Zaki1

Daniel Zaki

English 101

1 October, 2019

Online Shopping

In the past, shopping meant to visit a store or a franchise to find a specific item you need,

you had to plan shopping and give up a few hours, but that is no longer the case. The start of the

21st century marked the beginning of revolutionary technological advancements. These

advancements allowed for a new concept that is now very essential. This concept is online

shopping, the first-ever secure retail transaction happened in 1994, and one year later two of the

biggest online shopping corporations were introduced. Amazon and eBay came a long way since

then, they grew into a trusted provider that a lot of people depend on. Nowadays online shopping

is a significant trend, in which a lot of people now depend on Amazon or eBay, rather than stores

which is causing many brands to close and announce bankruptcy. This ongoing trend of Online

shopping is the leading factor responsible for the closing of many franchises and will eventually

become the main provider for consumers.

The closing of franchises at the same time online shopping flourishes is not a

coincidence, it’s directly correlated and connected. Online shopping compared to retail shopping

is much more convenient and available. For instance, Amazon and eBay provide incredible

features that make shopping a much simpler process. To purchase something from Amazon or

eBay all you have to do is access their website from a cell phone or a computer, search your item

and pay, all done in a few minutes. Shopping online saves time and effort in which you no longer

have to go to a store, and you can simply order from wherever you are and have the item shipped
 Zaki2

to wherever you want. As a result of these advancements in online shopping, stores are suffering

from a continuous decrease in sales because stores are no longer the only provider.

Figure 1, American online retailing is growing rapidly,

www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce/#types-of-ecommerce

The graph in figure 1 from bigcommerce.edu highlights the significant effect of online

shopping on retail stores. In 1994 when Amazon and eBay first introduced retail stores were with

no doubt the dominant force. However, this dominance slowly starts to weaken and online

shopping slowly gains more and more of the market. Dependency on online shopping continued

to grow rapidly and as a result, retails lost a lot of costumers and as we can see on the graph that
 Zaki3

online shopping may soon have complete dominance. According to Feedvisor a study on 2000

consumers in the U.S showed that whenever consumers are ready to buy a specific product,

nearly three-quarters of them, or 74 percent, are going straight to Amazon to do it. This study is a

proof of the power Amazon now has, in which it is the first place the consumer looks in. Online

shopping as a whole is consistently growing especially among millenials. The percentage of

shopping done online by Millenials increased significantly in the last 30 years, According to the

CNBC commerce department Millennial now make 60 percent of their purchases online. This

incredible growth shows how online shopping successfully gained the trust of young to middle-

aged people.

It is true that online shopping is very convenient and easy, however, it can also negatively

affect our society. Shopping has always been an event that brings people together, whether

parents and children, cousins or friends, people always enjoyed shopping together.

Unfortunately, this social interaction among people is mainly lost when shopping online. As this

social interaction may not be something we think of with great value but the less we interact the

harder it will eventually be for us to communicate.

 Zaki4

Figure2, https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/its-the-golden-age-of-traditional-retail-not-

its-end-days/

Another negative aspect of online shopping is the fact that it decreases job opportunities

significantly. The more online shopping grows the less people go to stores. With this decrease in

store costumers, profit will decrease which forces owners to cut employees or even closing. This
 Zaki5

lose of job opportunities can be a big issue economically.

Figure 3, https://www.businessinsider.com/dramatic-chart-shows-how-retail-apocalypse-

is-affecting-jobs-2017-10

The graph in figure shows how job opportunities in retail store has decreased

significantly by 2017 and 200 thousand monthly job opportunities are lost compared to 1992. It

is true that there are new nonstore job opportunities but this does not make for the retail store job

opportunities, According to the New York Fed researchers Jason Bram and Nicole Gorton the

"In other words, areas that are losing a lot of department store jobs may not be the ones gaining

online retail jobs." The new opportunities are not necessarily taken by the same people that are
 Zaki6

affected by the loss of retail jobs which means that due to online shopping we now may have

people who will be unemployed.

To conclude, shopping online is an ongoing trend that will continue to grow and expand,

and as this trend grows retail stores will be affected and more and more stores will close.

However, as we will definitely enjoy how easy and convenient online shopping is, we may miss

the whole shopping experience, and even see consequences leading to a more isolated life. Along

with the social consequences, online shopping can also have a negative impact economically.

Retail stores and malls contribute greatly to the economy in which a store usually pays utilities,

rent, and taxes ( federal and city), however, online shopping often does not make any of the

above.

Work Cited
 Zaki7

“Ecommerce 101: The Impact, History & Future of Electronic Commerce.” The BigCommerce

Blog, 22 Aug. 2019, https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce/.

Laurenthomas. “74% Of Consumers Go to Amazon When They're Ready to Buy Something.

That Should Be Keeping Retailers up at Night.” CNBC, CNBC, 20 Mar. 2019,

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/19/heres-why-retailers-should-be-scared-of-amazon-

dominating-e-commerce.html.

Melton, James, and Oracle Bronto. “US Millennials Now Do 60% of Their Shopping Online, up

from 47% in 2017.” Digital Commerce 360, 20 June 2019,

https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/03/26/millennials-online-shopping/.

Rapier, Graham. “This Dramatic Chart Shows How the Retail Apocalypse Is Affecting Jobs

across the Country.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Oct. 2017,

https://www.businessinsider.com/dramatic-chart-shows-how-retail-apocalypse-is-

affecting-jobs-2017-10.