essay on online shopping has it made life easier

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Band 9 Essay Samples | Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published December 2, 2014 · Updated April 23, 2024

Nowadays online shopping becomes more popular than in-store shopping. Is it a positive or a negative development? Give your reasons and examples.

Now that we can buy just about anything with a few mouse clicks from the comfort of our home, very few people actually feel the need to venture into brick and mortar stores. There is no denying the fact that online shopping has become more popular than in-store shopping. This trend has both positive and negative aspects.

The huge popularity of online shopping can be attributed to the fact that it makes shopping easier. It saves both time and money. Buyers no longer have to drive all the way to shops to buy things. Also, online stores tend to offer attractive prices probably because they have lower overhead costs. This allows them to sell items for deeply discounted prices. This can lead to major cost benefits for shoppers. In addition, online shopping makes it easy to buy things from any part of the world. Even if an item is not available in your country, you can buy it from online stores. Online shopping also allows you to compare prices before hitting the purchase button.

On the flip side, the ease of online shopping has made many people compulsive shoppers. Most of us spend lots of time on the internet every day. And while we are on the internet, we get bombarded with numerous advertisements. For a compulsive shopper, this is a good reason to splurge. The fact that online shopping encourages us to buy things that we do not need or use cannot be denied. This can lead to debts. Also, there are security concerns. When you buy things online, you run a small risk of getting your financial information exploited by hackers. Of course, good anti-virus and anti-malware programs can offer a great deal of protection. But almost every week, we hear about data breaches at major online retailers.

To conclude, online shopping has several advantages and disadvantages. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Of course, the shopper has to exercise some common sense and keep their device free of malware if they want to enjoy the benefits of online shopping.

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Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

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Pros and Cons of Online Shopping

6 Benefits and Drawbacks to Keep in Mind When You Shop Online

Pros of Online Shopping

Cons of online shopping, how to make the most of online shopping, money-saving tips for online shopping, frequently asked questions (faqs).

The Balance / Jiaqi Zhou

Online shopping is more popular today than ever before. U.S. businesses pulled in a record $285.2 billion from retail e-commerce sales in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For comparison, retail e-commerce sales were $69.2 billion in the same period one decade prior.

Due in part to new and growing technology, online shopping has become incredibly easy and convenient. It also offers a greater selection than one storefront, opening the doors to products and services that may not be available at a nearby brick-and-mortar store .

While online shopping comes with several benefits, there are drawbacks to know about, too. Let's dive deeper into the pros and cons of shopping online.

Key Takeaways

• Online shopping is convenient and offers a variety of products you may not be able to find at your local stores.
• It's easier to comparison shop online, where you can access prices, reviews, and product details with a click.
• When you shop online, you need to wait for your product to be delivered to you, and you might spend more than you would if you went to a brick-and-mortar store.
• There's also a risk of fraud when you shop online. You can combat this by choosing trusted stores and paying with a card that offers fraud protection.

Convenience

Greater selection

Easy access to information

Can be more expensive

Increases risk of fraud

Leads to longer wait times

Using your computer or another digital device for your shopping needs can be convenient, offer more options, and provide insight you might not find in person at a store.

The greatest benefit of online shopping is its convenience. Through the digital space, you can buy almost anything you want from the comfort of your own home. Since online stores are open 24/7 and accessible from anywhere with internet access, it's easy to fit online shopping into your life no matter how busy you are. You don't have to plan your purchases based on when a brick-and-mortar store is open and available to serve you.

Greater Selection

Because products online live within the digital space, online retailers are not restricted to shelves and often have more inventory on hand with a wider selection of products. Also, online shopping gives you the chance to buy anything from any retailer, no matter where you're located. If you're in the market for a new lamp, for example, you'll have more options available to you than you would if you only shopped at stores in your local area.

Easy Access to Information

When shopping online, you will often find more details about a business's products than you would get in physical stores. Instead of speaking to one or two sales associates in person, you can peruse product descriptions, recommendations of similar products, and reviews from other shoppers online that may help you make a more informed purchasing decision.

Online retailers also tend to have membership options, typically via email or newsletters, that give shoppers early access to sales, seasonal releases , and other events. This way, you can be one of the first to know of offerings from your favorite brands.

Shopping for items online can also have its pitfalls, including hidden price mark-ups, an increased risk of fraud, and the inability to use or wear the item you purchased right away.

Can Be More Expensive

Online purchases can cost you more for several reasons. Even though many major online retailers offer free shipping, they generally require you to meet a minimum to qualify for it. In addition, online retailers may use several strategies to encourage you to buy more items or more expensive items than if you were shopping in person.

Depending on the state you live in, you may be required to pay an internet sales tax , too. In Texas, for example, you may have to pay a tax on out-of-state purchases delivered into Texas or purchases made from online-only sellers.

Many online retailers take part in digital tactics to convince shoppers to make more purchases, often considered impulse buys . Some include using "limited-time" sale pop-ups that reset every time users reload the page, fake customer testimonials, or messages that promote higher-cost items.

Increases Risk of Fraud

Unfortunately, online shopping scams do exist. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), online shopping is among the most common fraud category for consumers. Some scammers pretend to be legitimate online sellers with fake websites or create fake ads on real sites.

Always pay by credit card rather than a debit card, as you can easily report fraud to your credit card company. Also, it is best to avoid online sellers that only accept payment via money transfers, gift cards, or cryptocurrency. Scammers may encourage you to pay through these methods so they can access your money faster.

Leads to Longer Wait Times

When you shop at a brick-and-mortar store, you can generally walk away with the product you bought and use or wear it right away. Online shopping forces you to wait days, weeks, or even longer for your order to arrive. If you're in a time crunch and need a product right away, such as a gift, going to an in-person shop may be a better option for you.

These tips can allow you to enhance your online shopping experience.

Know Which Products to Buy Online

Some items are better to buy online than others because you can find countless consumer reviews, discounts, or other deals pertaining to them. For items you regularly use (such as a laptop, phone charger, luggage, or textbook), the internet may be the best place to compare offers. For things you require to have long-lasting value (like a car) or must get right away (such as groceries), shopping in person may be best.

Additionally, if there's a brand you trust or are familiar with, it may be best to bypass third-party sellers and purchase directly from their website in order to avoid potential counterfeit products or unauthorized resellers.

Read Reviews

Before you check out, read reviews on the retailer's website as well as third-party sites like Google and Facebook. This can help you find out if the retailer is legitimate and whether there may be any potential issues with the product you're about to invest in. Reviews are beneficial for small businesses , too. Ninety-seven percent of consumers read online reviews of local businesses, according to marketing consultancy BrightLocal.

Some companies have more nuanced review options than others. Clothing rental service Nuuly, for example, lets customers add photos of themselves wearing products with written reviews, enabling future customers to make empowered, smart purchasing decisions.

Examine Product Details

If you’re interested in a product, read its description. Make sure you know what it’s made out of, whether it comes with a warranty, what sizes are available, and so on. By doing so, you can avoid unwanted surprises that cost you time, money, and headaches when the product arrives.

There are many ways to save some money while making online purchases. Consider these tips to improve your online shopping experience.

Comparison Shop

If you have a specific product in mind, it's in your best interest to comparison shop, similar to how you would when looking for life insurance. Look at various online stores that offer what you want. Then, compare prices so you can find the best deal.

As you comparison shop, read product descriptions very closely. The FTC recommends looking out for words like "refurbished" or "vintage," as this could mean a product will arrive at your door in less-than-perfect condition.

Follow Online Retailers on Social Media

Online retailers often promote their sales and discounted items on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels. If you follow some of your favorite companies on social media, you may be one of the first to see and purchase the latest offers.

Use Money-Saving Apps or Plug-ins

There is no shortage of apps or plug-ins that allow you to save money online without the hassle. Some examples are Honey, Swagbucks, Capital One Shopping, and Rakuten. You can also look for coupon codes online on sites like RetailMeNot.com and Coupons.com.

How do you get your money back from an online purchase?

This process varies by retailer. Some may automatically refund your money when you report a problem with your purchase; others may require you to return the product first. You may not be able to get your money back at all, especially if it's after the retailer's return window. If you're buying something that may not work for you, like clothing, check the retailer's refund policy before you buy.

How has the internet changed shopping?

The internet has completely changed the shopping experience. People have access to products from around the globe. Payments are instant, and recommendations are tailored to your shopping and browsing habits. Brick-and-mortar retailers have had to respond by launching websites and improving their in-person customer experience.

U.S. Census Bureau. " Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales ," Page 1.

U.S. Census Bureau. " Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 4th Quarter 2013 ," Page 2.

Texas Comptroller's Office. " Taxes: Online Orders - Texas Purchasers and Sellers ."

University of Michigan. " Impulse Buying: Design Practices and Consumer Needs ," Pages 6, 9, and 11.

Federal Trade Commission. " Consumer Sentinel Network ," Page 8.

BrightLocal. " Local Consumer Review Survey ."

Nuuly. " Forget Me Not Mini Dress ."

Federal Trade Commission. " Online Shopping ," See "Comparison Shopping."

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Essay on Online Shopping in 100, 200, and 300 Words.

• Updated on  
• Dec 23, 2023

Shopping is something that many people love. It is particularly cherished during festive occasions such as Diwali, Navratri, Christmas or New Year etc. The shopping world has changed and evolved majorly providing us with various options of the same. The convenience of online shopping platforms has now come into play. Those days when individuals have to take on a long journey of shopping are now past us, all thanks to the various online shopping platforms that are now at the tip of our fingers. This is just a brief introduction to how to write an essay on online shopping. Now let’s have a look at the samples of essay on online shopping.  

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Online Shopping in 100 words
• 2 Essay on Online Shopping in 200 words
• 3 Essay on Online Shopping in 300 words
• 4 Advantages

Essay on Online Shopping in 100 words

The way of shopping has been revolutionized by online shopping. It has made it possible and convenient to shop virtually from literally anywhere. 

The sheer convenience of shopping is one of the biggest advantages of online shopping. For those individuals who are busy and struggle to find time to visit stores, online shopping is a boon. 

Payments are easy this way with the variety of options available such as debit card, cash on delivery, etc. However, there are some drawbacks to online shopping as well. One of them is the delivery of the wrong item or a different item than that seen online. So one should be cautious and should make informed decisions.

Also Read:- My Aim in Life

Essay on Online Shopping in 200 words

In today’s world, as science and technology are progressing, a lot of things have become more convenient for us. One such thing is online shopping. Over the years due to its high demand and convenience, it has become very popular. It involves virtually placing an order on any e-commerce website without the need to go to a physical store. Various items such as shoes, gadgets, household products, and even groceries can be ordered from the comfort of your couch.  

Some of the key benefits of online shopping are mentioned below:-

• Crowd Avoided:- since online shopping is virtual, going to crowded places is avoided.
• Convenience:- we can shop from the convenience of our homes.
• Variety in products:- on different platforms, a vast range of products is available. 
• Variety in payment options:- Debit card, cash on delivery, etc payment options make it all the more convenient.

Although there are many pros of online shopping, there are some drawbacks as well. There have been many instances where wrong or damaged goods got delivered. There can be instances where a product may not match its depiction when delivered in terms of color, etc. 

Some websites even scam people and are fraudulent. Hence, it is important to take caution while shopping online. 

Also Read:- Essay on Pollution

Essay on Online Shopping in 300 words

During the 1990s, the concept of online shopping came into play and since then, it has grown exponentially. Its principle lies in the ease of browning a wide variety of products on various e-commerce platforms. The e-commerce platforms have played a central role in enabling different businesses to connect with a global audience. 

There are various advantages of online shopping, one of them being the ease of online shopping. With virtual stores, you can shop whenever you want and from wherever you want. The limitations of time don’t apply to the online stores. They are accessible 24/7.

Wide Range of Products

When you shop online, you don’t have to limit yourself to only some products. Online shopping opens a portal to a wide range of products to select from.

Saves time and money

When you shop online, you don’t have to go to stores. You can shop from the comfort of your couch. That saves time. And generally, online stores have some kind of offers and discounts going on which saves you money. 

Although online shopping has many advantages, there are also certain cons that it carries with it. Some of those cons are mentioned below:-

Shipping issues

There can issues with the shipping such as the product may get damaged during its shipping or it may get delivered to the wrong address.

Return Policies

If the product is different and the customer wants to return it or get a refund, there can be certain policies that prevent the same. 

Different item Delivery

There can be instances where the product, when delivered, is different from the one shown in the images online. Returning the same can be a hassle too as it has to be repacked for some resellers. 

Hence, when shopping online one should always be cautious and take calculated decisions. 

Also Read:- Importance of Internet

Ans: Essay on Online Shopping in 100 words The way of shopping has been revolutionised by online shopping. It has made it possible and convenient to shop virtually from literally anywhere.  The sheer convenience of shopping is one of the biggest advantages of online shopping. For those individuals who are busy and struggle to find time to visit stores, online shopping is a boon.  Payments are easy this way with the variety of options available such as debit card, cash on delivery, etc. However, there are some drawbacks to online shopping as well. One of them benign the delivery of the wrong item or a different item than that seen online. So one should be cautious and should make informed decisions.

Ans: Online shopping can be explained as virtually buying of products from an e-commerce platform without going to the physical store.

Ans: Some of the key advantages of online shopping are mentioned below:- -Crowd Avoided:- since online shopping is virtual, going to crowded places is avoided. -Convenience:- we can shop from the convenience of our homes. -Variety in products:- on different platforms, a vast range of products is available.  -Variety in payment options:- Debit card, cash on delivery, etc payment options make it all the more convenient.

Related Reads:

This brings us to the end of our blog on Essay on Online Shopping. Hope you find this information useful. For more information on such informative topics for your school, visit our essay writing and follow Leverage Edu.

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Online Shopping Essay

500+ words online shopping essay.

The trend of online shopping has increased in recent times with the increase of e-commerce and digital technology. With just a single click, you can shop for everything by sitting at your home as per your choice, convenience and budget. This essay on online shopping will help students learn about the pros and cons of online shopping. We have also compiled a list of CBSE Essays on different topics to help them improve their essay-writing skills. These essays will also help them improve their scores on the English exam.

What Does Online Shopping Mean?

Online shopping is the activity of buying products and services over the internet using a web browser or mobile app. It means buyers have to go online to reach a seller’s website and then select the product they want to purchase. The buyer can pay for the goods and services either online with a credit or debit card or upon delivery. Online shopping sites are also known by many other names such as e-shop, e-web-store, e-store, internet shop, web-store, web-shop, virtual store and online store. An online shop creates a physical analogy for buying products or services. Some of the famous online retailing corporations which facilitate the experience of online shopping are Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, Myntra, etc.

Online shopping is a growing area of the digital world and technology. Establishing a store on the Internet gives various options to consumers. With the growth of online shopping, most businesses have started selling their products online. Now, just having physical stores is not enough in this fast-paced world. Having online store interfaces for consumers has also become essential for running a business in the current scenario.

Benefits of Online Shopping

There are numerous advantages of online shopping. People feel more convenient while shopping online. They can shop from anywhere at their own convenient time through easy and safe payment methods. Online shopping has empowered consumers with various advantages such as convenience and time-saving, lower search costs, better product selection, lower prices, etc. One of the biggest benefits of online shopping is that you can buy the items you want with just a single click. Online stores are open 24 hours a day and are accessible from any location with an internet connection.

Online stores carry more variations and provide more varieties of a product as compared to traditional stores. This is because online stores don’t need to attractively display their items on shelves, and they can keep a larger amount of inventory on hand. They might also have small amounts of each item since they don’t need to display them and can order more from their supplier as needed.

