If there’s one thing I like to do, it’s shopping. And I don’t mean necessarily buying stuff. I like to do different kinds of shopping depending on the shopping method. Online shopping can be for products or services both at the same time. Which is why I like Online shopping as it gives me access to options that I don’t get in a physical market.
It’s Easier and More Convenient
To shop online, I just need my phone or laptop and a stable internet connection. There’s no hustle in walking miles searching for a product like our mothers and fathers who are not tech-savvy do. Online shopping is I think one of the best things to have happened in this our civilization.
Opens up many possibilities and choices
With online shopping, you get access to more than one service at a time. If I wanted to go grab some groceries in the market, I have two options: To either order a delivery service to handle the shopping entirely and bring me my groceries themselves, or to purchase the groceries and do the pick up myself.
Aside this, I can access more than one thing at a time with online shopping, all at the comfort of my home. So let’s say it allows me to multitask.
I could be getting a haircut from a home service barbering salon while having orders from Kikuu or Jiji delivered to my doorstep without lifting a finger myself.
Now this might just be the best thing I like about online shopping
Window Shopping
Imagine if I had to pass around shops in person asking for prices of goods and not buying a single thing. This would just make me look inhumane and evil.
But thanks to Online shopping, window shopping is…even a hobby if you like, for most people, me included.
What I like to check out most of the time is phones. Every time I intended on buying a new phone, I spend weeks, maybe even months, stalking the phone online to observe the different markets, so that I can tell on average, what my budget should look like.
But all that doesn’t come for free
With online shopping, comes certain disadvantages worth taking a look at.
For every advancement in Technology, there are setbacks to how this inadvertently affects our real world business, and online shopping is no exception.
Looking at products online is never going to be the same as being present and assessing everything in person.
Online, colors may appear brighter, faults from different angles of products can be hidden by photography, and fake products can be displayed for sale. These are just a few of the ways people can get disappointed in the online market.
So it’s entirely up to you to take your time and do your due diligence before making any sort of purchase online.
When I shopped online for the first time, it was like 4 years ago on kiKuu. I was in the market looking for a pendrive, and unfortunately for me, I found what I was looking for. A 128GB pendrive for 50cedis($5). I was excited to have gotten a higher storage pendrive for so much cheaper. Why didn’t I find out about this online shopping thing earlier?
After my order was placed, weeks passed and I was starting to get suspicious of the authenticity of kiKuu’s services. I didn’t know deliver could take weeks! I got my pendrive like a month later and I realized I needed to be really cautious on my next purchase with these online markets. My pendrive was in theory, 128GB as it had 128GB written on it. But practically, it was only 20GB. I say 20GB because after it held files worth of 20GB, everything else after that would be corrupted and able to open. It took me 2 months of use to figure out this threshold but when I did, I realized I was played lol.
I also heard the story of a man who ordered for a sofa of 200cedis($20) and ended up with a model sofa. It was basically a mini-sized sofa shot in a micro photography style so it looked bigger. Most of the time when I see erikah’s micro shots before she compares it to her finger, it marvels me how realistically big things really look with macrophotography and it just makes me see how we can be tricked on the internet with shots from the right angle and lens.
Oh and should I also mention that online shopping is a completely regrettable discovery for serial spenders? Lol yeah they just can’t stop buying.
So yeah, online shopping can be a breath taking experience. Literally😂. You just need to figure out how to tell what is what and what isn’t, and you’ll absolutely love it. Give or take a few disappointments. Lol.