Online Shopping

Online shopping has become too easy and convenient that it is horrifying. My parents never caught on as most parents won't if they are from Gen X or above as they do not believe in online shopping due to fears that the store online is fake etc, which results in money taken and goods not seen or most commonly the excuse which even our generation use is that how can you purchase a product without physically seeing it.

Most of the time, items I have purchased were books from Amazon and small knickknacks from eBay, only a few times did I proceed with a expensive purchase that has ranged from $150 to over $3000. Making small purchases, you generally don't have much care/fear that the item is of lower quality or for some reason or another that the item doesn't arrive, maybe due to seller or lost in transit.

However when making a large order, such as when I bought computer gaming parts for a whole system, racking up a bill of over $3,000, you start worrying about the authenticity of the company to which you will be paying and the constant worry/checking of the whereabouts of your package via postal tracking....the anticipation.

These days, buying online is safe to a degree, you may encounter at least a few times in your life that you tried to purchase from a fake seller, or seller selling lower quality goods compared to what was advertised. Sites such as Amazon and eBay are quite safe, policies in place to protect purchasers and sellers, also providing buyer and seller reviews to which help push the decision to make the transaction as they are important in knowing the reliability of the account (buyer or seller). For example, I only purchase from highest rated seller, as I believe they are authentic, to which the buyer also cares about their services to get more reviews and awareness of themselves out in the community.

Some sellers are quite accommodating as well, for example in the past, I purchased a expensive computer part which was sent halfway around the world to me but nearly on arrival I asked for a refund from the seller, the seller's policy was that any goods purchased are refundable within 30 days to which I applied for before my goods even arrived. Refunding it only required me to not accept package which the seller can see via tracking. As of that action I received my refund, however the buyer never received the refunded product which meant it may have been lost in transit going back to them and they made a lost, to which they did not make a big fuss over. These type of actions by sellers rate a high review to which future buyers would see and influence their decisions in buying from them.

Overall, I view online shopping as reasonably safe as long as proper precautions are taken, such as looking up on the seller details, insuring your product during transit if it is expensive, and more importantly, making sure the device you are making the transaction on is secure as viruses on computer can make note of your credit card details etc.

Alan