Online shops tend to provide more information about items for sale than you would get in a physical store. Product descriptions most often include a description from the manufacturer, another description from the vendor, specific technical and size details, reviews from professional magazines and journals, and reviews from people who have bought the product. Having all this information available when you are considering a purchase makes you a more informed consumer without having to perform extra research by yourself.

Online stores are not burdened by the costs of running a physical store, such as the rent of the physical premises and wages of sales staff. The cost savings by online stores lead to lower pricing on the internet, passing on cost savings to shoppers. The internet encourages online vendors to compete with one another by lowering prices.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping

The benefits of shopping online also come with potential risks and dangers. When you shop online, you can’t touch or try out the product. You have to depend upon product pictures only. You can’t buy the product instantly. If you don’t get the product in hand immediately after payment, you have to wait for delivery, which can take days to weeks. There is no guarantee that you will get the product in its original shape; it might get damaged on the way. Sometimes, the product is very different from the pictures and description due to various reasons and also has poor quality. If, after receiving the package, expectations weren’t met, you need to go through a returns process which can be time-consuming. Apart from these, there is also a chance of security threats from online shopping. If the site is not secured, you have a risk of losing your card information.

Online shopping is one of the convenient ways of purchasing different products. However, there are some products which are better if they are purchased from physical stores. So, in the future, we can expect online stores to improve their technology, making way for a much easier and faster shopping experience.

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Why Online Shopping Makes You So Happy

O nline shopping is more than a hobby for those who get a thrill out of traversing the biggest mall in the world: the internet. It’s also a sport.

How else to explain Monica Corcoran Harel’s reaction to the news that there’s a flash sale at one of her favorite online stores? “I get very, very excited and incredibly competitive,” she says, hitting refresh over and over to land the best deal. If a family member happens to enter the room while she’s hovered over her computer, “I’m like, ‘flash sale! I have a flash sale!’” In other words: do not disturb.

Corcoran Harel, 53, who lives in the Los Angeles area and runs Pretty Ripe, a lifestyle newsletter for women over 40, has been shopping online for years. She relishes the ability to visit dozens of shops at once, comparing prices before clicking “buy now,” and the promise of quick delivery, all without stepping out of her house. Online shopping is “beyond intoxicating,” she says. “I’m probably partially responsible for the downfall of brick-and-mortar stores.”

More from TIME

But what exactly makes these orders feel so good? Experts explain the psychology behind online shopping—along with tips on how to show restraint if your virtual cart is overflowing.

Online shopping increased during the pandemic

Online shopping transformed from novelty to normality years ago: Amazon launched nearly three decades ago, in 1995, as an online bookseller, and now reports that customers buy around 7,400 products per minute from its U.S. sellers. But the pandemic shifted consumer habits in a way that favored buying even basic necessities like toilet paper online. According to the Annual Retail Trade Survey , e-commerce sales increased by $244 billion—or 43%—in 2020, jumping from $571 billion in 2019 to $815 billion in 2020.

That surge was at least partially driven by a desire to avoid indoor venues. But experts say it could also have to do with self-soothing behaviors. Research has long suggested that retail therapy can actually be therapeutic. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2014 , for example, indicates that making purchases helps people feel instantly happier—and also fights lingering sadness. One reason, the study authors speculate, is that making purchase decisions confers a sense of personal control and autonomy.

Another study, published in Psychology & Marketing in 2011 , found that going shopping leads to “lasting positive impacts on mood,” and is not associated with feelings of regret or guilt about spontaneous purchases.

Shopping is, in many ways, motivated by emotion, says Jorge Barraza, program director and assistant professor in the online master of science in applied psychology program at the University of Southern California. “When we’re sad, when we’re stressed, we’re more likely to engage in this kind of behavior,” he says. In some cases, he notes, the spark of joy a fancy new dress or gadget triggers might not last, especially if the buyer knows they’re mismanaging their money. “That boost in mood might be transitory, if you’re spending more than you can afford, but at least temporarily it does appear to restore a sense of control, and reduce any residual sadness that people might be experiencing.”

Why online shopping makes people so happy

In many ways, online shopping catapults the pleasure of in-person shopping to a different, almost overwhelming stratosphere. “It’s psychologically so powerful,” says Joshua Klapow , a psychologist and adjunct associate professor of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. (He’s also the new owner of three inflatable pool floats, a collapsible whisk, two jars of almond butter, and 50 pounds of bird seed, all of which he ordered online.)

Compared to shopping in person, “it’s a much more gratifying experience overall, because there’s less friction, less barriers, less behavioral cost, more specificity, and more choice,” he says. Plus, “the shopping is totally tailored to us. We can shop quickly or slowly.”

Part of the reason why online shopping is so appealing is convenience. When we go shopping in-person, Klapow points out, we have to walk or drive or figure out some other way of getting there, and then we have to stride through aisle after aisle to locate what we’re looking for. Even at stores that offer contactless pay, there’s some effort required to make a transaction: swiping a credit card or Apple Pay on your phone, for example. Then, a shopper needs to travel back home. “For a lot of people, these incredibly minor inconveniences just start picking away at the overall perceived value of the purchase,” he says.

In addition to being easier, online shopping delivers the satisfaction of accuracy. If Klapow heads to a big-box store, he might not find the shirt he’s looking for in the right size or color. If he’s shopping online, he’s more likely to snag exactly what he wants with far less hassle.

Doing so is a form of immediate gratification , which we’re all wired to crave, says Joseph Kable, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “This is a tendency that’s universal among people and is shared across much of the animal world,” he says. “People and other animals tend to discount outcomes in the future, relative to outcomes that are immediate. This means we prefer to have good things as soon as possible, and to postpone bad things as far as possible in the future.”

Interestingly, online shopping is also associated with another, more delayed type of gratification: anticipation for the order’s arrival. Awaiting something exciting is “like Christmas every day,” Klapow says, likening the ability to track a package to monitoring Santa’s whereabouts on Christmas Eve.

That resonates with Corcoran Harel, who works from home and enjoys looking out the window to see if a package has arrived. “I’m vigilant about getting my packages,” she says. “I’m so excited to rip it open and try something on—and the knowledge that you can return something easily just makes it better.”

What to do if you think you have a problem

Researchers define compulsive buying as “a preoccupation with buying and shopping, frequent buying episodes, or overpowering urges to buy that are experienced as irresistible and senseless.” There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to whether your online shopping habit is problematic, Barraza says, but it’s generally a good idea to ask yourself if your purchases are interfering with your quality of life.

Compulsive buying disorder (or any other type of shopping addiction) is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). However, it’s been recognized for more than a century: the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin is credited with first describing the disorder in 1915, calling it “oniomania”—the Greek word “onios” means “for sale,” and “mania” was interpreted as “insanity.” As the authors of a 2012 article in Advances in Psychiatric Treatmen t point out, experts continue to debate whether shopping addiction is “a valid mental illness or a leisure activity that individuals use to manage their emotions or express their self-identity.”

In a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions , researchers presented several factors that might predispose someone to developing an online shopping addiction, including having low self-esteem, low self-control, a negative emotional state, a penchant for anonymity , and an internet diet that includes exposure to lots of graphics and pop-up messages.

Another research article , published in 2017 in Frontiers in Psychology , focused on developing a scale that could measure online shopping addiction. According to the authors, six elements are required to meet the definition of addictive behaviors, including salience (which means online shopping would be the most important activity in the person’s life); mood modification, like feeling a buzz after placing an order; conflict, perhaps with family members; and relapse, or resuming the behavior after trying to stop. In those cases, a person addicted to online shopping might benefit from working with a professional and undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy , Klapow says.

Concerns about shopping addiction and over-spending are especially relevant now, as inflation hits its highest peak in the U.S. in four decades . Klapow recommends focusing on making intentional decisions about what to buy. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘I want this, so I’m going to get it,’ but we do need to be careful that we’re not calling all our wants ‘needs,’” he says.

Here are a few tips if you’re concerned about over-spending online:

Before checking out, review each item in your online cart and ask yourself: “Do I want this, or do I need it?” Klapow instructs his clients to do this cognitive exercise, and it can be helpful, he says. “It forces you to kind of look in the mirror, and you’d be amazed at how many items you end up putting back or saving for later.”

Attach a helpful Post-it note to your computer screen. This is one of Klapow’s favorite ways of modifying the environment to resist the siren call of e-commerce. Write your monthly budget in big letters on the sticky note, or a message directing yourself to check the total cost before clicking “buy now.” The visual reminder can help ground you when you’re caught up in the excitement of a new find.

Don’t store your credit card information online. Lots of people store information for multiple credit cards online, expediting the ability to make a purchase. Ideally, you wouldn’t store even a single card, Klapow says—”not from a safety standpoint, but from an impulse standpoint.” Having to manually input your payment details requires an extra minute to breathe and perhaps reevaluate the purchase.

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Online Shopping Today

How it works

The Internet is one of the most significant modern day inventions. Many people would agree that the Internet has transformed nearly every aspect of life, including the way we talk, live, and especially the way we shop. Although many people still shop at physical stores due to the risk of errors and fraud in online purchase, the Internet is rapidly improving the online shopping experience and making a secure virtual environment for shoppers. Shopping online has become increasingly popular among consumers because nearly everybody is using the internet on a daily basis.

Online shopping has made life easier because of the convenience and effortlessness of online shopping.

There once was a time when shopping wasn’t a day-to-day activity. It was an event that needed to be planned ahead of time due to the long drive that was sometimes necessary to obtain a specific product. Friends or family would set out together with a specific mission in mind. Shoppers would travel from store to store and spend the entire day at a shopping or outlet mall. Many traditional shoppers felt obliged to make a purchase at a certain store, so they didn’t have to visit another. A day of shopping was considered a wasted day if the desired product was not acquired. Shopping was often a chore for many people.

Online shopping has made shopping less of a chore. Traditional shopping has become less common due to the busy schedule of the average American and the growing trend of online shopping. Shopkeepers used to be the best source for product information, and they also helped customers through the purchasing process, but technology has changed this scenario. With product details and product reviews all available online, customers know just as much as shopkeepers about a product. Brands have also become more accessible than ever before. Seasonal offers, sales, and any other new updates about the brand are now easily communicated to the customer through an E-mail or notification. Sellers experience a direct communication with their customers by engaging on social media and other platforms.

Convenience is the biggest perk of online shopping. Online shops provide the opportunity to shop 24/7 from any location with internet connection or cell service. In comparison to a physical store with set hours, online shoppers can choose any time of the day or night to get on the Internet and shop. This is especially helpful for parents with young children, people that are homebound, or simply anyone that does not want to drive to a physical shop. Another convenience of online shopping is the ability to order products from anywhere around the world. Shoppers are no longer confined to products offered by local shops because the majority of online retailers offer shipping to many locations. This makes it no problem for online shoppers to obtain difficult to find items or items from a specific area.

An additional benefit of online shopping is the ability to comparison shop easily. Rather than visiting several conventional stores and trying to remember prices and characteristics of the product, the shopper can simply open multiple websites to quickly compare products. Comparison shopping online also gives the consumer the ability to compare items which may not be available in their location. This is significant to some shoppers because some items may only be available in certain parts of the world. This can make comparing items difficult for traditional shoppers; however, online shoppers can make these comparisons effortlessly and learn more about similar products which can allow them to make the best possible decision about purchasing a product.

A great substitute for those who hate traditional shopping is online shopping. Men, for example, are known for their dislike of shopping. Shopping online is a great alternative for many men. Stuart Ewing, of Swinburne University’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, concludes, “I think for many women the experience of going shopping is part of the enjoyment, whereas a lot of men will tell you they don’t like shopping. So for them, buying online is far more convenient” (qtd. in Cobbin and Wells). Those who dislike the hassle of conventional shopping turn to online shopping because it is much more accessible and quicker. Online shopping has all the benefits and none of the disadvantages of traditional shopping, which is very appealing to those who dislike shopping.

Many people dislike traditional shopping because of the shopping environment. In online shopping, there are no annoying crowds to push through or people to weave around. Online shopping is preferable over physical shopping, especially during holidays when stores are overflowing with bustling shoppers. Online shoppers also never have to wait in long lines to purchase their items. Also in conventional shopping, shoppers often buy items which they do not need because of a seller’s pressure or skills, but in online shopping, shoppers can buy the products they want without the pressure of aggressive sellers. Shopping can be relaxing without the frenzy of physical stores, which is why online shopping is so pleasant.

The simplicity and ease of online shopping has made life easier. Online shopping offers a different kind of shopping experience to buyers, and it has many advantages that people can’t have by shopping in physical stores. Shopping can be a burden for many people, but online shopping allows shoppers to save time and even relax while shopping.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Online Shopping — The Rise of Online Shopping in Society

The Rise of Online Shopping During The Pandemic: Benefits and Drawbacks

• Categories: E Commerce Online Shopping

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Published: Sep 25, 2018

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Table of contents

Introduction, online shopping panic, benefits of online shopping, drawbacks of online shopping.

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• Essay: Delineating the brisk emergence of online shopping

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." Bill Gates

The picture of shopping in the contemporary world has changed dynamically in such a short span of time. Gone are the days when people used to stand in long queues to get their bills done. Now, they just have to tap a couple of times on their smart devices and their order gets placed in no time. This is one of the crucial reasons why online shopping has become the smartest way to shop for everything.

Table of Contents

• Advantages of online shopping
• Disadvantages of online shopping
• Increase in global e-commerce
• Latest technological trends
• Global social trends
• Sample essay

Moreover, the dynamics of the contemporary world have been changing at a rampant pace and slowly but surely the concept of the world becoming a global village is gaining the major limelight. Besides, the latest technological advancements have made it so easy for people to shop everything online that people have made online shopping a new normal and this trend will only grow in the future. As a matter of fact, the market for e-commerce sales is expected to reach USD 7.3 trillion by 2025 (business et al., 2022).

To continue, when Covid hit, many businesses had to shut down and many businesses went online for fear of shutting down. Besides, people were also scared to get out of their homes and convenient delivery in hard times became one of the major reasons that the trend of online shopping got widely popular all across the globe. Right from ordering big electronics items such as T.V or microwaves, people even started purchasing groceries online.

However, every coin has two sides and the same is the scenario in the case of online shopping as well. With many exceptional advantages that came along with the trend of online shopping, some influencing disadvantages followed. So, shedding light on the same, this online shopping essay will effectively highlight the top merits and demerits of online shopping along with the latest trends in the contemporary world. Additionally, this blog will also present a sample essay for students.

Advantages of Online Shopping

1. stress and influence free shopping.

People often feel pressured and stressed when they have constant interference from the side of sales representatives on what to purchase and what not to. Besides, sometimes because of this constant indulgence, people impulsively end up purchasing things they do not need.

However, this scenario changes when people purchase through online mediums. Although online shopping has also introduced various forms of AI-based assistance, this comes purely voluntarily. People can shop stress freely with minimum interference from the seller’s side. Moreover, people can purchase whatever they like because there will be no salesperson to influence their purchase decision one way or another.

2. Better deals and offers

In online shopping, many products reach their consumers directly without the interference of middlemen. As there will be no middlemen commission, this fact often impacts the prices of products sold directly by manufacturers online. This is the reason, people get heavy discounts and good deals while purchasing through e-commerce sites.

In fact, as per statistics , 39% of the consumers claim that online coupons and discounts are one of the major reasons they shop online.

Moreover, when payments are made through online wallets and cards, fintech and e-banks also provide extra cashback to their customers which reduces the prices of products even more. This saves huge amounts of money for online shoppers and that becomes another merit that encourages people to shop online.

