Dhana May P.

Apo Information Technology

February 23, 2019
Reaction Paper: Online Shop Versus Retail Shop

Online shopping by the term itself is shopping with the use of the internet whether using a
computer or a mobile phone. While the traditional retail shop is when the retailer sells their product
physically or with the use of a physical store. Now, it depends on the customers in which of the
two will they use for their own advantages, online shopping or retail shopping. Both said options
have their own benefits but for me, shopping online is better because of the underlying benefits
brought by it to the customers such as having a wider variety of products, giving you the choice of
how to pay, and the availability of the shop or website.

A coin has two sides as said in the journal “A Study on the Challenges Faced by Retailers
as a Consequence of Online Shopping”. A study of 100 retail stores in Dehradun city has been
conducted and the findings showed that there is a trend on the turnover and the profit margin of
the retailers. The retailers wanted to keep different types of stock or wide variety of it in order to
survive the economy but space and how much it costs inhibits them in doing so. Instead of
producing more products, they focused more on giving convenience to the customer such as
providing home delivery services which allows the customer to receive the product on their
doorstep just like how online shopping does. However, the findings also showed that even though
the retail stores already improved their way of selling their product, consumers feel more
comfortable buying products online due to its lower and reasonable prices. (Agarwal & Durga,
2016). The gap difference between the two methods is evident. Even though that online shopping
is very famous for us millennials, there are still those who prefer shopping in retail stores because
of different advantages in shopping there. One is that they can see the actual product and test it by
themselves. Second, is that it is guaranteed that what they paid for is what they will get. Third, is
that they don't have to pay for the delivery charge or other extra charges for the payment services.
Lastly is they can easily return the product if there is any damage. On the other hand, one advantage
in online shopping is that it provides goods as same with those in retail stores and it is available
24 x 7. Another is the convenience because anyone can shop at home or wherever they are as long
as they have the internet or data to browse the different products that are being sold.

Even though there is without a doubt that shopping in retail stores has its own advantage,
I still prefer shopping online. Shopping using a computer or any gadget that enables anyone to buy
from the internet indeed gives a lot of benefits to the consumer. It gives them the capability of
choosing how to pay, whether cash on delivery or with a use of a credit card. It also provides the
buyers to shop whenever they want and it gives them a wider variety of products to choose from.
In the end, it really doesn't matter where the buyers prefer to shop, whether it be from a retail shop
or from the internet, as long as they get the product that they want.

References:

Agarwal, S., & Durga, P. (2016). A study on the challenges faced by retailers as a
consequence of online shopping. International Journal of Advance Research in Computer
Science and Management Studies. 4 (7), 40-46.