Shopping online has become a popular way for many people to make purchases. It is convenient because one can buy a good from any location without having to visit the shop. It is also fast and a buyer can easily compare prices before buying and get the best deal. The internet has also provided many people an opportunity to make money by selling anything which they want, thus this has created a business opportunity for many people. The internet has caused online shopping to become so popular that most retailers and companies are investing in websites where their customers can buy their goods. While online shopping can be a great experience for the customer, it is wise for one who is making purchases to first ensure that the site is safe, credible, and secure. A major problem with online shopping is identity theft, where hackers access the credit information you enter and which they use to make purchases using your card (Nicholson 1). Even though the site may be legitimate, it may be compromised by hackers who may interfere with financial transactions. Some traders may employ tricks to get customers to buy; an example is drip pricing, where a good which may be $ 7 dollars may end up doubling in price after additional costs like handling fee, transaction fee, packaging, shipping, and delivery (Nicholson 1). In addition, because it is so easy to buy things, the customer may end up buying many things which he/or she may not need, and thus waste their money. This paper will explore and compare three websites where internet shopping takes place and to identify the best shopping site.
eBay.com
A well known website, eBay.com, is a website where many traders put up their products for sale. The products are sold by auction, where the highest bidder for a product gets to purchase it. There is a wide variety of goods for sale and these are categorized into many different categories. This website allows you to be a trader or a buyer and they have millions of people internationally who are registered as part of its community. Due to the wide variety of dealers on the site, there is a feature called eBay Buyer Protection which acts more like an insurance cover to protect the buyer from losing money in deals where the good may not be as it was described on the listing or which has not been received (eBay 2). This feature is only available to buyers who make purchases from the US website and is only valid for forty five days after the purchase has been made. There is also a feature which rates top sellers who have received positive feedback from their customers, which gives the buyers extra confidence (eBay 1).
This site also contains a classified section, where employers post jobs which are available in different regions. There is also an affiliate program where an individual can earn money by helping to increase online traffic to the eBay website and that of its partners. This is a good scheme because it rewards the customer for recommending friends and associates to this website.
Amazon.com
Amazon.com is another website which offers a large variety of goods for sale. The layout of this website is simple and neat, making it easy to quickly find what one is looking for. Amazon offers a rewards visa gift card (Amazon 1). With this card, the buyer earns points for every purchase which can be redeemed for another purchase. Points are also earned for purchases from restaurants, gas stations, and other places where visa cards can be used. This site is easy to use and its layout is simple. There is also the option of being an affiliate where one can earn money by advertising the products sold on Amazon.com. Amazon.com is the creator of the popular Kindle devices, which assist in reading e-books and are distributed internationally. For those who would like to become writers and have written their own books, Amazon works together with CreateSpace, which allows the author to publish a book and have it available on the Amazon website. This is great because it assists people to explore their talents and publish a book which would be very difficult without their help.
Amazon.com also has security feature called the A-to-z Guarantee Protection which is a free guarantee to all buyers who buy goods from this site (Amazon 2). This feature guarantees the condition of the purchased good and its timely delivery. In addition, there is the Amazon.com Bill of Rights, which explains the service offered by the website. This bill assures the buyer of the following: safe shopping; privacy; updates; subscriptions; and informs the buyer that receiving notifications does not make them obligated to buy. Amazon.com also participates in making the environment safe using certain techniques. One method is the Frustration-free Packaging, which helps customers to quickly open the goods they have bought. Amazon has removed the plastic covering they used to protect goods with, and has replaced it with cardboard which is fully recyclable. Amazon also offers this service to other manufacturers who are advised on how they can obtain Frustration-free Packaging Certification (Amazon 3). Amazon also has an environmental program named ‘Kaizen’ program which is a Japanese term that means constant improvement. This program is aimed at constantly improving environmental conditions in its various centers.
Wal-Mart.com
Wal-Mart.com is a shopping site which takes the form of online department store. This website is the online version of the chain stores, Wal-Mart, whose goal it is to make access to Wal-Mart’s products easier for the buyer. The customer makes an order online and later picks up the goods at the nearest Wal-Mart store. Alternatively, one can have their purchases shipped to them.Wal-Mart.com provides several cards which are aimed at making the shopping experience of its customers easier. These include: the Walmart Money card; Walmart Credit card; gift cards; Master cards; and Visa cards (Walmart 1). Wlamart also has a $4 Prescription Program where a paitient is allowed to choose from generic drugs at a low cost of $4 for a month’s supply and $10 for a three month supply.
Walmart.com seeks to make payments secure using a feature called SSL (secure sockets layer) which encodes sensitive data before it is submitted through the internet (Walmart 2). The site also supports a security feature called Verified by Visa (VbV) which works by verifying that only the right cardholder is the one who is buying the product. These security features help the customer to shop without having their information stolen by hackers and thieves.
In conclusion, the three websites reviewed are very popular among users and record a large number of sales. The sites also used by people from many countries around the world and can ship products to international destinations. This can be attributed to the security features which they put in place to ensure that the buyers can purchase their goods safely. These sites encourage the consumer to be part of its community and employ several means to make this happen. These include affiliate programs in the Amazon and eBay sites very attractive offers in the web and very attractive savings on various purchases like the prescription program on Walmart. Out of these three sites, Amazon.com is the best website because of several factors. One is that they have an A-to-z Guarantee Protection covers all purchases. This cover guarantees the purchases and their delivery. While eBay.com also has buyer protection, this service is only limited to certain goods and does not cover others. The rewards visa card by Amazon.com is also very attractive because the buyer earns points not only on purchases on the website but also at other points where the visa card is accepted. The points can then be redeemed for a purchase at the website. A very important factor is also that Amazon.com is very serious about environmental conservation, and they have packaging which can be recycled. They also have programs in their various international centers which constantly work to improve their environmental efforts. In addition, they assist people who would like to publish their electronic books using CreateSpace. By doing this, they are supporting the dreams of many people who would like to be authors and to sell their books.
Works Cited
“Amazon” 03 December 2011. Web. www.amazon.com
“eBay” 03 December 2011. Web. www.eBay.com
Nicholson, Rhian. “The Dangers of Online Shopping”. 02 November 2010. Web. 04 December 2011. http://money.uk.msn.com/your-financial-life/shopping-vouchers/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154547021
“Wal-Mart”. 03 December 2011. Web. www.walmart.com