3. Easy comparisons

There are many websites that sell the same products to their target audience at different prices. As all the websites are just a click away, it becomes easier for consumers to compare all the prices and make a well-informed decision about purchasing at the right price.

Moreover, this factor also eliminates the opportunity for e-commerce players to create a monopoly. Additionally, there are many websites such as Google Shopping that provide the pricing information for every single product sold across all the e-commerce websites.

This has even made it easier for consumers by eliminating the hassle to switch between different websites to compare the prices. This way, consumers will be able to compare all the prices and offers that brands are providing their target audience.

4. The convenience of time and place

One of the favorite merits that consumers love about online shopping is that it allows consumers to shop at their convenience of time and place. Now people can purchase their favorite jeans by sitting in their comfortable pajamas at home. This prevents consumers from the hassle of actually traveling to the store and standing in long queues to get their favorite pair of jeans.

Besides, online sites are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. This provides consumers with the opportunity to shop at any time of the day they feel like shopping for new items. This ease of time and place for consumers became the biggest advantage of online shopping.

5. Easier purchase of personal products

There are many personal products that people might feel hesitant to purchase from regular brick-and-mortar stores. This is where the last benefit of online shopping comes into the picture. Online shopping allows people to purchase their personal items by sitting in their comfortable environments.

To continue, this makes it easier for people to purchase their personal items which saves them from the embarrassment they have to face while purchasing those things in brick and mortar stores.

Now that we have discovered the exclusive advantages of online shopping, the next section sheds light on the disadvantages of online shopping.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping

1. enhanced chances of online fraud.

In recent times, consumers are fascinated by the concept of online shopping because of its exceptional benefits but on the same hand, they are equally afraid of online fraud. This becomes one of the biggest disadvantages of online shopping. In fact, 74% of the victims faced online scams in 2021 ("Percentage of online shopping scam victims down to 74%: Report", 2022). This has made people refrain from and think twice before making a decision about online purchasing.

Besides, people are also afraid of the fact that for purchasing online, they have to fill up their confidential information which might result in a data breach, which is one of the most common ethical issues in the contemporary world.

2. Lack of touch-feel-try

One of the main issues faced by consumers in online shopping is that they fear that the quality of the product might not be as good as displayed. In brick and mortar stores, people can actually touch and try the quality of the products themselves which is missing in online shopping.

To continue, seeing the image and the description often make consumers doubtful about the quality of products, especially in the case of purchasing clothes online. This is another main reason people avoid purchasing online because there are chances that the quality in the description might not match the original quality of items.

3. Complicated returns

Many times, it has happened to people who purchased something online and do not like it. In such situations, if they wish to return it, they might need to face many complications. The return policies of every company are different. Some companies might demand extra shipping costs at the time of return or some simply won't take it back.

This again becomes a headache for the consumers. Based on this, they avoid purchasing online, and hence, this becomes another disadvantage for people refraining from purchasing online.

4. Threat to local retailers

As all the coming generations are becoming more and more tech-savvy, people are preferring online shopping rather than going to traditional stores. This has posed a new threat to the local retail stores that are not so tech savvy for selling online.

As the commission of intermediaries is eliminated in online shopping, it reduces the overall cost of products which attracts more customers to shop online. The case is not the same in the case of physical stores. That is the reason many businesses can not afford to sell at the same prices as online stores. This has even resulted in many businesses shutting down because of continuous losses due to the rise of people's interest in online shopping.

5. Unpredicted delays and deliveries

Although it is super easy to place online orders of various products and services, sellers often neglect the need for keeping track of their dispatched products which reflects the poor performance of their supply chain. This might end up resulting in unprecedented delays in deliveries.

This adds up to a poor customer experience of consumers which might end up frustrating consumers. In fact, as per the latest statistical data , 69% of consumers are most likely to avoid online shopping with retailers if the purchased items do not get delivered within two days of the date promised. Hence, these unprecedented delays in the deliveries might result in preventing consumers from purchasing online.

After comprehending the detailed information on the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping, now it's time to look at the situation of the e-commerce industry after the pandemic.

Increase in Global e-commerce After Covid

Approximately two years back the global Covid-19 pandemic hit all the top economies severely. Where every industry faced the negative consequences of the pandemic, the e-commerce industry experienced a major hike in online sales. With the fear of being a victim of Covid19, people stayed indoors and preferred shopping online and this is the major reason behind the hike in online shopping.

Irrespective of movement restrictions implied due to Covid-19, as per statistics , e-commerce experienced a dramatic rise which resulted in a rise in retail share from 16% to 19% in 2020. Additionally, the report also revealed that global e-commerce touched the market value of 26.7 trillion which was 4% higher than last year's retail sales.

As of 2021, the market value of e-commerce was marked at the market value of USD 13 Trillion. The numbers are very much expected to reach a market value of USD 55.6 Trillion by 2027 rising at a CAGR of 27.4% during 2022-2027 (E-Commerce Market: Global Industry Trends, 2022).

To elaborate, countries like the United Kingdom and the United States experienced 4.5 times and 3.3 times growth respectively in the year 2020 compared to the average percentage of growth in the last 5 years. Whereas, countries like India, Germany, and China saw a rise in retail online shopping by 2.1, 2.3, and 1.6 times retail sales growth respectively in the corresponding year. This data implies that the growth of the online shopping market or e-commerce market has experienced 2 to 5 times more rapid growth after the pandemic.

The above-given data is pretty evident that the situation of e-commerce saw drastic changes in a really short period of time. Hence, if the e-commerce sector experienced a rise, the changes in the trends of online shopping would also have changed at a rampant pace. That being said, the next section sheds light on the latest technological and social trends in online shopping.

The Latest Technological Trends in Online Shopping

With the advancements in technology, the competition in the contemporary business world is also rising to another extent. This cutthroat competition has encouraged almost every business to hop on the bandwagon and adopt all the latest technological trends that the consumers of the modern world like. Some of the exceptional technological trends in online shopping are mentioned below:

1. Mobile friendly shopping sites

The increasing mobile usage gave a boost to purchasing online shopping through mobile phones. In fact, 62% of mobile users use their mobile phones to use it for online shopping and 42% of the customers use mobile phones as their primary shopping device(Ladhari et al., 2019). So, making mobile-friendly shopping sites became a massive trend all across the globe.

Headless eCommerce solutions emerge as an invaluable tool to build websites that offer unparalleled customization, swift loading times, and seamless responsiveness on all devices.

2. Delivery by drone

To avoid the deliveries that included human touch, after the pandemic, the trend of delivery by drone became massively popular in the e-commerce sector. In fact, as per the latest statistics, the delivery through drone market is projected to reach USD 228 million in 2022 to USD 5,556 million by the end of 2030, at a CAGR of 49.0% from 2022 to 2030.

3. Voice search

The world was already fascinated by the concept of Alexa and Siri but this fascination got fueled when online shopping sites introduced the trend of voice search. Voice search statistics from Oberlo also validated that 71% of the consumers preferred voice search rather than typing. This infatuation of consumers with the AI-based voice search made it one of the most popular trends in online shopping.

4. Buy now pay later

BNPL stands for Buy Now Pay Later which is one of the major factors that encourage consumers to shop online. BNPL is the process that allows customers to pay the installments of purchased products at interest-free rates.

To continue, the whole trend of BNPL was possible when e-commerce collaborated with fintech companies and made the possession possible. As a matter of fact, every three out of 5 BNPL users prefer BNPL over credit cards ("30+ Buy Now, Pay Later Trends & Statistics for Banks in 2022", 2022). This convenient financing gave rise to both fintech companies and the e-commerce sector a great boost. This profitable growth made BNPL become a popular technological trend in online shopping.

Global Social Trends in Online Shopping

The trend of online shopping is enhancing all around the globe at an unprecedented pace and the market size of online shopping nearly hit 4 Trillion in 2020 ("Online Shopping Statistics You Need to Know in 2022", 2022). These numbers contributed to covering 91% of the world’s population and this trend is not going to slow down in the future as well.

However, the preferences of modern consumers are also getting modern and this is the reason almost every consumer is preferring online shopping over the traditional methods of purchasing things. Every country experiences a different consumer preference in terms of online shopping. Some of the latest social trends in online shopping as per the preferences of consumers in the major countries are mentioned below.

1. The United States of America

The USA is one of the leading countries that has the highest average e-commerce revenue per shopper which is estimated to be USD 1,804. This implies that the e-commerce sector generates USD1,804 on average from every online shopper in America.

Besides, Statista estimated that there would be more than 300 million online shoppers in the US alone by the end of 2025. Additionally, the most popular categories of purchasing items online by Americans are fashion and electronics & media.

2. Australia

The annual reports on the online shopping habits of Aussies revealed that the spending habits of Australians have significantly increased by 40% year on year and up 700% from 2019 after the pandemic. The data revealed that post-pandemic, more than half of the payments and shopping of Australians are done thoroughly online. That’s a whopping increase of 14% when compared to pre-pandemic (Busby, 2022).

Other than this, Australian online shoppers are also very huge fans of purchasing through social media. In fact, as per statistics , 47% of Australians purchase through social media at least once a month and almost a quarter of Aussies account for 25% of purchases through social media at least once a week. Besides, the most popular forms of social media shopping platforms for Australian consumers are Facebook with 70%, Instagram with a share of 42% a close competition of 12% between Snapchat and TikTok.

3. The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is another leading country that has an average of USD 1,629 which is the second highest average e-commerce revenue per shopper as stated by Oberlo. This implies that the trend of online shopping is massively accepted by people living in the United Kingdom. Currently, more than 50% of UK consumers are shopping online and this online spend is predicted to increase by 29.6% between the year 2019 to 2024.

Besides, the trend of social e-commerce is also improving impressively in the country. As a matter of fact, statistics substantiate that more than 50% of the population in the United Kingdom depends on social commerce for buying fashion products.

As the usage of the internet and smartphones is increasing in India, the country experienced a rise in online shoppers as well. In fact, statistics by LiveMint state that online shoppers have doubled in recent years and touched 210 million - 230 million in the year 2021.

This implies that Indian consumers recently acknowledged the benefits of online shopping and the growth of online shopping was marked at USD 50 Billion as of 2021. Now, the e-commerce industry is ready to touch the market value of USD 300 billion by 2030 which will be a sixfold growth compared to the previous statistics ("Online retail spending in India to hit $300 bn by 2030: report", 2022).

5. Malaysia

The growth of online users in Malaysia is all set to touch the number of 18.3 million users by 2025. This has enhanced opportunities for the e-commerce industry as well. In fact, as per Global Data, the e-commerce market is expected to skyrocket at a CAGR of 14.3% and reach a market value of MYR 51.6bn (USD12.6bn) by 2024.

This growth is only possible because the millennials of the country are becoming more and more tech-savvy. This has made it possible for Malaysia to become one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. Besides, the closure of physical stores in Malaysia encouraged people to shop even the minute things online and with this credit cards became the favorite payment method of the Malaysians ("COVID-19 accelerates e-commerce growth in Malaysia, says GlobalData - GlobalData", 2022).

Online shopping essay: Sample essay

With the pace at which the trend of online shopping is increasing, this trend will only get bigger in the future as well. Just like every other country, the e-commerce market of Malaysia is also experiencing a huge wave of growth. Moreover, many of the students often get tangled in writing an online shopping essay. Therefore, the subsequent section provides a sample essay on the rising influence of online shopping in Malaysia. This sample essay gives you a perfect template of how you can write a high-scoring essay. Besides, for essays on other topics, you can go through our sample essays section.

Introduction

By 2025, the global e-commerce revenue is projected to reach USD 5.87 trillion and this is a clear narrative validating the paradigm shift in ways of shopping. Also, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a major catalyst of growth for e-commerce. The inception of online shopping dates back to the late 1970s and since then, e-commerce has spread to all parts of the world in a scintillating way. Like most countries, e-commerce is booming in Malaysia and opening new horizons of opportunities for businesses and sellers in Malaysia while bringing great convenience to shoppers. The increasing internet and mobile penetration has escalated the growth of the Malaysian e-commerce sector. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the whole of Southeast Asia. This essay will firstly present in-depth information about the rising influence of online shopping in Malaysia. Secondly, it discusses how the changing preferences of consumers are boosting the e-commerce market of the country.

To begin with, the preferences of the contemporary consumers of Malaysia have changed significantly. People are adopting digital shopping as the new normal and this digital consumption will only increase in the future. As per Marketing Strategies, nearly half of the Malaysians have cited online shopping as their primary channel of shopping. This trend of online shopping has not only provided benefits to its people but has also given a huge boost to the e-commerce sector of the country. Besides, currently, 80% of Malaysians representing 27.4 million people are active internet users and the mobile penetration is as high as 84.2% ("Malaysia - eCommerce", 2022). This gave a boost to the mobile-commerce sector and the trend of online shopping altogether. In fact, the mobile-commerce market size was valued at USD 1.9 Billion which contributed to 47% of the total e-commerce market size ("E-commerce payments trends: Malaysia", 2022).

In fact, as of 2021, Malaysia stood the 35th country in terms of the largest e-commerce market with a revenue of USD 6.3 billion. Furthermore, this growth is predicted that the country will experience a 15% yearly growth rate between the years 2021 to 2025 ("eCommerce Market Malaysia - Data, Trends, Top Stores", 2022). This growth was accelerated after the pandemic took a hit at a global level in 2020. As the result of movement restrictions, online shopping and e-commerce became the golden break for people to get the necessaries delivered to their doorstep.

The tech-savvy generation became the major dominant of the e-commerce sector in Malaysia. As a matter of fact, younger generations are not only very well familiar with e-commerce but they can also process website-based information 5 times faster than the older generation (Muda, Mohd & Hassan, 2016). The tech-savvy generation became the major dominant of the e-commerce sector in Malaysia. As a matter of fact, younger generations are not only very well familiar with e-commerce but they can also process website-based information 5 times faster than the older generation (Muda, Mohd & Hassan, 2016).

To continue, the categories of the product that impressed the e-commerce clientele base of Malaysia were electronics and media, followed by furniture and appliances accounting for USD 4.77 million and USD 3.56 million in sales respectively. However, by the end of 2022, the categories are expected to exchange their current places and hit the target value of USD 1.02 billion and USD 6.29 million respectively. Some of the most popular e-commerce sites are Lazada.com.my, Fashionvalet, Alibaba.com, 11th Street.my, and many more.

Along with the people, the government of the country also has a major role in encouraging the growth of the e-commerce sector in Malaysia. Recently the Malaysian government launched DFTZ (Digital Free Trade Zone) to escalate the already well-growing e-commerce sector of the country. The initiative was focused on major 2 major goals:

• To develop a KLIA acropolis in a logistic center to make Malaysia into a regional e-commerce fulfillment hub.
• To give a boost to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the specific target for export is to reach USD 38 Billion by 2025 ("The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ): Putting Malaysia’s SMEs onto the Digital Silk Road | HKTDC Belt and Road Portal", 2022).

This escalated growth of the country benefited the whole world as well. In 2020, when the whole world was battling the pandemic, the Malaysian e-commerce market contributed to a worldwide growth rate of 26%. In fact, now consumers are also preferring global brands over local manufacturers and this is majorly possible due to e-commerce and globalization. As a matter of fact, every 9 in 10 consumers of Malaysia prefer buying global brands when it comes to purchasing baby products. This implies that the rising influence of e-commerce has made it feasible for consumers of Malaysia to purchase from the brands even if they don't have the brick-and-mortar stores of the desired brands in their own city.

