Online shopping has become one of the best and most convenient ways to get the things you need. Anything from gadgets to gifts to groceries. Online shopping is the action or activity of buying goods or services via the internet. 78% of shoppers use the internet to purchase or research future purchases every year. A couple of the top online stores are Amazon and eBay.

Some of the upsides to online shopping is the convenience of it. Shoppers never have to leave the office, home, or bed. The items purchased will come to them. A lot of times online prices are better. There is also a lot more variety. Sometimes stores can be a little picked over, where the size or color of what is needed is not in the local stores. The items can usually be found online with the sizes and colors that are wanted, and if they are not then visiting another online store that could be anywhere in the world and are not limited by geographic area. Comparing the products is also a plus to shopping online. In stores, there are no reviews on the products whereas online one can check the reviews to see if the product should be bought or if it is cheap and not what the description says it is.

Amazon is the world’s biggest online retailer. On amazon.com, one can buy almost, if not everything. Amazon also has Amazon Web Services. AWS is a cloud computing platform. There is also amazon prime which is a paid subscription either once a year or each month that that gives the users benefits, such as free shipping, amazon prime music streaming, amazon prime video, and many other prime benefits. Amazon music is an app that prime members can use to download free music. Amazon prime video is a different app that gives prime members thousands of different television shows and movies that normal amazon video members do not have access to. Amazon has everything from the normal stuff one might buy on an online store, to TV shows and movies.

EBay is the world’s largest online marketplace. It is a place for buyers and sellers to come together and buy or sell almost anything. On eBay, one can bid on items or buy them on the spot. Bidding on eBay is just like bidding in an auction. The seller sets a price and the buyers raise the price until only one is willing to pay for it. Buying is just like every day online shopping, that’s the price and you can choose to pay for the item or not. As for the sellers they can sell almost anything they want or need to and they set the prices. They can also choose if the items are going to be biddable or just buyable.

Besides Amazon and eBay, Walmart has online shopping too, but it’s not just another site to purchase items. Walmart now has online grocery orders. The shoppers can put all of the items needed into an online cart; the employees at Walmart will get the items and put them all together for pick up. Then buyers can go pick them up in store. It is a quick and easy way to get grocery shopping done.

Recently, Barnes & Noble fired many staff members, saving the business $40 million annually. Walmart is also laying thousands of staff off after publicizing bonuses and benefits. Amazon is cutting hundreds of employees from their headquarters. All of these downsizes are due to the fact that there isn’t the need for as many employees because many people, now more than ever, are buying a lot of their products online instead of in-store.

There are still some people who prefer to shop in-store compared to online. Whichever way works best for you, online shopping does prove to be a better experience whether it is convenience, variety, or it is cheaper.