As the first month of 2011 entered, online businesses is the perfect way to start up a business. Selling and buying of items and products and even services can be much hassle free than the traditional way.

Many are favorable to online shopping especially to busy people. They don’t have enough time to go personally in department stores or shops to buy their needs that is why one of the successful online businesses today is having online shops and stores.

Online stores and shops is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. If an intermediary service is present the process is called electronic commerce. An online shop, eshop, e-store, internet shop, webshop, web store, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. The process is called Business-to-Consumer (B2C) online shopping. When a business buys from another business it is called Business-to-Business (B2B) online shopping. Both B2C and B2B online shopping are forms of e-commerce.

Logistics

Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly, or do a search across many different vendors using a shopping search engine.

Once a particular product has been found on the web site of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust quantities, by analogy with filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a conventional store. A "checkout" process follows (continuing the physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a permanent online account so that some or all of this information only needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an e-mail confirmation once the transaction is complete. Less sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail their orders (though credit card numbers are not accepted by e-mail, for security reasons).

Like other online businesses you also be aware of what you have got and what are those negative side in this kind of online business. Here are some ideas and information you have to give importance.

Advantages:

Convenient

Convenience includes the overall ease of finding a product, time spent on shopping, minimization of overall shopping effort. Online shopping allows consumers to shop at the convenience of their own home, and to save traveling time to retail stores and spend their time on other important tasks and hobbies. Researchers identify convenience as a 'fundamental objective' related to online shopping. This is relevant to 72% of online shoppers' claim that they would rather surf online than go to retail store to attain information about a product. According to a study, 72% of online shoppers chose convenience over privacy. In addition to ease of finding products online and shopping time reduction, consumers can shop without time limitation with 24-hr access at their convenience because the World Wide Web never closes. Also, consumers can exchange information online through chatting and discussion forums to help them make wise consumer decisions.

No need for vendors and no pressure to buy

Online shopping benefits both the society as a whole and individuals. The society can save human resources when consumers help themselves by browsing freely online instead of asking for assistance from vendors. In addition, consumers are freed from the pressure to buy from the vendors and can spend more time to make wise purchase decisions. But it is important that Web sites have good product descriptions because it is one of the significant conditions that satisfy consumers.

"Infinite shelf space" available

Consumers desire a variety of products because they look for the right product that will fully satisfy them. There is infinite variety of products available online because online shopping allows consumers to browse through products that are made all around the world without geographical boundaries.

Able to compare product price and features

With the online tools that enable product comparison, consumers can compare product prices and features to make a better decision with less effort. More details are included in solutions section.

Disadvantages

Privacy and security issues

Privacy is the number one reason that non-online shoppers do not shop online. Almost 95% of Web users have declined to provide personal information to Web sites at one time or another when asked. Another recent study has found that privacy was the top concern of customers while security ranked bottom. This proves that many do not trust the privacy of the Internet and are concerned with their credit card feuds, unwanted solicitation, and use of their information for other purposes. Security of Web sites is not the top concern because many shop on Web sites that they trust so that other factors appear to be more important than security.

Expensiveness of the items

Most items sold online are very expensive compared to items bought in a physical, brick-and-mortar shop. This is because other than paying for the item, customers are also paying for its convenience such as delivery fees as well as taxes.

Another disadvantage of using online shops is that the items available on these online shops are normally only those available in the Philippines. Other items, such as signature clothing labels, accessories, and electronics, which are only found abroad, can only be sent through the use of packages, such as balikbayan boxes.

Product category risk

Product category risk is related to functional products such as apparel, perfume, and electronics, that have functions that cannot fully be experienced online. Online shoppers are worried that the products will not be what they have expected by viewing online. This is a clear disadvantage of online shopping because it shows that "the likelihood of purchasing on the Internet decreases with increases in product risk". Apparels in particular had negative rating in online shopping because of it is difficult to feel and see the texture of color online that is incomparable to going to a retail store, even with magnifying tools online. Also, one cannot try on clothing before buying it online, so it would be very inconvenient if the size did not fit the person and he/she had to return it.

Too many choices

Although having access to a very large number of products is highly desirable, consumers have limited cognitive resources and may simply be unable to process the potentially vast amounts of information about these alternatives. Online stores need to provide the variety in an organized way that will facilitate shopping online.

Much better to shop online only those products that you already know and use. So that you cannot blame any person or even yourself. Most importantly its really a waste of money if you just buy a certain product and then you’ll just keep it or may be throw it away.