To encapsulate, from all the above-given information, it is pretty evident that the trend of online shopping, slowly but surely, is becoming the new normal in the contemporary business world. This has only been possible because people were effectively exposed to the internet and e-commerce market. Besides, irrespective of the shut down of physical stores, the Malaysian e-commerce market is a great example reflecting that companies can still escalate their businesses with the help of online shopping and the e-commerce sectors.

To give a gist of the overall online shopping scenario, it can be said that the trend of online shopping is rising at a rampant pace. Although there are some notable disadvantages of online shopping, if wisely worked on, businesses can effectively eliminate them and enjoy the exceptional benefits of online shopping. Besides, emerging technologies are changing the e-commerce industry at an unprecedented pace in alignment with the ever-evolving consumer trends. To implement these trends effectively, organizations will need to rely on efficient change management models .

Business, S., generator, B., maker, L., name, D., photography, S., & sell, P. et al. (2022). Global Ecommerce Sales (2020–2025). Shopify. Retrieved 3 August 2022, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/global-ecommerce-sales.

Percentage of online shopping scam victims down to 74%: Report. The Economic Times. (2022). Retrieved 3 August 2022, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/percentage-of-online-shopping-scam-victims-down-to-74-report/articleshow/92051409.cms?from=mdr.

E-Commerce Market: Global Industry Trends, O. (2022). e-commerce Market Size, Share, Trends, Analysis Report 2022-2027. Retrieved 3 August 2022, from https://www.imarcgroup.com/e-commerce-market#:~:text=Market%20Overview%3A,27.4%25%20during%202022%2D2027.

Ladhari, R., Gonthier, J., & Lajante, M. (2019). Generation Y and online fashion shopping: Orientations and profiles. Journal Of Retailing And Consumer Services, 48, 113-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.02.003

30+ Buy Now, Pay Later Trends & Statistics for Banks in 2022. The Financial Brand. (2022). Retrieved 4 August 2022, from https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/payments-trends/buy-now-pay-later/more-than-30-buy-now-pay-later-trends-statistics-for-banks-in-2022-143180/.

Online Shopping Statistics You Need to Know in 2022. (2022). Retrieved 4 August 2022, from https://optinmonster.com/online-shopping-statistics/#:~:text=General%20Online%20Shopping%20Statistics&text=That%27s%2091%25%20of%20the%20country%27s,their%20first%20item%20on%20Amazon

Busby, C. (2022). Social shopping is shaping up to be the biggest eCommerce trend of the year. Retrieved 4 August 2022, from https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/social-shopping-is-shaping-up-to-be-the-biggest-ecommerce-trend-of-the-year/#:~:text=The%20annual%20study%20into%20the,in%2Dthree%20consumers%20under%2040.

Online retail spending in India to hit $300 bn by 2030: report. mint. (2022). Retrieved 4 August 2022, from https://www.livemint.com/industry/retail/online-retail-spending-in-india-to-hit-300-bn-by-2030-report-11657127930842.html.

COVID-19 accelerates e-commerce growth in Malaysia, says GlobalData - GlobalData. (2022). Retrieved 4 August 2022, from https://www.globaldata.com/covid-19-accelerates-e-commerce-growth-malaysia-says-globaldata/

Thinkwithgoogle.com. (2022). Retrieved 6 August 2022, from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/marketing-strategies/search/digital-consumer-trends-malaysia-2021/.

The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ): Putting Malaysia’s SMEs onto the Digital Silk Road | HKTDC Belt and Road Portal. Beltandroad.hktdc.com. (2022). Retrieved 6 August 2022, from https://beltandroad.hktdc.com/index.php/en/insights/digital-free-trade-zone-dftz-putting-malaysias-smes-digital-silk-road.

Malaysia - eCommerce. (2022). Retrieved 13 August 2022, from https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/malaysia-ecommerce

eCommerce Market Malaysia - Data, Trends, Top Stores. (2022). Retrieved 13 August 2022, from https://ecommercedb.com/en/markets/my/all

E-commerce payments trends: Malaysia. (2022). Retrieved 13 August 2022, from https://www.jpmorgan.com/europe/merchant-services/insights/reports/malaysia

Muda, M., Mohd, R., & Hassan, S. (2016). Online Purchase Behavior of Generation Y in Malaysia. Procedia Economics And Finance, 37, 292-298. doi: 10.1016/s2212-5671(16)30127-7

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The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour forever - and online shopping looks set to stay

More and more consumers are ordering goods online. Image:  REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

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Stay up to date:, internet of things.

• Consumer shift to digital channels will remain after the pandemic -PwC report.
• Customer loyalty has plummeted, with buyers switching brands at unprecedented rates.
• The use of smartphones for online shopping has more than doubled since 2018.

Billions of people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are driving a “historic and dramatic shift in consumer behaviour” – according to the latest research from PwC.

The consulting and accounting firm's June 2021 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey reports a strong shift to online shopping as people were first confined by lockdowns, and then many continued to work from home. Other trends in this shift towards digital consumption include online shoppers being keen to find the best price, choosing more healthy options and being more eco-friendly by shopping locally where possible.

Another significant finding from the report is that consumers do not think they’ll go back to their old ways of shopping once the pandemic is over.

A consumer pivot to digital and devices

More than 8,600 people across 22 territories took part in PwC’s survey. They were asked how often, in the past 12 months, they had bought clothes, books and electronics using a range of shopping channels.

Have you read?

Covid-19 pandemic accelerated shift to e-commerce by 5 years, new report says, these charts show how covid-19 has changed consumer spending around the world.

The chart below illustrates their answers, and shows a shift to digital and a growing trend for shopping using connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart voice assistants such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings.

More than 50% of the global consumers responding to the June 2021 survey said they had used digital devices more frequently than they had six months earlier, when they had taken part in a prior PwC survey. The report also finds the use of smartphones for shopping has more than doubled since 2018.

COVID-19 has exposed digital inequities globally and exacerbated the digital divide. Most of the world lives in areas covered by a mobile broadband network, yet more than one-third (2.9 billion people) are still offline. Cost, not coverage, is the barrier to connectivity.

At The Davos Agenda 2021 , the World Economic Forum launched the EDISON Alliance , the first cross-sector alliance to accelerate digital inclusion and connect critical sectors of the economy.

Through the 1 Billion Lives Challenge , the EDISON Alliance aims to improve 1 billion lives globally through affordable and accessible digital solutions across healthcare, financial services and education by 2025.

Read more about the EDISON Alliance’s work in our Impact Story.

Medicines and groceries on demand

A survey of US consumers by McKinsey & Company gives a more detailed breakdown of the shift to digital shopping channels and the kinds of purchases consumers are making.

The survey found a 15-30% overall growth in consumers who made purchases online across a broad range of product categories. Many of the categories see a double-digit percentage growth in online shopping intent, led by over-the-counter medicines, groceries, household supplies and personal care products.

And McKinsey noted that “consumer intent to shop online [post-pandemic] continues to increase, especially in essentials and home-entertainment categories”.

A decline in brand loyalty

With consumers shopping from their sofas and home offices, another trend flagged up by McKinsey is a marked decline in brand loyalty.

In total, 75% of US consumers have tried a new shopping behaviour and over a third of them (36%) have tried a new product brand. In part, this trend has been driven by popular items being out of stock as supply chains became strained at the height of the pandemic. However, 73% of consumers who had tried a different brand said they would continue to seek out new brands in the future.

What is the World Economic Forum doing to manage emerging risks from COVID-19?

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders – communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forum’s annual Global Risks Report.

Companies are invited to join the Forum’s work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here , and our impact story with further information.

Healthy, hygienic and sustainable

The trend towards online shopping has also seen consumers focus on staying healthy during long periods in lockdown. McKinsey notes a desire to reduce touchpoints to ensure greater hygiene with the shopping experience.

One enterprise in the US has tapped into these trends to provide a service for shopping online at a range of farm shops local to the buyer. To qualify for the FarmMatch scheme, farmers must grow their food using sustainable methods.

As the world navigates its way out of the pandemic, the way we all act as consumers has been changed fundamentally by COVID-19. The research points to this change becoming permanent, leaving retailers and manufacturers with the challenge of attracting and retaining consumers in an 'omnichannel' world, where customer loyalty is hard-won.

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License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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How Shopping Online Makes Our Life Easier

• Last Updated: October 8, 2021

Shopping online has quickly become the preferred method of shopping for consumers worldwide and it’s hard to argue against the reasons. With so much going on, people love the convenience and they love choice. This makes it become such an important part of the shopping process, and it compounds the fact that retail is slowly becoming outdated.

Shopping in stores used to be the number one way to buy things. You’d go down to the store or go down to the mall to buy things in person, but as technology changes, so do our habits, as exhibited by the ability to simply whip out your credit card to make a purchase. A lot of people still like to go to stores, but it’s dwindling as time goes on.

Whether you agree that online shopping is better, it’s impossible to deny that it’s easier. Here are some of the ways that shopping online has objectively made our lives easier in this regard.

Limited Our Travel Expenses

You don’t need to gas up the car or get on the subway or bus to go shopping anymore, you can just as easily do it from home. Knowing that you aren’t going to be paying for bus fare, subway tokens, or even worse, gas mileage, you can be assured that your shopping is done in a much more economical way. Travel expenses too and from the mall or store don’t seem all that big, it’s only a couple of minutes, right? Well, over time this starts to add up, especially if you’re someone that is an avid shopper. Then couple that with all your other traveling expenses and you’re suddenly spending more than you thought.

Gives Us An Advantage in Finding Deals

Shopping online for deals is as skillful as finding the right product. You need to search high and low to find sales in person because many stores don’t release flyers or you only find out about the deal until you’re actually in the store. Now that people shop online, coupons and announcements of sales are more readily available and easy to see. Going even further, if you check out DontPayFull , you can see how coupons are becoming a more integral part of the online shopping experience. Entire sites and services are set up to help you find coupons or apply savings when you checkout, something that is much harder in person.

More Ways to Pay

When you shop in person, you admittedly have some options to pay. If you lost your card, pay cash, if you have no cash, pay by hard. Some people decline to bring cards or cash and use their phone apps to pay, but the fact is that those are the options, and that’s only three. Buying products online allows for a much greater expansion of payment options. You can use credit, debit, prepaid, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and some ecommerce stores even allow people to pay by way of cryptocurrencies which is unheard of. This flexibility to pay how you like online is making it much easier to get products in a way that works best for you.

Easier Time Searching for Things We Want

Everything online is easier to find information. The worldwide web was intended as a research tool, and it still is, whether you consciously think of it or not. You might be looking up the dates for a music festival and when to buy tickets, or answering a question that a friend asks, or searching for someone’s handle on social media, but whatever it is, the internet provides. Online shopping works in the same way by providing more opportunities to find products you want, you need, and ones you have never heard of. It takes less time to explore 100 stores online than it would ever take to go into each shop in a mall.

Online Stores Never Close

The convenience factor is unheard of when comparing online shopping to traditional retail shopping. The fact that you can purchase a furniture set from an online retailer at 1 am is nothing you could do in-store. Retail spaces have to close, by law, because employees need to go home at some point but the internet doesn’t just close for the night and you have to wait to purchase in the morning. The online stores never close, barring some outage or maintenance.

Shopping Can Be Done in Comfort on Your Couch

If you’re someone that hates going into stores, you’re not alone at all. Many people hate going into stores for a number of reasons that stretch from social anxiety to hating the interaction with cashiers, to disliking lines and crowds, to simply not liking the store atmosphere. When you shop online you can do it on your couch, in your underwear, in your pajamas, while you’re eating breakfast, it doesn’t matter because you are able to do it in the most comfortable environment for you imaginable which is your home. This is a major reason why people love online shopping so much and why it dominates traditional retail.

Mobile Shopping Provides Flexible Options

If all of the payment options or the convenience of shopping in your underwear aren’t enough, you can take your shopping on the go wherever you are. Just like window shopping at a department store, people love to endlessly scroll through the catalog of goods from an online retailer to pass the time, which is possible considering that you can shop on your phone or your tablet. At work, school, waiting for a plane, on the bus, walking down the street, at a friend’s house, no matter where you are, you can conceivably shop online.

Shopping online is rapidly approaching the point where it becomes the overwhelmingly favorite form of commerce. Plenty of people love to still go into stores, and there are valid reasons for it, but it would be impossible to argue that it is easier than online shopping.

About Author / JR Dominguez

JR Dominguez is the technology, finance and music editor for MiLLENNiAL. When he's not writing, you can find him day-trading stocks, playing video games, or composing commercial scores.

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How Online Shopping Can Make Your Life Easier

Online shopping has become quite relevant especially in recent days when most of us prefer to stay at home as we shop. Besides being cost-efficient (say bye-bye to spending fuel when driving around), there are a number of other advantages that online shopping has to offer. It won’t be an understatement to say that this mode has revolutionized the way we shop and it has definitely made our lives a bit easier. How? Let’s have a look!

More Affordable

As I just mentioned above, there are many features of online shopping that make it more affordable than the conventional method. For example, you can get in touch directly with the seller. This gives you better chances of availing discounted deals and offers. Moreover, you won’t have to spend on recharging fuel or booking an uber when you have to move around.

Range of Products Is Available

This benefit is one of my personal favorites. When shopping around the mall, it often gets tiring moving from one outlet to another looking for a single piece of good clothing. When you are done scrutinizing all the 10 places you wanted to check out, you will realize the first one had the best options. Oh, the ordeal of then walking back ten shops may be to find out that the article has already been sold out!

Online shopping sets you free from all this struggle by letting you access all the shops with a single click. You can open their official websites in separate tabs and compare the products that you like. Then you simply need to add to the card, the shirt that you have to buy and you are done!

Multiple Modes of Payment

Another advantage of shopping online is that you can choose how you wish to pay for the products. Most buyers prefer cash on delivery but those with credit cards or debit cards can easily pay off the charges right at the online checkout. You can also choose to pay with your checking account or bank account since many sellers have even discounted prices for buyers who shopping using this method.

Makes Room For Discreet Shopping

I don’t know about you but there are many items that I would have selected better if given the chance to do so in privacy. Luckily, online shopping is quite discreet and you safely check out things for private use without worrying about the shopkeeper or the nearby crowd. This would let you shop without embarrassment and hopefully choose the right product for yourself.

It Gives You Chance To Win Something Big

Since online shopping has become popular, brands have also started using it as a mode to collect buyer’s opinions and reviews. After all, asking them to leave a comment or fill out an online survey is much easier than handing out questionnaires at the shop. Let’s face it! Most of us won’t even have time to stand there and complete the paper survey.

But now with online shopping and surveys, many leading brands collect customer surveys and offer a prize in return for their encouragement and a way to thank them for their participation. This not only pumps up buyers to come back for more but also helps the company to improve their services by providing insight into what their store is lacking.

Quick Price Comparison

Lastly, shopping online is a great way to make sure you don’t end up paying more for stuff that could be purchased at a lower price. When we are shopping on foot, it is difficult to check out a lot of places and compare the prices of products that you have to buy. However, with online shopping, this can be done in a blink of an eye!

So, what did you like the most about your first online shopping experience?

Interesting related article: “ What is e-Commerce? “

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Traditional vs. Online Shopping Essay

Introduction.

