Today, with the Internet so readily accessible to us, more and more people are turning to online shopping for all their necessities. This essay will discuss various causes and effects of this development on individuals and the society. To embark on, there are several reasons why online shopping has become a widespread activity. First and foremost, most companies provide a lot of offers and discounts on their products in order to attract as many customers as they can. For example, big corporate houses tie-up with credit card vendors and banks. In addition, they provide cashback offers to lure customers. Furthermore, it was noticed that many e-commerce websites are using data analytic techniques to know about the preferences of people and then they bombard them with advertisements about this particular product. For instance, Amazon, an online shopping website which records the pattern of customer shopping habits and then uses this information to lure them into buying mo...