776.