Shopping constitutes a compulsory function for humans in all walks of life. For a majority of people, shopping is an activity that has transcended from being merely a necessity to one that has become a favorite pastime that brings happiness, recreation, and ‘quality time with friends and members of the family. There are basically 3 kinds of shopping where we buy things we require, things we convince ourselves we require, and things we look at (window shopping) just for pleasure. In the modern world of today, it is possible to indulge in all 3 kinds of shopping by utilizing 2 methods: Traditional shopping and ‘Online’ shopping.

Traditional shopping involves shoppers physically entering a brick-and-mortar store or shopping mall to select items of their choice, pay for them in cash or by credit card, and either take delivery personally or have them delivered to their homes by the retailer. ‘Online shopping is a relatively new method of shopping that involves the shopper sitting in front of a Personal Computer at any location (it could be at home, in the office, in friends’ apartments or in internet cafes), browsing through different categories of products at selected websites either alone or with the assistance of family members and/or friends, choosing items, paying for the purchases by credit card or by electronically transferring money from a bank account (from personal experience, I have noticed there is usually no other payment option).

The selected goods are delivered within a period ranging from a day to a week or even longer. In almost all cases, due to the fact that while selecting an item its availability is also clearly mentioned, the entire selection is delivered; if for some unforeseen reason some items are not delivered, then the value of those items is refunded to the customer by the ‘Online’ seller.

Traditional and ‘Online’ shopping are similar in two ways. Firstly, both forms of shopping follow the general concept of commerce; in both cases, there is a buyer and a seller, both of whom share a specific understanding of how the commercial transaction is expected to unfold, run its course and reach its satisfactory conclusion. Secondly, the prominent method of payment in both forms of shopping is credit card payment; although traditional shoppers can opt for check or cash payment, and although ‘Online’ shoppers can opt for electronic transfer of funds from their bank accounts, credit card purchases are preferred in both cases.

Traditional and ‘Online’ shopping is different in several ways. In one group of differences, Traditional shopping holds ‘absolute’ superiority: Firstly, shoppers experience the physical thrill of shopping. Shopping is commonly seen as a way of unwinding after a hard day’s work, or (especially in the case of housewives), escaping from the monotonous routine of everyday life (cooking, cleaning, and looking after the kids). Then there is festival shopping, which usually involves the entire family shopping for decorations and gifts for such occasions as Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving (personally, I have several fond memories of this).

Secondly, Traditional shoppers are brought face-to-face with an item that they can touch, feel and examine at close proximity – this goes a long way towards making up their mind to buy it. Thirdly, Traditional shoppers are able to talk with the salespersons or merchants of the store or mall upfront, and freely seek clarification or additional information about products that interest them. Fourthly, Traditional shoppers are able to bargain and obtain a better price for their purchases.

Although people in the United States do not usually engage in energetic bargaining, there are people of several other international cultures (such as Italians, Greeks, and Indians), to whom bargaining forms the essence of the shopping experience, and without which they would end up with the uncomfortable feeling of being cheated. Fifthly, Traditional shoppers are able to judge the merchant’s reputation (and by association, the products being sold in that store) by interacting with other customers. Sixthly, Traditional shoppers are able to take home their purchases immediately, or at the most have them delivered to their homes on the same or the next day.

They, therefore, save time as do not have to wait for days or weeks to receive their purchases as is the usual case in ‘Online’ shopping (there is also the distinct possibility of some items not being ultimately delivered due to some reason such as shortages caused due to improper inventory management). Lastly, almost everyone is well aware that today’s world is blemished by an increasing number of cybercrimes.

These have grown at an alarming rate with increasingly ingenious methods being adopted by computer-savvy criminals. A very large number of innocent people have been, and are being fleeced of their hard-earned money over the Internet – their only crime being that they had to give their personal and bank details while shopping online. On the other hand, Traditional shoppers do not need to give their names, address, and (most importantly) bank account information which are all ‘must-do’s in the case of ‘Online’ shopping.

In the second group of differences, ‘Online’ shopping holds the ‘absolute’ superiority. The first difference involves selection. ‘Online shoppers can browse through a wide selection of products from different retailers and place a single order involving products from different retailers, rather than otherwise embark on the tedious exercise of visiting several stores or malls physically to pick up a few items here and a few items there.

Secondly, ‘Online’ shoppers are benefited by a significant reduction in prices as ‘Online’ sellers have vastly reduced overheads to contend with (especially store/mall rent/maintenance and salaries/perks for salespersons) and are able to comfortably pass on a sizeable part of this benefit to customers in the form of reduced prices for the products sold. Lastly, ‘Online’ shoppers have the luxury of doing their shopping at leisure from the comfort of their home, without having to drive to far-away shopping destinations and being traumatized by rash drivers and difficult car parking situations.

In the third group of differences, both types of shopping score nearly equal points. The first difference involves the time element. In Traditional shopping, customers save time as don’t have to wait for days or weeks to receive their purchases. ‘Online’ shoppers choose the time and place to shop, thus saving valuable time and problems associated with traveling to and from the store.

Secondly, while admitting that the ‘sight and touch’ factor is important, ‘Online’ shoppers find it is irrelevant in the case of items like computers, consumer electronic items, cosmetics, perfumes, and jewelry, where ‘Online’ specifications are clear-cut, very detailed and imminently satisfactory. Lastly, while Traditional shoppers can get clarification and further information about a product from the salesperson or merchant, ‘Online’ shoppers have access to clarifying the information in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and ‘Online’ customer service for the products they intend to purchase.

From a fair and impartial judgment of both cases, it is my contention that Traditional shopping is definitely better than ‘Online’ shopping simply because the comparative number and weight of its advantages vis-à-vis ‘Online shopping is much more significant as compared to ‘Online’ shopping own unique advantages. As a result, while agreeing that ‘Online’ shopping continues to grow in the United States, it will not overtake Traditional shopping mainly because of the two greatest ‘arrows in the quiver’ of the latter – Firstly, it involves the formidably unique ‘sight and touches’ advantage that Traditional shoppers enjoy.

And secondly, it gives people an opportunity to mingle with others, interact with acquaintances, friends, and relatives and spend ‘quality time with them – in our increasingly busy and modern world of today comprising people increasingly cocooned in their own lives and problems, this pleasurable human interaction afforded by Traditional shopping is literally priceless.

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IvyPanda. (2021, October 8). Traditional vs. Online Shopping. https://ivypanda.com/essays/traditional-vs-online-shopping/

"Traditional vs. Online Shopping." IvyPanda , 8 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/traditional-vs-online-shopping/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Traditional vs. Online Shopping'. 8 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Traditional vs. Online Shopping." October 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/traditional-vs-online-shopping/.

1. IvyPanda . "Traditional vs. Online Shopping." October 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/traditional-vs-online-shopping/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Traditional vs. Online Shopping." October 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/traditional-vs-online-shopping/.

IELTS Writing Task 2: Essay on online shopping/virtual shopping/e-shopping; with planning and model answer

This IELTS Writing Task 2 post is about ‘online shopping and its merits and demerits’ . Here, I’ve discussed the advantages and disadvantages of virtual/online/e-shopping and presented a model answer on this Task 2 question. This model answer can guide you to write an answer to any online shopping related essay.

Let’s have a look at the question we are going to discuss today.

The language of this task 2 question can be different in different exams.

Here’s another example of the same question:

An increasing number of people are buying what they need online.

What are the advantages and disadvantages for both individuals and companies to shopping online?

Nowadays, e-shopping or shopping online has an increasing trend among shoppers. It has both positive and negative sides. First, we need to make a plan for writing on this topic.

Here’s a short plan that may help you.

Planning and organisation:

Here is how I’ve planned the essay with a 4-paragraph structure:

• Introduction: topic + thesis (2 sentences can be sufficient): Introduce the topic – ‘online shopping getting more popular’. Then write a thesis on how you are going to show that there are some positives and negatives of the issue.
• Body paragraph on the reasons behind virtual shopping being so popular: You can write about straightforward ideas e.g. people get more convenience, and availability or choice of products. Give some real-life examples here.
• Body paragraph on the negative sides of online shopping: Again, present some very general ideas e.g. customers get cheated and people become more isolated. Give some real-life examples here too
• Conclusion: restate your ideas Online shopping has both advantages and disadvantages. You can give your personal opinion on how the disadvantages can be reduced.

Now let’s take a look at the model answer.

Model answer: expected band score – 7.5 to 8.0

In recent years, the rate of in-store shopping has plunged due to vast opportunities for buying different products including daily necessaries from hundreds of online stores. This essay will try to demonstrate chances such as convenience and product availability as the reasons behind the popularity of e-shopping whereas it will focus on swindling and isolation as the pitfalls of this issue.

Initially, the prime reason behind the popularity of e-shopping is convenience which can be easily understood from the thousands of virtual shops all over the world. To illustrate, people nowadays are busier than ever because of the fast pace of the world and they want to save as much time as they can for relaxation. Virtual shopping gives this magnificent prospect of time-saving and so people enjoy taking it. Besides, superstores sometimes run out of products in the precise moment when people need them which online shops rarely have this crisis. For instance, I needed a flat-screen monitor a few months ago but my local store had it out of stock. When I peeped into some online stores I found it easily on eBay.

Meanwhile, though shopping on the internet looks very promising, it is not without its setbacks. Many people, mostly the newcomers, regularly complain of getting tricked on virtual shopping and the rate of complaints is increasing at a faster rate. To explain, one of my friends has recently got swindled when he paid in advance for a smartwatch. Additionally, people often become isolated in their rooms through e-shopping which can affect their feelings and behaviour. As an example, a friend of mine started shopping online a couple of years ago even though the nearest superstore was only 500 metres away. His neighbours, nowadays, describe him as an ill-mannered and antisocial person which, needless to say, is the result of being home and becoming isolated from the outer world. 

In brief, virtual shoppers obtain greater benefits if compared to in-store shoppers. Converting such shopping to a stress-free experience, it is turning out to be progressively more convenient. However, as clients may sometimes get deceived and become cut off from the social world, concerned authorities should look into the matter cautiously. (360 words)

Here are some other Task 2 questions which can be answered taking help from the given essay example on online shopping:

• Some people support online shopping because it is convenient, while others argue that shopping on the internet poses threats. Discuss both views and give your opinions.
• Nowadays on-line shopping has become more popular than in-store shopping. Is it a positive or a negative development?
• Nowadays many people go shopping in their free time. Shopping has replaced many other activities that people used to choose as their hobby. What are the reasons for this? Is this a positive or negative development?

If you have written any answer to this question, you can post it in the comment box and we can discuss about it in details. 

Click here for a model answer to Cambridge 14 Test 4 Writing Task 2

Click here for a model answer to agree-disagree topic: elderly or young people as company leaders

Click here for a model answer to advantage-disadvantage topic: online shopping

Click here for a model answer to opinion essay: urbanization in countryside/ problem of housing

Click here for a model answer to opinion essay: qualities of a good supervisor/boss

Click here for a model answer to descriptive essay: advantages/facilities/benefits of vocational education 

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Technology to defeat Ebola

Mathematics for a sustainable world, openmind books, scientific anniversaries, what is the purpose of music, featured author, latest book, how the internet has changed everyday life, what happened.

The Internet has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. Ordering a pizza, buying a television, sharing a moment with a friend, sending a picture over instant messaging. Before the Internet, if you wanted to keep up with the news, you had to walk down to the newsstand when it opened in the morning and buy a local edition reporting what had happened the previous day. But today a click or two is enough to read your local paper and any news source from anywhere in the world, updated up to the minute.

The Internet itself has been transformed. In its early days—which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent—it was a static network designed to shuttle a small freight of bytes or a short message between two terminals; it was a repository of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Today, however, immense quantities of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic leviathan, and the content is very much our own, for now we are all commentators, publishers, and creators.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet widened in scope to encompass the IT capabilities of universities and research centers, and, later on, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises from around the world. The Internet underwent immense growth; it was no longer a state-controlled project, but the largest computer network in the world, comprising over 50,000 sub-networks, 4 million systems, and 70 million users.

The emergence of  web 2.0  in the first decade of the twenty-first century was itself a revolution in the short history of the Internet, fostering the rise of social media and other interactive, crowd-based communication tools.

The Internet was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality. Today, we can send data from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds, make online presentations, live in parallel “game worlds,” and use pictures, video, sound, and text to share our real lives, our genuine identity. Personal stories go public; local issues become global.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The Internet frees us from geographic fetters and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not tied down to any specific place. Ours is a networked, globalized society connected by new technologies. The Internet is the tool we use to interact with one another, and accordingly poses new challenges to privacy and security.

Information technologies have wrought fundamental change throughout society, driving it forward from the industrial age to the networked era. In our world, global information networks are vital infrastructure—but in what ways has this changed human relations? The Internet has changed business, education, government, healthcare, and even the ways in which we interact with our loved ones—it has become one of the key drivers of social evolution.

The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming our communication practices and possibilities—particularly among younger people. The Internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a dizzyingly wide range of communicative possibilities. The impact of social media applications has triggered discussion of the “new communication democracy.”

The development of the Internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. The mobile Internet is a fresh revolution. Comprehensive Internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: we are not tied to any single specific device, and everything is in the cloud.

People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time.

Anyone failing to keep abreast of this radical change is losing out on an opportunity.

Communication Opportunities Created by the Internet

The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we interact with others. This insight struck me when I started out in the world of social media. I created my first social network in 2005, when I was finishing college in the United States—it had a political theme. I could already see that social media were on the verge of changing our way of communicating, helping us to share information by opening up a new channel that cuts across conventional ones.

That first attempt did not work out, but I learned from the experience.I get the feeling that in many countries failure is punished too harshly—but the fact is, the only surefire way of avoiding failure is to do nothing at all. I firmly believe that mistakes help you improve; getting it wrong teaches you how to get it right. Creativity, hard work, and a positive attitude will let you achieve any goal.

In 2006, after I moved to Spain, I created Tuenti. Tuenti (which, contrary to widespread belief, has nothing to do with the number 20; it is short for “tu entidad,” the Spanish for “your entity”) is a social communication platform for genuine friends. From the outset, the idea was to keep it simple, relevant, and private. That’s the key to its success.

I think the real value of social media is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matter to you. Social media let you share experiences and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly, without frontiers. Camaraderie, friendship, and solidarity—social phenomena that have been around for as long as humanity itself—have been freed from the conventional restrictions of space and time and can now thrive in a rich variety of ways.

Out of all the plethora of communication opportunities that the Internet has opened up, I would highlight the emergence of social media and the way they have intricately melded into our daily lives. Social media have changed our personal space, altering the way we interact with our loved ones, our friends, and our sexual partners; they have forced us to rethink even basic daily processes like studying and shopping; they have affected the economy by nurturing the business startup culture and electronic commerce; they have even given us new ways to form broad-based political movements.

The Internet and Education

The Internet has clearly impacted all levels of education by providing unbounded possibilities for learning. I believe the future of education is a networked future. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning that captivate and stimulate students’ imagination at any time, anywhere, using any device. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network, to build the global learning society.

The network of networks is an inexhaustible source of information. What’s more, the Internet has enabled users to move away from their former passive role as mere recipients of messages conveyed by conventional media to an active role, choosing what information to receive, how, and when. The information recipient even decides whether or not they want to stay informed.

We have moved on from scattergun mass communication to a pattern where the user proactively selects the information they need.

Students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints. Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, encyclopedias, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field. The web is a formidable resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge.

I also believe the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages—this continues to be a critical issue in many countries, including Spain, and, in a globalized world, calls for special efforts to improve.

The Internet, in addition to its communicative purposes, has become a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education; it is not just an information source, or a locus where results can be published, it is also a channel for cooperating with other people and groups who are working on related research topics.

