TL;DR: People today have become victims to the online shopping trend. This has resulted in excess and unnecessary spending that would most likely not have taken place without the temptation of shopping on the Internet.

It is basic human nature. Almost everyone wants to be able to spend unlimited amounts of money and “shop till you drop.” However, this is obviously not plausible. A very common struggle for people today is being smart with and conserving their money. People are always trying to stick to a budget and put their earnings away into savings. Another growing trend is also online shopping. With the emergence of online shopping, it has become easier than ever before to search for things you want and in turn order them to have on your doorstep within days. The negative secret behind this, however, is starting to be unearthed.

The positives behind the online shopping trend are not very difficult to recognize. First, it has provided a much easier and more accessible way for people to find things that they want to buy. This also includes a huge area in which online shopping has a big advantage which is availability. There is a good chance that most of my readers have been in the situation where they are shopping online and a product says “online only.” Companies will most likely always have inventory from which you can purchase online but they will not always have the product available in stores. Another advantage of online shopping is the fact that you can have the product delivered to your door just days after ordering. Finally, yet another advantage is that you can do all of this from the comfort of your own home, but…this is where the negative effects arise.

What makes people so vulnerable to the dangers of online shopping is that they are indeed very hidden and mostly go unnoticed. My last point about being able to shop from your house is the biggest problem of online shopping. Since you do not have to get dressed and get in the car and go to the store, it results in much lazier and willing spenders who get taken advantage of by web stores a s a result of the convenience of bed, couch, and yes even toilet shopping. Consumers also get drawn in by just doing a general Google search and selecting the shopping tab. Now, instead of just shopping on a specific store’s website, you are exposed to thousands and possibly millions of results of the product that you searched from countless stores. I have had first-hand experience with this phenomenon, especially this year now that I have a debit card. I have been in the situation where I was intending to buy something from a specific site but ended up shopping in an open-ended manner on Google. It is a dangerous thing when all you have to do is enter a few numbers and all of a sudden you have spent much more money than you intended. Also, since you can only use a card to pay online, some don’t realize or feel the effects of how much they spend because instead of actually handing over money you are just entering numbers. The Internet can also drag you in by using shipping totals to increase your spending total. Often times, websites will offer a “deal” in which you can spend a certain amount of money and receive free shipping in return. This adds to our list of the dangers of online shopping not only because of these tempting “deals” which actually cause you to spend more, but also because of the sheer fact that you have to pay shipping.

There is, in fact, one more area in which the Internet is a very dangerous place for shopping and that is through advertisements. I cannot stress enough how tempting these are because since I have begun online shopping, I see countless ads aimed at me throughout the day. Whenever I have been searching for or looking at a product I like or am interested in, I always see advertisements about these products afterwards. Whether it is different web pages or just a Google search, it will show the product the computer knows I am interested in and the option to select it and immediately be able to purchase it. This temptation makes it much harder to resist spending more money than you intended.

In conclusion, it is important to realize that the Internet is a wonderful thing and a powerful and useful tool. There are so many good things that the Internet and Google can provide, and I believe online shopping is a great advancement as long as it is used correctly. It is essential while shopping on the web to stick to your budget and not over spend. While companies such as Google can make life much easier, they are not above trying to squeeze every dime out of you. Through advertisements and extremely easy accessibility, shopping online in the comfort of your home is a very easy thing to get carried away with and empty your bank account. Do not go from buying to crying.

Online Shopping 2 / Online Banking flickr photo by danielfoster437 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license