1.What are the advantages of online shopping?

One advantage is convenience. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers in Western countries have Internet access both at work and at home. In contrast, visiting a conventional retail store requires travel or commuting and costs such as gas, parking, or bus tickets, and must typically take place during business hours. Another is being able to quickly seek out deals for items or services provided by many different vendors (though some local search engines do exist to help consumers locate products for sale in nearby stores). Search engines, onlineprice comparison services and discovery shopping engines can be used to look up sellers of a particular product or service.

 

2.What are the disadvantages of online shopping?

Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud than face-to-face transactions. When ordering merchandise online, the item may not work properly, it may have defects, or it might not be the same item pictured in the online photo. Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases if customers are using stolen credit cards or fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase. However, merchants face less risk from physical theft by using a warehouse instead of a retail storefront. 

 

3.What is the purpose of advertising?

Advertising is at the front of delivering the proper message to customers and prospective customers. The purpose of advertising is to inform the consumers about their product and convince customers that a company's services or products are the best, enhance the image of the company, point out and create a need for products or services, demonstrate new uses for established products, announce new products and programs, reinforce the salespeople's individual messages, draw customers to the business, and to hold existing customers.

 

4.What advice can you give a friend who wants to go shopping?

First, check out the weekly newspaper ads. Find out the items that are on sale and decide if you really need those things. In other words, don’t buy anything just because it’s cheaper than usual. Next, in the market, carefully read the information on the package, and don’t let words like “New and improved” or “All Natural” on the font of a package influence you. Instead, read the list of ingredients on the back. Third, compare prices; that is, examine the prices of both of different brands and different sizes of the same brand.