The Internet and Privacy and Security

Another key issue surrounding Internet use is privacy. Internet users are becoming more sensitive to the insight that privacy is a must-have in our lives.

Privacy has risen near the top of the agenda in step with an increasing awareness of the implications of using social media. Much of the time, people started to use social media with no real idea of the dangers, and have wised up only through trial and error—sheer accident, snafus, and mistakes. Lately, inappropriate use of social media seems to hit the headlines every day. Celebrities posting inappropriate comments to their profiles, private pictures and tapes leaked to the Internet at large, companies displaying arrogance toward users, and even criminal activities involving private-data trafficking or social media exploitation.

All this shows that—contrary to what many people seem to have assumed—online security and privacy are critical, and, I believe, will become even more important going forward. And, although every user needs privacy, the issue is particularly sensitive for minors—despite attempts to raise their awareness, children still behave recklessly online.

I have always been highly concerned about privacy. On Tuenti, the default privacy setting on every user account is the highest available level of data protection. Only people the user has accepted as a “friend” can access their personal details, see their telephone number, or download their pictures. This means that, by default, user information is not accessible to third parties. In addition, users are supported by procedures for reporting abuse. Any user can report a profile or photograph that is abusive, inappropriate, or violates the terms of use: action is taken immediately. Security and privacy queries are resolved within 24 hours.

We need to be aware that different Internet platforms provide widely different privacy experiences. Some of them are entirely open and public; no steps whatsoever are taken to protect personal information, and all profiles are indexable by Internet search engines.

On the other hand, I think the debate about whether social media use should be subject to an age requirement is somewhat pointless, given that most globally active platforms operate without age restrictions. The European regulatory framework is quite different from the United States and Asian codes. Companies based in Europe are bound by rigorous policies on privacy and underage use of social media. This can become a competitive drawback when the ground rules do not apply equally to all players—our American and Japanese competitors, for instance, are not required to place any kind of age constraint on access.

Outside the scope of what the industry or regulators can do, it is vital that users themselves look after the privacy of their data. I believe the information is the user’s property, so the user is the only party entitled to control the collection, use, and disclosure of any information about him or herself. Some social networks seem to have forgotten this fact—they sell data, make it impossible to delete an account, or make it complex and difficult to manage one’s privacy settings. Everything should be a lot simpler and more transparent.

Social networks should continue to devote intense efforts to developing self-regulation mechanisms and guidelines for this new environment of online coexistence to ensure that user information is safe: the Internet should be a space for freedom, but also for trust. The main way of ensuring that social media are used appropriately is awareness. But awareness and user education will be of little use unless it becomes an absolute requirement that the privacy of the individual is treated as a universal value.

The Internet and Culture

As in the sphere of education, the development of information and communication technologies and the wide-ranging effects of globalization are changing what we are, and the meaning of cultural identity. Ours is a complex world in which cultural flows across borders are always on the rise. The concepts of space, time, and distance are losing their conventional meanings. Cultural globalization is here, and a global movement of cultural processes and initiatives is underway.

Again, in the cultural arena, vast fields of opportunity open up thanks to online tools. The possibilities are multiplied for disseminating a proposal, an item of knowledge, or a work of art. Against those doomsayers who warn that the Internet is harming culture, I am radically optimistic. The Internet is bringing culture closer to more people, making it more easily and quickly accessible; it is also nurturing the rise of new forms of expression for art and the spread of knowledge. Some would say, in fact, that the Internet is not just a technology, but a cultural artifact in its own right.

In addition to its impact on culture itself, the Internet is enormously beneficial for innovation, which brings progress in all fields of endeavor—the creation of new goods, services, and ideas, the advance of knowledge and society, and increasing well-being.

The Internet and Personal Relationships

The Internet has also changed the way we interact with our family, friends, and life partners. Now everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way; we can conduct part of our personal relationships using our laptops, smart phones, and tablets.

The benefits of always-online immediate availability are highly significant. I would find a long-distance relationship with my life partner or my family unthinkable without the communication tools that the network of networks provides me with. I’m living in Madrid, but I can stay close to my brother in California. For me, that is the key plus of the Internet: keeping in touch with the people who really matter to me.

As we have seen, the Internet revolution is not just technological; it also operates at a personal level, and throughout the structure of society. The Internet makes it possible for an unlimited number of people to communicate with one another freely and easily, in an unrestricted way.

Just a century ago, this was unimaginable. An increasing number of couples come together, stay together, or break up with the aid—or even as a consequence—of social communication tools. There are even apps and social networks out there that are purposely designed to help people get together for sex.

Of course, when compared to face-to-face communication, online communication is severely limited in the sense impressions it can convey (an estimated 60 to 70 percent of human communication takes place nonverbally), which can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassing situations—no doubt quite a few relationships have floundered as a result. I think the key is to be genuine, honest, and real at all times, using all the social media tools and their many advantages. Let’s just remember that a liar and a cheat online is a liar and a cheat offline too.

The Internet and Social and Political Activism

Even before the emergence of social media, pioneering experiments took place in the political sphere—like  Essembly , a project I was involved in. We started to create a politically themed platform to encourage debate and provide a home for social and political causes; but the social networks that have later nurtured activism in a new way were not as yet in existence.

Research has shown that young people who voice their political opinions on the Internet are more inclined to take part in public affairs. The better informed a citizen is, the more likely they will step into the polling booth, and the better they will express their political liberties. The Internet has proved to be a decisive communication tool in the latest election campaigns. It is thanks to the Internet that causes in the social, welfare, ideological, and political arenas have been spoken up for and have won the support of other citizens sharing those values—in many cases, with a real impact on government decision making.

The Internet and Consumer Trends

New technologies increase the speed of information transfer, and this opens up the possibility of “bespoke” shopping. The Internet offers an immense wealth of possibilities for buying content, news, and leisure products, and all sorts of advantages arise from e-commerce, which has become a major distribution channel for goods and services. You can book airline tickets, get a T-shirt from Australia, or buy food at an online grocery store. New applications support secure business transactions and create new commercial opportunities.

In this setting, it is the consumer who gains the upper hand, and the conventional rules and methods of distribution and marketing break down. Consumers’ access to information multiplies, and their reviews of their experience with various products and services take center stage. Access to product comparisons and rankings, user reviews and comments, and recommendations from bloggers with large followings have shaped a new scenario for consumer behavior, retail trade, and the economy in general.

The Internet and the Economy

The Internet is one of the key factors driving today’s economy. No one can afford to be left behind. Even in a tough macroeconomic framework, the Internet can foster growth, coupled with enhanced productivity and competitiveness.

The Internet provides opportunities for strengthening the economy: How should we tackle them? While Europe—and Spain specifically—are making efforts to make the best possible use of the Internet, there are areas in which their approach needs to improve. Europe faces a major challenge, and risks serious failure if it lets the United States run ahead on its own. The European Commission, in its “Startup Manifesto,” suggests that the Old World be more entrepreneur-friendly—the proposal is backed by companies like Spotify and Tuenti. Europe lacks some of the necessary know-how. We need to improve in financial services and in data privacy, moving past the obsolete regulatory framework we now have and making a bid to achieve a well-connected continent with a single market for 4G mobile connections. We need to make it easier to hire talent outside each given country.

The use of e-commerce should be encouraged among small and medium-sized enterprises so that growth opportunities can be exploited more intensely. Following the global trend of the Internet, companies should internalize their online business. And much more emphasis should be placed on new technologies training in the academic and business spheres.

Modern life is global, and Spain is competing against every other country in the world. I do not believe in defeatism or victim culture. Optimism should not translate into callousness, but I sincerely believe that if you think creatively, if you find a different angle, if you innovate with a positive attitude and without fear of failure, then you can change things for the better. Spain needs to seize the moment to reinvent itself, grasping the opportunities offered up by the online world. We need to act, take decisions, avoid “paralysis through analysis.” I sometimes feel we are too inclined to navel-gazing: Spain shuts itself off, fascinated with its own contradictions and local issues, and loses its sense of perspective. Spain should open up to the outside, use the crisis as an opportunity to do things differently, in a new way—creating value, underlining its strengths, aspiring to be something more.

In the United States, for instance, diving headfirst into a personal Internet-related startup is regarded as perfectly normal. I’m glad to see that this entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold here as well. I believe in working hard, showing perseverance, keeping your goals in view, surrounding yourself with talent, and taking risks. No risk, no success. We live in an increasingly globalized world: of course you can have a Spain-based Internet startup, there are no frontiers.

We need to take risks and keep one step ahead of the future. It is precisely the most disruptive innovations that require radical changes in approach and product, which might not even find a market yet ready for them—these are the areas providing real opportunities to continue being relevant, to move forward and “earn” the future, creating value and maintaining leadership. It is the disruptive changes that enable a business, product, or service to revolutionize the market—and, particularly in the technology sector, such changes are a necessity.

The Future of Social Communications, Innovation, Mobile Technologies, and Total Connectivity in Our Lives

The future of social communications will be shaped by an  always-online  culture.  Always online  is already here and will set the trend going forward. Total connectivity, the Internet you can take with you wherever you go, is growing unstoppably. There is no turning back for global digitalization.

Innovation is the driving force of growth and progress, so we need to shake up entrenched processes, products, services, and industries, so that all of us together—including established businesses, reacting to their emerging competitors—can move forward together.

Innovation is shaping and will continue to shape the future of social communications. It is already a reality that Internet connections are increasingly mobile. A survey we conducted in early 2013 in partnership with Ipsos found that 94 percent of Tuenti users aged 16 to 35 owned cell phones, 84 percent of users connected to the Internet using their phones, and 47 percent had mobile data subscriptions for connecting to the Internet. A total of 74 percent of users reported connecting to the Internet from their phone on a daily basis, while 84 percent did so at least weekly. Only 13 percent did not use their phones to connect to the Internet, and that percentage is decreasing every day.

Mobile Internet use alters the pattern of device usage; the hitherto familiar ways of accessing the Internet are changing too. The smartphone activities taking up the most time (over three hours a day) include instant messaging (38%), social media use (35%), listening to music (24%), and web browsing (20%). The activities taking up the least time (under five minutes a day) are: SMS texting (51%), watching movies (43%), reading and writing e-mail (38%), and talking on the phone (32%). Things are still changing.

Smartphones are gaining ground in everyday life. Many of the purposes formerly served by other items now involve using our smartphones. Some 75 percent of young people reported having replaced their MP3 player with their phone, 74 percent use their phone as an alarm clock, 70 percent use it as their camera, and 67 percent use it as their watch.

We have been observing these shifts for a while, which is why we decided to reinvent ourselves by placing smartphones at the heart of our strategy. I want to use this example as a showcase of what is happening in the world of social communication and the Internet in general: mobile connectivity is bringing about a new revolution. Tuenti is no longer just a social network, and social media as a whole are becoming more than just websites. The new Tuenti provides native mobile apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone, as well as the Firefox OS app and the mobile version of the website, m.tuenti.com. Tuenti is now a cross-platform service that lets users connect with their friends and contacts from wherever they may be, using their device of choice. A user with a laptop can IM in real time with a user with a smartphone, and switch from one device to another without losing the thread of the conversation. The conversations are in the cloud, so data and contacts are preserved independently of the devices being used. This means the experience has to be made uniform across platforms, which sometimes involves paring down functionalities, given the processing and screen size limitations of mobile devices. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on are all evolving to become increasingly cross-platform experiences. But Tuenti is the first social network that has also developed its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)—the company is an Internet service provider over the mobile network. Tuenti is an MVNO with a social media angle, and this may be the future path of telecommunications.

Social media are evolving to become something more, and innovation must be their hallmark if they are to continue being relevant. Tuenti now embraces both social communications and telecom services provision, offering value added by letting you use the mobile app free of charge and without using up your data traffic allowance, even if you have no credit on your prepaid card—this is wholly revolutionary in the telecom sector. The convergence of social media with more traditional sectors is already bringing about a new context for innovation, a new arena for the development and growth of the Internet.

Just about everything in the world of the Internet still lies ahead of us, and mobile communications as we know them must be reinvented by making them more digital. The future will be shaped by innovation converging with the impact of mobility. This applies not just to social media but to the Internet in general, particularly in the social communications field. I feel that many people do not understand what we are doing and have no idea of the potential development of companies like ours at the global level. Right now, there may be somebody out there, in some corner of the world, developing the tool that will turn the Internet upside down all over again. The tool that will alter our day-to-day life once more. Creating more opportunities, providing new benefits to individuals, bringing more individual and collective well-being. Just ten years ago, social media did not exist; in the next ten years, something else radically new will emerge. There are many areas in which products, processes, and services can be improved or created afresh. The future is brimming with opportunities, and the future of the Internet has only just begun.

Related publications

• The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective
• Implications of the Revolution in Work and Family
• Vision 2020+: A Future to Be Built

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Essay on Online Shopping

Online shopping in simple words: The form of shopping in which people can easily purchase goods and services by using the internet is called online shopping. Online shopping gives us an idea of the availability of everything online at a cost of our data. Online shopping is a growing and trending aspect. It provides customers with buying various products and services, and sellers to carry on their business and transactions in an online mode. It is time saving and convenient way of shopping. It can be said that it is the development of traditional shopping ways to make shopping more accessible, relaxing, and flexible.

Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping

Short and Long Online Shopping Essays in English

Find here number of essays on online shopping vs offline shopping under various words limit for the ease of students of different classes. These essays justify all the aspects of online shopping vs offline shopping, so, you can better understand the topic in all perspectives:

Online Shopping Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) Shopping by making use of the internet is called online shopping.

2) Online shopping allows us to shop for anything from our phones.

3) With online shopping, the days are gone to go to physical markets to buy things.

4) People, who don’t know how to use smartphones, cannot do online shopping.

5) Through online shopping, you can order your favorite things at your doorstep.

6) In online shopping, you can compare the prices of products and can buy the cheaper ones.

7) Alibaba, Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, etc are some famous sites for online shopping.

8) While doing online shopping, you can only see the products virtually.

9) Online shopping does not provide you with the product instantly.

10) Online shopping is a modern and flexible way of buying goods.

Essay 1 (100 words – 150 words) – Challenges of Online Shopping

Introduction

Online shopping is the better way of buying several items of your own choice at one place and get it delivered wherever you do live itself. Therefore we can define online shopping as one of the convenient and interesting ways of shopping. It reduces market crowd and saves our money and time.

Challenges of Online Shopping

Instead of providing best ways to make choices without getting out of our comfort zone, online shopping has many negative aspects too.

• It requires a good knowledge of using smart technologies as well as net surfing.
• There are many sections of society that do not have easy access to the same and thus are dependent on traditional ways of shopping.
• Old people need to specify the products after touching thus they prefer traditional shopping and have not much confidence in online shopping.

Online shopping has turned out to be an essential need of the time. Because, nowadays in the so competitive world, people are busy in their offices and do not have time to shop. And this technology is making their life easier and fast.

Essay 2 (200 – 250 Words) – Essay on Online Shopping is a Boon for or Against

With the emergence of the internet, people can now shop online using their mobile phones or other related electronic devices. Online shops are virtual stores from where people can order the stuff of their choice.

Online Shopping is a Boon : For many people, online shopping is a boon as it offers many advantages. It not only saves your time but also helps to save your money and energy. Instead of spending a whole day in the market, you can buy things by sitting at your home. The prices of products in online shops are comparatively lower than those available offline. One reason behind this is that there is no need of maintaining any physical stores. It also offers different methods of payment. During festive times, online shopping offers discounts on various products. Online shopping is a convenient way of shopping these days.

