Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping in Sri Lanka

Online shopping is a global trend and an essential piece in most people’s lives. Both customers and sellers have distinguished it to be exceptionally advantageous, as it gives the advantage of ordering things to one’s doorstep and running an online business store at home. It has actually made life easy especially for people who have a very busy schedule and have no time to purchase things by visiting a store.

Online shopping has moved past as a method of shopping and has already become a lifestyle and people have accepted it as E-commerce. E-commerce brings various advantages like diminishing operational expenses from a business perspective and offers a healthy encounter to customers by saving time, discounts, monthly benefits, and a wide variety of items choose. You just have to type the product you need and a wide range of products appear. You can choose the product that best suits your requirement and get it delivered to your doorstep.

On the other side, online shopping has encouraged entrepreneurs to begin a self-business from the solace of their homes. Numerous individuals are turning towards online shopping as it offers their very own virtual shop where they can show their merchandise that is open 24 x7 x 365 days.

In Sri Lanka also e-commerce is quite famous and the online market has a wide range of quality products from various manufacturers. There are a great many online shopping stores running. With Sri Lanka’s greatest web shopping store, you may pick from hundreds and thousands of interminable and imperishable choices of trendy and popular items. The online platform allows the sellers to reach for a bigger audience and self-entrepreneurs also have benefited more as they have a market to sell their products.

The most sought items on the online market are:

• Electronics
• Computers and laptops
• Mobile phones and accessories
• Household appliances
• Clothes and accessories
• Designer clothing’s
• Electronic gadgets
• Sports memorabilia
• Music instruments

As with most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to online shopping. Here is a list of advantages and disadvantages of online shopping and we hope this list will help you to make a wise decision about what is best for you and your family.

Advantages Online Shopping in Sri Lanka

1. Convenience

Online shopping is very convenient especially for people with busy schedules. You can access online shopping websites through your smartphone, tablet, or laptop and search for items and after that purchase them. This can be done at home, workplace while traveling to work, or at any given short time period day or night. The market is open all hours and all days of the year. Online shopping it’s at your fingertips and most of the sites are very user-friendly and you can apply different filters in order to search products quickly. Convenience is definitely the number one advantage in it.

2. Lower prices

Most of the online sellers usually set a less selling price for their products sold through the online platform as buyers usually search for cheaper products that are of good quality. It’s mainly to attract more buyers for their products as most of the online customers search for cheaper products. This does not mean that online products are low quality or damaged but it’s usually lesser than the same items sold in a store.

3. Ease of comparison

The online platform has many different sellers and nowadays most of the stores have their own online market too. This allows the buyers to see what are the discounts or promotions different seller gives, compare the prices and products and choose what is best for him or her. This saves the customer from going from one store to another and comparing different prices of products and the benefits from promotional. The ease of comparison saves a lot of time and gas for almost all customers. There are also special promotions that come once a month or during a particular season and this is added benefit for both seller and customer.

4. Variety of items

The online shopping market does not stop by a boundary in a certain country. Terefore, there are so many items or products that can be bought from an online platform. Anyone can buy items from other countries, products not sold in their motherland. There is a huge variety of products and anyone can go through all of those products and choose what meets their requirement the most. Another thing about online shopping is some of the items that cannot be found in physical stores might also be there in the online platform as most of the physical stores have a limited number of products at the show.

5. Discreet shopping

You don’t have to worry thinking that people will see you buying this particular item, they might laugh at you. Online shopping is most of the time discreet and protects the privacy of the seller and buyer. Even the receipts are confidential and protect the account details and other details related to the seller and buyer.

6. Easy delivery

Most of the items you purchase through the online platform will be delivered right to your doorstep. This is very easy and convenient. Most of these delivery parties inform you about your delivery beforehand and in that way, you can select the day and time you want your delivery to happen.

Disadvantages Online Shopping in Sri Lanka

1. Difficulty in checking items personally

Online stores display photos and a brief description of the items that are sold. You cannot touch, feel, taste, or apply the items. If we take a perfume when you buy it from a physical store, there is a test perfume which you can apply and see whether it smells good. But in an online store, you cannot do this. So, either you have to buy a product that you know or go along with the reviews. Sometimes the size of an item can be different and might not fit your requirement.

2. Shipping charges

The items or products are usually cheaper in an online store compared to a physical store. However, sometimes the shipping fee can be very high and, in the end, the total price you have to pay for the product will be almost the same as the physical store or even more. Shipping charges differ according to the country it’s purchased as well.

3. Lack of instant satisfaction

There is an instance sometimes when you see a piece of clothing or an ornament or any item, you instantly feel this is beautiful and you want to buy it. There is this feeling of instant attraction and after that, if it is suitable the instant satisfaction. In online shopping, the instant satisfaction parts lack because it takes a couple of days or even weeks for the delivery. That feeling might be gone by then.

4. Damaged or low-quality products

Choosing an item through the online platform is by seeing photos and reading the description. But you can’t actually see or feel the product. Sometimes damaged or low-quality products can be delivered. The return and refundable option are there but it might take some time to get the refund and that can delay the process of buying another item.

5. Delivery problems

There can be unnecessary delays or the seller can fail to deliver the product. You might wait for weeks waiting for your delivery but the seller might have forgotten about it and the item might not be available after that. There can be damages made during delivery or products can be stolen during delivery. In the end, the customer might suffer the loss.

6. Fraud and security concerns

The customer has no way of checking the product before delivery. Therefore, the customer is at a greater risk of fraud compared to buying an item from a physical store. Also, when doing transactions using the credit card, the details can be stolen or misused, and serious frauds and thefts can be done by using these details. 

Online shopping has evolved so much during the years and has become a global trend and part of the lifestyle in people. With Sri Lanka’s greatest web shopping store, you may pick from hundreds and thousands of quality products. The online platform allows the sellers to reach for a bigger audience and self-entrepreneurs also have benefited more as they have a market to sell their products. On the other side, customers are open to an online store with a large variety of items open any time of the day and every day. As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to online shopping as well. We can most certainly say that advantages outrun the disadvantages as the online platform opens to a variety of quality products in one place. We hope this list helped you to choose wisely and to be on the safe side when using the online platform.