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The Effect of Online Shopping

Afra Wang

“You can sell whatever you like online. It’s not weird at all.” This is a slogan you can find in a popular online shopping website. Online shopping means that people can buy things they like without going out and often at lower prices. Moreover, people can also find some rare and unique products in online stores. Online shopping becomes a trend in today’s world. It brings us a lot of convenience in our life; however, it has also brought about some negative effects. 

The first negative effect is that it is easy for people to get addicted to online shopping. According to my observation, once people start shopping online, it is likely for them to be attracted by the various products they see in online stores and then they cannot control their desire to buy those products. With only one simple click, they can buy whatever they want. They may shop again and again without self-control. Therefore, many of them will become impulsive shoppers. Furthermore, when people are addicted to online shopping, they may reduce in-store shopping activities. Thus, they may not go out very often to interact with others in person.

The second negative effect is that people often need to take a risk when buying products in online stores. Discrepancy between the products shown in online shopping websites and the real products is a major problem. People may receive a product which is different from what they see online. Another problem is the source of products. People may not know whether the products they bought are genuine or counterfeit. Moreover, the products they bought may be damaged in the process of delivery. Sometimes, it is hard to ask for an exchange or a refund if the seller is not reliable.

The third negative effect is that credit card fraud may become more serious through online shopping. Most online stores request shoppers’ credit card validation. Therefore, their credit card numbers may be revealed to others or stolen by some hackers who copy and use them illegally. Those people may use the information found from your credit card account to buy a lot of things without paying anything.

Online shopping makes our life much more convenient, but we cannot ignore its negative effects. If we keep our desire under control, we will not become addicted to it. In addition, we should pay more attention to the descriptions of the online products that we would like to buy. Read every word that the sellers wrote before paying money and do not shop impulsively. Moreover, we should be careful when using credit cards to buy things online. Many potential risks exist in online shopping. If we are aware of those risks, we can prevent ourselves from encountering problems in online shopping.