A recent poll of a group of professional women indicated that almost three quarters (73%) of them admit to going online for shopping, and a surprising majority (54%) believe it is the best way to buy anything.
With the increase in demand for designer clothes, women’s shoes, electronics, computers, gadgets, and other goods, the online shopping space has seen an unprecedented growth over the past few years. The good news is that as the number of women who shop online continues to grow, online shopping is now becoming mainstream.
However, at the same time, it’s important to note that this trend is still relatively new, and there are plenty of drawbacks involved with this online shopping boom, including information overload, privacy concerns, the fact that you can’t shop in person, and the sky-high prices of most products.
In contrast to other popular websites such as eBay and Google, Amazon.com has a unique selling strategy that works to benefit its buyers. Instead of simply providing a shopping catalog, Amazon offers thousands of products for purchase. It also requires sellers to pay a small fee for each item sold. The sellers simply list their product descriptions in Amazon’s pages. You can browse the products on the site, or select from a number of categories to buy the item.
Also unlike some other sites, Amazon allows you to make back-orders. Amazon takes care of shipping the products once the order has been completed. It offers guarantees and returns that its competitors do not.
Finally, Amazon offers more choices for products than most other online retail sites. It allows buyers to customize product images by choosing which colors and materials to use. It also offers a secure payment option, including a credit card payment facility.
Amazon’s popularity can be attributed to several reasons. For starters, its approach is organic. Unlike eBay and Google’s hyper-commercial approach where sellers bid up the price of their products, Amazon merely allows sellers to set a price and accept orders.
Secondly, Amazon’s approach is more relaxed. It allows sellers to set their own product price and accept orders for products that sell in their category. This avoids any artificial inflation, giving the buyer more incentive to shop with Amazon instead of eBay. This is in contrast to eBay’s method of aggressively trying to convince people to sell their items by showing them attractive leads and inviting them to buy.
Finally, Amazon focuses on quality. Unlike other online merchants that focus on quantity over quality, Amazon provides only the highest quality products. It provides feedback and customer service for its buyers, which allows buyers to get help if they are unsatisfied with the product.