Online Shopping is a Bane : Everything has a dark side and so is online shopping. The major drawback of shopping online is to compromise with quality. Sometimes you may receive the wrong product and returning can be a headache. You can only check the quality when you receive the product. Even on ordering your product you can get it delivered after some days. No instant service is available in online shopping methods. When doing online shopping, you will miss out on the joy of shopping with your friends or family. Precautions are a must in Online paying, as it involves several risks.

So, we can say that Online Shopping is both, boon and bane, we have to choose and use them as per our interest and skill.

Essay 3 (300 Words) – Essay on Online Shopping vs Offline Shopping or Traditional Shopping

Today, customers have the option to shop either online or offline. Both the methods have some advantages, and they do show some disadvantages. Online shopping is a method of purchasing goods via the internet. Offline shopping is the traditional means of going to the market physically to buy goods. Before the advent of the internet, people only had the option to buy things offline.

Online Shopping

The biggest advantage of Online shopping is time saving. People need not physically go to various shops to purchase items. You can select items of your choice from your phone. Shopping online is a good way to save your energy and money. You need not burn fuel to go to the markets. Another advantage we can enjoy in online purchasing is availability. You can go for online shopping at any time that best suits you, irrespective of your location. The online stores are open 24 hours a day. You need not take a holiday to go shopping.

Offline Shopping or Traditional Shopping

There are many reasons for which people go for offline shopping or traditional shopping instead of shopping online. The major advantage of going to physical stores is that the quality of the product can be checked on the spot. You can even try the clothes for perfect fitting. This feature is lacking in the online market. In traditional shopping, you get the product directly in your hands. No waiting for long days to receive the product. For purchasing items of daily use, traditional stores are far better than online stores. In offline shopping, you can bargain for prices, while in online shopping prices are fixed. Offline shopping gives you the facility of easy return.

So, we can say, both modes of shopping have their own advantages and disadvantages; we have to use them as per our choice and safety.

Essay 4 (400 Words) – Online Shopping: A Positive Approach to Digitalization

Online shopping is an emerging e-commerce technology. What can be more soothing and easier than facing the rush and crowd of the markets offering a limited range of products at a time? Yes, it is online shopping, making the way to shop easier and more convenient. The sellers are making the product details online which can be easily seen while browsing the website. There are many websites that have easy access.

Pleasure of Online Shopping

We are well aware of this fact that most of the people find shopping as an interesting aspect. Generally, women and girls are addicted to shopping. Now, since technology is advancing day by day and letting newer ways to develop, we have been benefitted by a way of shopping by sitting at our places and browsing over the internet. We are able to get various range of products in a single place. Also, we can search for the product related to men, women, and kids by entering the categories in the spaces meant for the same. We search, select, and order for the products and services and get it delivered to our places.

This is helping the people in remote areas too. We could search and order for the latest apparel through online mode. Generally, the shops are taking the time to bring and present the same.

The most preferred online shopping sites are Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, Ajio, etc.

Online shopping – a Positive Approach to Digitalization

Online shopping involves transactions or business over the internet. The buyer purchases the products and services required, by means of choosing the same over the internet. Therefore the technology is leading towards the digitalization concept. The normal shopping has been given a new face by the addition of technological aids. Offline or traditional ways have been advanced by making it online. It is a successful change in the business strategy. The new ideas and methods have been implemented to make it flourish, and provide greater revenue or economical benefits.

Online shopping is the result of a change in business strategy therefore helping in competing. It is proving it to be an easier, convenient, and better option and therefore is the best example of the concept of digitalization.

We can say that online shopping is a trending business. We can search for our choices over the internet by sitting in one place. We can get our desired products and can also gift the same to our close ones. Online shopping successfully reduced the pressure on traditional shopping methods and is time-saving too.

Long Essay 5 (500 Words) – Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping

Technological advancements are changing our standards and lifestyle. One of the fascinating aspects of technology has favored is Online shopping that is the best way to business and safe transactions over the internet. It provides us broader way to search, choose and delivered the desired products and services at our specified addresses.

People these days are tugged up with several work pressures. They are spending much of their time intervals in offices or other important works. Traditional ways of shopping require a larger time to be consumed by visiting different stores for different products. Therefore online shopping provides a way to tackle the same by saving time and effort.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping

Everything in this world is connected with both positive and negative aspects. The same is with online shopping too. On one hand, it is benefitting, and on the other hand, it has disadvantages too.

Advantages of Online Shopping:

• It provides us with a convenient way of shopping.
• We can see different products and services just by one click. Different variants are available in the required size and shapes.
• It saves us from the rush and crowd of the markets. Also, saves our time wasted in roaming from one shop to another and standing in queues for hours for billing purposes.
• We get products in our price ranges and also at a lower price.
• We can order dresses according to our choice and occasion requirements. As most of the time, we are unable to get the dress we want, in offline shopping.

Disadvantages of Online Shopping:

• The products we buy, generally when delivered, do not match with one we have ordered.
• If we require the product immediately, then we cannot have that option or we will have to pay extra charges.
• Offline shopping has a benefit to buy the product and use it immediately, but when we opt for online shopping the same benefit is not granted.
• Many of the times we save our card details for the transaction purpose, hackers use the same card details for the cybercrime.
• The returning of any product may be chargeable and time taking too.
• Most of the time, damaged goods are received.

Online Shopping – Best Option during Pandemic (Covid-19)

The outbreak of COVID-19, throughout the world was most devastating for us. During those times, moving outside was banned and different countries were under lockdown for several months. People, all over the world, preferred online mediums to get their products and services ordered and delivered.

Therefore it can be stated that online shopping has been the best choice or alternative. People have been provided with the option of getting delivered every product at their doorstep.

Online shopping is the love of youngsters of today’s generation. It is an interesting way of exploring several products with variety and different prices at the same portal or place. Online shopping has blessed us with emerging ideas to give surprises to our closed ones on their special days. But on other accounts, it has some of the impacts too.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans . Online shopping was invented by an entrepreneur Michael Aldrich in 1979.

Ans . The concept of online shopping begins in India in 1995.

Ans . The first online shopping site launched in India was Amazon.

Ans . The website through which customers can easily purchase goods and services is called an online store.

Ans . The world’s largest online shopping retailer is Amazon.

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Is Too Much Time on the Internet Making us Less Satisfied with Life?

• Open access
• Published: 23 May 2024

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• Ana Suárez Álvarez   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1397-8724 1 &
• María R. Vicente   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7826-8494 1  

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The Internet’s profound impact on society, communication, and the global economy is undeniable. Despite the studies on Internet adoption and frequency of use, little attention has been given to the intensity of usage as measured by the time spent online. In highly developed countries like the European ones, bridging the access gap is nowadays less relevant, as almost everyone has Internet access. Instead, the focus should be on analysing usage intensity to uncover new digital disparities among different groups and understand potential impacts on individuals' subjective well-being (SWB).

This study aims to deeply examine Internet usage time, its socioeconomic determinants, and its effects on SWB using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) spanning from 2016 to 2020–22 in 21 European countries. We seek to answer two research questions: (1) How do individuals' characteristics influence Internet usage intensity? (2) What is the impact of Internet usage intensity on individuals' SWB?

Our findings show inequalities in Internet usage time driven by individuals' socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics. Traditionally disadvantaged groups, both offline and online, exhibit lower Internet usage time, consistent with the existing literature on the digital divide. As for the effect of intensity of Internet use on SWB, after accounting for individuals' characteristics and addressing Internet's endogeneity, we found a negative and significant relationship between Internet usage intensity and life satisfaction, especially for the most intensive internet users.

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Introduction

Among the countless information and communication technologies (ICTs), the Internet emerges as a central and game-changing innovation that has left an incomparable mark on society, communication, and the worldwide economy. Since the initial diffusion of digital technologies, the Internet has had a central role and has become an essential part of everyone life. Indeed, the United Nations ( 2016 ) declared the importance of providing and expanding access to the Internet, since it is considered a catalyst for the enjoyment of human rights, most notably, the right to freedom of expression. Moreover, additionally to its inherent relevance, it has also served as the foundational infrastructure that enables the functioning and proliferation of various digital technologies, online applications and services.

Nevertheless, the expansion of the digital technologies in general, and of the Internet in particular, has not been uniform across the society but has experienced an uneven development. In this sense, the term digital divide was coined as early as the 1990s, to describe inequalities in the access and uptake of digital technologies (OECD, 2001 ). Differences in access were referred to as the first-level of the digital divide, which later on, gave rise to other types of divides, not in access or adoption, but in obtaining the necessary skills to effectively use digital technologies (the second-level of the digital divide) and the differences that emerge from the differential uses and outcomes according to users’ proficiency (the third-level of the digital divide).

Since recent years and until now, the focus has been rather on the expected outcomes derived from the so-called digital transformation. Digital technologies play a crucial role in numerous aspects of daily life, such as education, communication, leisure, or work. As a result, there is a growing focus on exploring the potential consequences that may emerge as these technologies become more deeply integrated into people’s life. Related to this, the analysis of the effects that digital technologies might have on people's well-being stands out, given that the ultimate effect of this integration of technologies in all aspects of daily life would be on well-being. As the (European Commission, 2023 , p.24) states: “Putting people at the centre of the digital transformation of our societies and economies is at the core of the EU vision for the Digital Decade. The EU and its Member States have agreed to ensure digital technologies enhance the well-being and quality of life of all Europeans, respect their rights and freedoms, and promote democracy and equality”.

In this context, the objective of this paper is to analyse in depth the time Europeans spent using the Internet, its socio-economic determinants and its effects on their subjective well-being (SWB). To achieve this, data from the European Social Survey (ESS) will be used, specifically from the three most recent available rounds (Rounds 8–10 covering the period 2016–2022) and encompassing 21 European countries. Two main research questions (RQ) are addressed: RQ1, how individuals’ characteristics shape Internet usage intensity? And RQ2, which is the effect of the intensity/time of Internet use on individuals’ SWB?

While there are studies that investigate the decision to use (or not) the Internet as well as the frequency of its use, little attention has been paid to the intensity of its use, i.e. the time using it -some exceptions are Goldfarb & Prince, ( 2008 ); Nie & Erbring, ( 2001 ); Rosenberg et al., ( 2022 ). Nevertheless, nowadays, in countries with a high degree of development such as those in Europe, addressing the first digital divide (access and adoption) loses meaning, since practically the entire population has access to the Internet and uses it on almost a daily basis. On the contrary, an analysis of Internet usage intensity could shed some light, firstly, on the identification of new digital divides between different population groups and secondly, on the effects that different intensities (times) of Internet use might have on individuals SWB.

Likewise, and in relation to our second research question that tries to unravel the effect of Internet use on well-being, the evidence on this issue is doubly partial, firstly, because most of the studies are for specific groups of the population (i.e. elderly, adolescents, disabled) without taking into account the general population, and secondly, because many of them focus on a specific use of the Internet (such as social networks) and not on the general use of the Internet, and even less in the intensity of its use.

Moreover, most of studies do not take into consideration the endogeneity of Internet usage while it has been proved to be endogenous and strongly dependent on individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics (Helsper, 2021 ). There are some exceptions such as Ali et al., ( 2020 ), Lu and Kandilov, ( 2021 ), Suárez Álvarez and Vicente, ( 2023 ) and Zheng et al., ( 2023 ), who do address endogeneity in their analysis, but show evidence for a single country. The present analysis will provide cross-country evidence for the European area and will address the effects of Internet usage on individuals’ subjective levels of well-being by properly tackling the former variable as endogenous through the implemented modelling.

In this framework, our paper makes two important contributions to the literature. Firstly, we put on the spotlight the usage intensity or time of Internet usage as a key variable for understanding digital inequalities and their effects on well-being. Secondly, we carried out an analysis for the general population, obviously controlling for personal characteristics, which allows us to draw general conclusions.

Our findings demonstrate that, once online, individuals’ socioeconomic background still matters to explain the intensity of Internet usage. Such results underscore the existence of disparities in Internet usage time, primarily influenced by the socio-economic and socio-demographic attributes of individuals. Additionally, we found a significant and negative relationship between Internet usage intensity and life satisfaction.

The remaining of the paper is structured as follows: Section “ Literature Review ” summarizes the literature, Section “ Data & Methodology ” describes the data and methodology, Section “ Results ” presents and discuss the results and finally, Section “ Concluding Remarks ” concludes.

Literature Review

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, as digital technologies, and especially the use of the Internet in society, began to spread, research on inequalities and the derived effects from the use of these technologies started to become centre of attention.

Initially, in the 1990s, this research focused on what is now known as the first-level of the digital divide, i.e., at that time Internet was only accessible for those who can afford it, and this generated a divide in access (Dewan & Riggins, 2005 ; Mehra et al., 2004 ; Newhagen & Bucy, 2004 ; Van Dijk, 2002 ).

Later on, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, studies on digital inequalities shifted from addressing the binary research question of whether individuals had Internet access or not, to focus of more complex inequalities that had emerged as the digital transition progressed, such as differences about how people use these technologies, digital skills and literacy, online engagement or access to information, i.e., the second-level of the digital divide (Büchi et al., 2016 ; Dimaggio et al., 2004 ; Goldfarb & Prince, 2008 ; Hargittai, 2002 ; Selwyn, 2004 ; Van Deursen & van Dijk, 2014 ).

Research on digital divides continues to evolve as digital technologies advance. In fact, there is yet another strand, the so-called third-level of the digital divide (van Deursen & Helsper, 2015 , 2018 ; Wei et al., 2011 ) which put the focus on the outcomes and consequences of digital inequalities.

There are, indeed, a great number of works which try to identify the causes and outcomes of digital inequalities, suggesting that these gaps are mainly rooted in individuals’ socio-economic backgrounds, which shape how digital technologies are integrated in their lives and in turn, would affect individuals’ chances (Büchi, 2016 , 2021 ; Büchi & Hargittai, 2022 ; Büchi et al., 2019 ; Helsper, 2021 ; Loos & Ivan, 2022 ; Lucendo-Monedero et al., 2019 ; OECD, 2021 ; Van Deursen et al., 2017 ; van Dijk, 2020 ; Watts, 2020 ).

Closely related to the studies on the third-level of the digital divide, a large branch of research focuses on analysing the effects of digital technologies on well-being. This line of research initiates with the early works of Kraut et al., ( 1998 , 2002 ), and numerous studies were subsequently carried out. However, the literature on this topic has so far failed to find a general pattern of the effect of digital technologies, in general, and of Internet use, in particular, on well-being, with studies having found both positive, negative and non-significant effects (Aggarwal et al., 2020 ; Ali et al., 2020 ; Castellacci & Tveito, 2018 ; Hasan & Linger, 2016 ; Johannes et al., 2022 ; Lelkes, 2013 ; Lifshitz et al., 2018 ; Lohmann, 2015 ; Lu & Kandilov, 2021 ; Marciano et al., 2022 ; Nie & Erbring, 2001 ; Pénard et al., 2013 ; Sanders et al., 2000 ; Schemer et al., 2021 ; Sen et al., 2022 ; Suárez Álvarez & Vicente, 2023 ; Szabo et al., 2019 ; Valkenburg & Peter, 2009 ; Vas & Gombor, 2009 ; Zheng et al., 2023 ).

