What is Online Shopping? A Fashionandyou perspective

Advancements in science and technology have caused drastic changes in our lifestyle. Every day new technology is being discovered and we’re adapting to the changes. More and more items we use on a daily basis are becoming obsolete; think pagers and cassette players. The Internet has cause information explosion. Due to its ability to reach millions of potential customers at a fairly low price, it is not surprising that the Internet has become a powerful force in the world of retailing. Websites like FashionandYou have changed the way the common Indian shops. FashionandYou, like other retail websites, offers a host of different products a customer can purchase online. They are dedicated websites for fashion, cutlery, electronics, and many more. Even food and flowers can be bought online now. Online shopping or online retailing is a form of electronic commerce whereby consumers directly buy goods and services from the seller over the Internet without an intermediary service. An e-shop, virtual store or web store evokes the physical analogy of buying products and services at a brick and mortar store or shopping center. This process is known as business to consumer (B2C) online shopping. In India online shopping is a recent trend. Although growing at the rapid rate, our country is tapping only a small part of this industry presently. Online shopping requires shoppers to have access to the Internet, which is still not available in a significant number of homes here. This form of shopping has a number of advantages. Virtual stores are usually available 24 hours a day, which allows a customer to shop whenever is convenient for him. Since all that is need to access these stores is Internet, people can browse through the online portal at the comfort of their home or wherever they want. Retail websites have a lot of information about the owners of the website and the products they sell. This allows a customer access to all the necessary information they require to make an informed decision. Most websites display customer reviews as well. In websites there is no shortage of space and so they can display all their products well. This allows customers to select what they want at their own pace and after looking at the product properly. Since there is no middleman involved, the prices are almost always lesser than brick and mortar stores. Further most of these websites offer home delivery and a number of payment options. FashionandYou is one of the many successful retail websites that has hit the Indian market in the past decade. These online shopping portals are a huge success amongst young working class who like to shop but cant because their busy schedules don’t allow them to. Of course there a number of downsides to online shopping like the inability to personal inspect items, fraud and credit card theft, invasion of privacy, etc. however well known and good websites like Fashionandyou have come up with solutions to tackle these problems. Most websites like them offer cash on delivery, allow you to inspect the items before paying and have strict rules and regulations with regard to guarding a customer’s privacy.