There is a whole lot of online shopping going on in the world today, and for different reasons. Some people would rather shop online than go through the entire stress that comes with physical stores. Commonly encountered disadvantages that come with online shopping are;
- Going from one store to the other in a bid to find a preferred product
- Having to pay for parking spaces and the likes
- Spending a lot of time that could be spent in an otherwise productive way, and many others.
As such, it is not uncommon to find individuals who would rather spend less time buying online and avoiding these setbacks. However, this is not to say that online shopping does not come with its disadvantages such as issues with the goods delivered, or even website security issues at times. .
Some of the commonly associated dangers with online shopping are;
Fake goods
This is not a strange occurrence with online shopping. With online shopping, it is mostly a case of payment before delivery of the goods. Therefore, buyers do not get to see most of the goods before they pay for them, except in pictures. There have been a lot of instances of shoppers getting counterfeit of the actual goods they paid for. Fake, wrong goods or lower quality goods are very common with this.
Most times, this can be solved by making proper enquiries about the goods from the seller. Another way to avoid this is making enquiries about the company supplying the goods. This can be done by taking your time to go through available reviews on the company. Sites like US-reviews provide honest reviews about companies and could be a saver from these.
Undelivered orders
Most online shopping sites have specified delivery times during which the buyer is to expect his goods. At times, these delivery days might be extended for a day or two due to logistics issues. However, there are also instances where goods have been paid for and there was no eventual delivery of the goods. This is not possible if you went to a store to get your stuff yourself.
With online shopping, no seller can be held or no physical store you can go to in cases where your order eventually doesn’t come. So there is nothing you can do about this except to probably report the seller on the selling site and this doesn’t guarantee a refund.
No full cost disclosure
A lot of online commerce sites do not disclose the full payment fees to their buyers until the last checkout phase. There are, most times, clauses attached to final payments like delivery fees or certain compulsory membership fees or the likes. The sudden accumulation of these fees at the end of purchase cause a sudden spike in the buyer’s budget which is not fair enough.
Ensuring that you are aware of these possible dangers that come with online buying is very important. It will help you to be able to avoid being a victim of them even while enjoying the advantages that come with it.