The lack of conclusive results is due to several factors. Firstly, different dimensions of well-being are considered and, in some cases, measured differently, which limits comparability. Secondly, the effect on well-being of various technologies is analysed: there are studies focusing on Internet use and others that focus on specific uses of the Internet. Thirdly, many studies refer to specific subpopulations (adolescents, the elderly, people with disabilities) and, in many cases, use samples drawn from small surveys that are not nationally representative. Finally, the methodology implemented in these studies does not consider the endogenous nature of Internet about which the literature on the digital divide provides plenty of evidence (Helsper, 2021 ). Some of the recent and few exceptions which address endogeneity are: Ali et al., ( 2020 ); Lu and Kandilov, ( 2021 ); Suárez Álvarez and Vicente, ( 2023 ); and Zheng et al., ( 2023 ).

In this line, the present analysis aims to bring together research on the digital divide and that on the effects of the Internet on well-being by properly addressing the endogeneity of the former and using representative country-level data for a set of 21 European countries.

Data & Methodology

The present analysis relies on data from the European Social Survey (ESS). The ESS is a very comprehensive database that contains microdata for a great number of European countries, provides weights to make the data country-level representative, and has a wide range of variables, including socio-demographic and socio-economic features and measures of individuals’ levels of subjective well-being and internet usage. The survey is conducted every two years. This analysis will focus on the last three rounds available, rounds 8, 9 and 10 which correspond to years 2016, 2018 and 2020, Footnote 1 respectively, since they include data on Internet usage intensity, which will be a key variable in the analysis. 21 European countries are analysed: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia. Footnote 2

Table 1 shows the variables included in the analysis as well as their definition and main statistics (average and standard deviation) by round. The main variables of interest in our analysis are: Life satisfaction , which is our reference variable on subjective well-being, and Internet time which considered individuals’ Internet use time, in minutes.

In addition to these two key variables, we include other variables that will be used as explanatory variables in our analysis of both Internet use and well-being. As can be seen in Table  1 , these are the variables commonly used as explanatory variables in both the literature on well-being ( Age, Female, Employed, Retired Partner, Bad health, Hampered, Meetings, Discuss, Domicile, Rural, HH Income, Education, Occupation, Politics, Religious, Institutional trust ) and the literature on digital divide ( Age, Employed, retired, Occupation, HH income, Meetings, Discuss ).

All the variables presented in Table  1 have been collected from the ESS, with the exception of the variable Speed , which is the average Internet download speed in megabits per second (Mbps) at regional level and which data has been retrieved from the European Data Journalist Netowrk (EDJNet, 2023 ), and were provided by the Ookla Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps Speedtest.

As can be seen in Table  1 , in average terms, Life Satisfaction experiences a slight reduction from Round 8 to Round 10, while there is an increase in Internet time from Round 8 (2016) to Round 10 (2020–22). The increase in the time spent using the Internet could be explained by both the growing importance of digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic that moved many of daily activities to the online environment. Likewise, the pandemic might be the main factor behind the lower levels of well-being observed for Round 10 data.

Methodology

To answer the two research questions stated in this paper two complementary methodological approaches are used. Specifically, the first research question, how individuals’ characteristics shape Internet usage intensity? , is addressed by means of a descriptive approach to see whether Internet usage time patterns change depending on individuals’ characteristics and how. Then, cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) of time usage are plotted by the categories of the socio-economic and socio-demographic features considered. In addition, the sample has been split by the quartiles of the distribution of Internet time and the means values of individuals’ characteristics have been computed for those who below the first quartile of the distribution (25%) and those above the third quartile (75%). The comparison of these means will allow to see what characterises individuals who use the Internet a little versus those who use it a lot.

To answer the second research question, and thus analyse the effect of Internet usage intensity on Life Satisfaction, some econometric modelling is proposed. Particularly, a system of two equations is considered, with one equation to explain what shapes the amount of time people spend online and the other equation to assess the effect of such time on individuals’ levels of life satisfaction. Two sets of systems are specified as follows:

The difference between Models a and b relies on the variable that measures the time spent on the Internet. In Model a, Internet time is a quantitative variable, then, the coefficient α 22 will assess the effect on life satisfaction of using Internet an extra minute; whilst in Model b, the variable \({TimeQ3}_{i}^{+}\) is dichotomous and takes value one for those individuals whose Internet use is on the top 25% of the distribution, implying that they use the Internet on average more than 300 min or 5 h per day. Hence, the coefficient α 42 will capture the effect of using Internet very intensively compared to moderate levels of usage on life satisfaction.

Equations (1) and (3) deal with the endogeneity of the time spent on the Internet -in Models A and B, respectively- by including control variables that are determinants of this usage time as well as some dummies to capture time (rounds) and cross-country potential variation. Additionally, the variable Speed is included; this variable is highly correlated with Internet use in general, and especially with the amount of time people spend on it, since the faster the connection, the more people are likely to use it and the more time they will spend.

To estimate these two-equation models, the CMP process introduced by Roodman ( 2011 ) is used, in particular, the models would be estimated recursively using a limited-information maxium likelihood (LIML) estimator. Footnote 3 CMP proves being useful for estimating multi-equation systems that involve recursive process and address endogeneity concerns. Some recent research (Zheng & Ma, 2022 ) uses it to address endogeneity using an instrumental variable model involving two SUR equations. Moreover, CMP has been applied in recent research papers on well-being (Bimonte et al., 2020 ; Castellacci & Schwabe, 2020 ; Huang et al., 2022 ; Schwabe & Castellacci, 2020 ; Zheng & Ma, 2022 ).

How Individuals’ Characteristics Shape Internet Usage Intensity?

Figures  1 , 2 , 3 and 4 show the differences in the cumulative distribution of Internet time (in minutes) in relation to the different variables that characterise individuals.

CDFs for Internet time (minutes) by individuals’ domicile, age group, gender, and hampered status

CDFs for Internet time (minutes) by individuals’ health, retired and employment status as whether individuals live with a partner

CDFs for Internet time (minutes) by individuals’ educational level, occupations’ skills and HH subjective income. Notes: Educational level is divided into three categories according to ISCCED categories (Categories from 1–2 are included into the low category, from 3–5 into the medium category and 6–7 in the high category

CDFs for Internet time (minutes) by individuals’ social life variables ( Discuss and Meetings )

Figure  1 suggests the existence of large differences in Internet usage time by place of residence (with individuals living in less populated places using Internet less time than those in urban areas) and even more differences by age, with the older the person is, the less time they use the internet. In terms of gender and whether individuals are disabled or not, there are hardly any differences in the CDFs.

Figure  2 shows that for health status there is barely any difference in usage, but retired individuals, the unemployed and those living with a partner tend to use the Internet less time.

Figure  3 indicates the existence of differences in the time spent using the Internet by educational level (the lower the educational level the less time spent using the Internet), by occupation qualification level (individuals working in high-skilled occupations spent more time using the Internet than the rest) and by household income; in this latter case, though differences seem to be quite small, it appears that households that report having difficulties to meets ends use the Internet less time.

Finally, Fig.  4 also shows some differences in the time spent on the Internet as regards people’s social interactions: in particular, it seems that those who have less social interactions also use the Internet less time.

To complement this descriptive analysis, Table  2 shows the mean values of individuals' characteristics when the time they spent on the Internet is below(over) the first(third) quartile of the total distribution of Internet usage time, implying that they use the Internet less than 90 min per day or more than 300 min per day, respectively. The descriptive statistics provided in Table  2 are consistent with the CDFs figures, showing significant differences in the mean values of the variables between those using the Internet a little versus those who spent a lot of time online. More specifically, the mean age and the percentages of individuals living with a partner, of retired people, and of individuals living in rural areas are higher among those who use the Internet less, while the educational level, the average levels of social life, and the percentage of workers are higher among those who use the Internet more.

In short, these results seem to suggest that inequalities in Internet usage time are closely related to the socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics of individuals. In fact, those groups of population, that have been traditionally disadvantaged both offline and online, show comparatively less Internet usage time compared to the advantaged, which is in line with the literature on the digital divides (Büchi, 2021 ; Büchi & Hargittai, 2022 ; Büchi et al., 2016 ; Helsper, 2012 , 2021 ). Therefore, even once online, the divides are shaped by people’s socio-economic background.

Which is the effect of Internet usage intensity on individuals’ SWB (life satisfaction)?

Some first ideas on the relationship between the intensity of Internet usage and individuals’ self-reported levels of life satisfaction can be gathered from Fig.  5 , which suggests the existence of some inverse link as, on average, the levels of life satisfaction are higher for those individuals who use the Internet less intensively, i.e., during less time.

Average life satisfaction levels by quartile of Internet time

Tables 3 and 4 present the results of the estimation of the econometric models when the time spent on the Internet is specified as a continuous variable (Model A) and when it is defined by a binary variable that indicates whether the user is on the 25% top of the time distribution (Model B), respectively. The main differences between the results of the two models lie mainly in the interpretation of the effect on life satisfaction of the time spent on the Internet.

Estimates from Model A (Table  3 ) indicate that individuals’ self-reported levels of life satisfaction tend to decrease as the time on the Internet increases. At first glance, it may appear that the effect of Internet usage time is very small, however, the coefficient would indicate that, in average terms, an increase in Internet usage time of 100 extra minutes would be associated with more than half a point less on the SWB variable, life satisfaction.

Model B looks at the differential in life satisfaction between those individuals who use the Internet very intensively and, hence, could be considered excessive, i.e., those on the top 25% of the distribution, and the rest of the people. In this case, the sign of the coefficient of the time variable and its significance level coincide with estimates in Model A; however, the value of the coefficient is much higher in absolute terms. This implies that compared to individuals who use the Internet less, those individuals whose use is on the top 25% (i.e., above the third quartile of the distribution of Internet time), experience significantly lower levels of life satisfaction. Specifically, intensive Internet users exhibit a level of life satisfaction around 1.7 points lower than the rest of Internet users.

As for the rest of the variables included in the analysis, they appear to have the expected signs. On the one side, with regard to the coefficients of the regressors in Eqs. (1) and (3), their signs are consistent with the analysis previously conducted to answer our first research question. Looking at the coefficients, it can be seen that those variables that have the greatest impact on reducing the time spent using the Internet are being retired and living in a rural area, and those that, on the contrary, have the most positive impact on Internet usage intensity are working in a highly skilled occupation and having a high level of education. Estimates also show that Internet usage time has been increasing significantly from 2016.

On the other side, with respect to the sign of the coefficients of the regressors included in the life satisfaction equations, Eqs. (2) and (4), results are in line with those of the literature on SWB. The relationship between age and life satisfaction follows a U-shape pattern, (Blanchflower, 2021 ; Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008 ; Gwozdz & Sousa-Poza, 2010 ; López-Ulloa et al., 2013 ); those living with a partner tend to report higher levels of life satisfaction (Zimmermann & Easterlin, 2006 ), while economic and financial difficulties lower such levels (Cummins, 2000 ; Diego-Rosell et al., 2018 ; Moro-Egido et al., 2022 ); retired individuals appear to show higher levels of life satisfaction (Atalay & Barrett, 2022 ) as well as those employed (Paul & Moser, 2009 ). Additionally, individuals with higher levels of institutional trust (Bittmann, 2022 ), religiosity beliefs (Jackson & Bergeman, 2011 ) and on a right-wing ideology (Napier & Jost, 2008 ) tend to report higher levels of life satisfaction.

Overall, results highlight that, while Internet access is usually claim to be positive for individuals' well-being and for some specific groups of population such as the elderly (Aggarwal et al., 2020 ; Hasan & Linger, 2016 ; Lu & Kandilov, 2021 ; Sen et al., 2022 ; Szabo et al., 2019 ), the intensity of its use and, specifically, using it for too long, ends up having negative effects in terms of SWB.

Concluding Remarks

The analyses performed in this paper have allowed us to obtain robust and consistent results for the European population on the distribution of Internet usage time and its association with European citizens' subjective well-being, as measured by their reported levels of life satisfaction, by using a large representative sample of more than 70,000 observations and controlling for the endogeneity of Internet usage.

Our findings reveal that the same socio-economic variables that shape the first and second digital divides are the primary factors influencing Internet usage intensity. In summary, these results highlight the presence of disparities in Internet usage time, stemming from the socio-economic and socio-demographic attributes of individuals. Specifically, socio-demographic groups traditionally disadvantaged in both offline and online contexts exhibit reduced Internet usage time, aligning with existing literature on the digital divides.

As for the potential effect of the intensity of Internet use on people’ SWB, two models with two-equations have been proposed, which address the endogeneity of Internet use and control for individuals' characteristics. Additionally, to better understand such effects, we distinguish between the effect of using the Internet for an additional minute and that associated with an excessive Internet use, defined as being on the top 25% of those who spend more time on it.

In this sense, our results show some interesting findings. Firstly, results show that Internet usage time is statistically significant and hold a negative relationship with individuals’ levels of life satisfaction. Hence, increasing Internet usage would imply on average a significant reduction on individuals’ levels of SWB. Secondly, when people with an excessive use of the Internet (more than 300 min per day, in other words) are compared to the rest of Internet users, the size of the estimate is much larger, which indicates that top 25% Internet users exhibit, on average significantly lower levels of SWB.

As for the remaining variables included in the models, their coefficients exhibit the expected signs and therefore the analysis provides further evidence and corroborates findings from the literature on SWB.

Some academic and policy implications can be drawn from the results. From an academic perspective, it is crucial to connect the research on the digital divide with the well-being literature to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the Internet's significance in terms of its distribution and its impact on overall well-being. Regarding policy implications, considering that our findings indicate that excessive Internet usage can detrimentally affect individuals' subjective well-being, it becomes imperative to implement measures that promote responsible utilization of this crucial tool. Ensuring that the Internet is integrated into our lives in a manner that enhances well-being should be a priority.

As regards the potential limitations in our research, it is worth noting that we have not differentiated between the various purposes for which the Internet is used. While it would be indeed insightful to discern these different uses and identify distinct patterns of individual behavior, the data at our disposal do not permit such differentiation.

Nevertheless, we do not believe that this diminishes the validity of our findings, which primarily centre on the intensity of Internet use regardless of its purpose. Moreover, by controlling for individuals' personal characteristics, we indirectly address the diversity of Internet usage to a significant extent, as variations in usage patterns often correlate with the social group individuals belong to, which are ultimately closely linked to their socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics.

Finally, another limitation of our analysis is that we only consider the effect of the time spent using the Internet on life satisfaction and we do not take into account the existence of a possible reverse causality, that is, the effect that life satisfaction may have on time spent using the Internet. Indeed, there is some research that shows that individuals’ levels of well-being or personal traits might influence individuals’ Internet and digital technologies usages (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000 ; Perugini & Solano, 2021 ). Consequently, we believe that it is of great importance to develop future lines of research that explore this inverse relationship between well-being and Internet use as well as to explore a bidirectional relationship between both factors.

Data Availability

The datasets used in the present study were derived from the public domain resource: https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org . The do files that allow to replicate the analysis done are available at the website of the project E-WELLBEING ( https://sites.google.com/view/ewellbeing ). And at Harvard Dataverse ( https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/H4JKDI ).

It is worth mentioning that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the date of Round 10 survey ranges between 2020 and 2022 depending on the country. Additionally, some countries instead of conducting a face-to-face questionnaire, switched to self-completion mode. Such was the case of Austria, Germany, Spain, Poland, Lithuania and Sweden.

The ESS covers more countries than those analyzed, but in order to have a more homogeneous sample we have restricted the analysis to those countries for which data are available in all three rounds.

In our estimations standard errors will be clustered at country level.

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Suárez Álvarez, A., Vicente, M.R. Is Too Much Time on the Internet Making us Less Satisfied with Life?. Applied Research Quality Life (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-024-10326-9

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