What could be done to encourage people to buy local products? 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?
In recent years, shopping from the internet has not only brought some drastic changes in the buying habits of the
customers
but it has also
lead to the extinction of community
businesses. However
, the local outlets can still secure their place in the market if they can bring some improvement in their services for the consumers. In this
essay, we will discuss a few of the changes that a small-scaled store can adapt to attract and retain customers
along with some merits and demerits of online buying for people
as well as for the organizations.
To begin
with, being a retailer, the community
vendors cannot do much about the products they sell, conversely
, they can up-grade their offering for their customers
. To illustrate, they can offer quicker home-delivery services, they can also
start taking orders
online through platforms such
as Whatsapp. Therefore
, by adopting consumer-oriented marketing techniques, local shops can encourage people
to shop from them.
Online shopping, on the other hand
, has become the first
preference for people
when it comes to purchasing commodities. One of the reason could be that it provides comfort to individuals. In other words
, people
do not have to specifically travel to someplace for doing the shopping and, they can simply place orders
from their home or office at any time. For instance
, I mostly do grocery shopping during my free time at work. In contrast
, this
comfort has limited the physical movement of the public and hence
, can lead them to become socially and physically inactive.
Furthermore
, the purchasing interface created by the World Wide Web has benefitted the commercial setups as well through services where they would not have to pay transportation charges on their bulk orders
. That is
to say, companies can now book their furniture orders
on Amazon and the shipment and transportation will be taken care by the Amazon team with no additional charges which is not the case if they buy from a local vendor. However
, unlike community
stores, Amazon works on standardized rate card and there will be no discount on bulk purchase.
To conclude, community
outlets can business by creating some attractive ways of serving customers
. The merits and demerits of the internet buying for both people
and firms are well mentioned in the above paragraphs.Submitted by abhi on
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