Disadvantages Of Online Shopping

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Online shopping is a kind of electronic commerce that consumers could purchase products or services and finish the payment directly through specific websites. Taobao, an online shopping platform, is becoming more popular among teenagers in recent years. The increasing significant of online shopping arouses public concern. Some customers appreciate this form of shopping due to its convenience. While some of them concern that it might trigger negative effects on teenagers. This paper examines both the arguments for and against Hong Kong teenagers using Taobao for online shopping. Following this, a conclusion would be delivered to summarize both the advantages and disadvantages of the issue. One of the advantages of shopping online via Taobao is convenience to daily life. It shortens the purchasing time. Most of the Hong Kong teenagers are students who…show more content…
Unlike physical shopping, online shopping adopters are unable to have face-to-face communication with the shop owners. Only text message is available for consulting product information, which might be ineffective. Limayem, Khalifa and Frini (2000) observe that the online customer services are often unsatisfactory. They report that some consumers are disappointed towards the integrity of product information given by the online shops. Usually, appearance of products could only be inspected by photos. However, it is worth-concerned that the product photos on Taobao are often computerized, which indicates limited cognition of customers towards the authentic information of products. Fan (2005) highlights that the consumers might be threatened by the risk of product intangibility in online shopping. For example, Brassington and Pettitt (2006, as cited in Zhao, 2012, p.12) mention that “online consumers cannot touch or check the products in front of their faces”. Therefore, interests of consumers might be harmed when the product quality is
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