Shopping Online - The Benefits

The internet ushered in new ways by which we go about accomplishing some, if not most, of our daily tasks. Nowhere is this more true than in the way we shop. No longer is it a necessity, in many cases, to drive to the store, deal with traffic, or stand in long lines, we now can do most of our shopping 24 hours a day 7 days a week by simply reaching for our computer and performing a few clicks of the mouse. In fact, we can even do this on a phone now and bypass the computer altogether.

Times have certainly changed. Virtually every vendor and service provider has an online presence by which to conduct business. Online shopping sites often offer discounts, to the delight of shoppers, for purchases made online due to lesser overhead costs which allow for lower prices. And this is just the beginning, the world wide web has only been around a very short time, and as it continues to evolve, online shopping will only become more and more the norm.

One of the many benefits of shopping online is convenience. People are busy, more times than not, having to be present at a store during business hours is not an option. Online shops are always open for business, and allow for a quick and unencumbered shopping experience that is simply not found in a brick and mortar store.

Shopping online also offers the flexibility of looking around for the best deals. Having to go from one place to the next in search of a better price requires time and effort, but not online. Stores are at your fingertips and can all be visited in minutes. Searching for items in a store is also a lot quicker online. There's no walking, and pushing of carts, up and down aisles to find your item or product.

However, in terms of fraud and protection of sensitive private information, the internet is the equivalent of the Wild West. Unless a website is secure, private information including credit information, name and address could be collected by a malicious party system intent on using such information in a fraudulent manner. So, it is extremely important that you only go through with a transaction inside of a website that is secure and employs encryption which ensures your information stays within the confines of its checkout page.

The world is taking to online stores in droves. Nowhere is this more evident than in the UK. The country is in the forefront of the online shopping wave in Europe. A study conducted recently showed that the overwhelming majority of Britons, with online access, head to the internet for their shopping needs.

Save Time, Save Money, Save Gas - Shop Online at Your Own Mall!

That's right shop online at own your own mall, some malls with over 800 of your favorite stores and shops. Although most people do not yet shop on line the online shopping phenomenon is growing by leaps and bounds and it presents opportunities for people interested in the business aspects of this phenomenon.

Think about it; you can do your shopping whenever you like 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. You can sit in front of your computer in your "bunny slippers" and you don't even have to get dressed or endure the rain or snow or heat or cold or schlepping all those packages out to the car and then unloading them when you get home. How many reasons do you need to shop online?

Your objection may be, "but I have to go to all those different websites and some of them have weird address so I have to look them up and that's frustrating for me", the answer is no you don't. Online shopping has become so simple and efficient that you will wonder why you haven't done this sooner. Another popular objection is "I like to try things on before I buy them". Great! go to the store of your choice online; buy a gift certificate, take advantage of any special deals that store may have online that likely is not available at the store, and then go to that store and try on whatever you plan on buying. And finally the objection; "but I have to pay for shipping", maybe. Many online stores offer free shipping when a certain amount is spent by the consumer.

Generally speaking when shopping online the price you pay will be less than you pay at the store simply because the online site eliminates all that overhead that a traditional brick and mortar store is burdened with, the employees, light bill, air conditioning, etc.

The online mall enables you to comparison shop without running from store to store. Some online malls will put up the individual store icons on a single page, simply click on the store icons and compare the product and price. That's it.

There is at least one online mall that will pay you a percentage of what you spend in cash; some offer other incentives for shopping on their sites. Some malls offer "green sites" in addition to the traditional stores other sites offer a network marketing business opportunity that enables you to participate in the growth of this exploding phenomenon. Whatever your interests may be they can be found at the online mall.

10 Super Reasons to Start Your Own Information Marketing Business

Here are 10 Super reasons why you should start your own information business. But before we begin, we need to clarify that Information products do NOT just cover online money making or business related niches. Any topic where you can teach people can be the basis of you very first information product and the cornerstone of your information empire.

Super Reason #10 : All your information products would be digital - ebooks, videos, newsletters - so you will have a business with a low, low production cost. As long as you can speak and write, you can create your own information product.

Super Reason #9 : Unlike a regular brick and mortar store, you don't need to invest in store renovations, warehousing and staff. All you do need is a computer and an Internet connection to start building your own information business empire.

Super Reason #8 : No need to go through the hassle of getting a business loan because your start up costs are really minimal. Like I said in Super Reason #9 - you only need a computer, an Internet connection, and a desire to make money.

Super Reason #7 : The Internet is overflowing with information and the lots of these resources are free. More importantly, lots of them are freely available to you to re-use commercial purposes. You just need to repackage, rebrand and rework this information to suit your product's niche and you will have your own hot-selling range of information products!

Super Reason #6 : Your production costs is low, you don't have any warehousing costs and you don't need to pay rental, so your profit margins are going to be a lot more than if you were selling a physical product. Profit margins can be based on perceived value - if you have a reputation for producing highly valuable information, or if you are savvy enough to GIVE that perception, then customers are not going to grumble about the price they're paying and your profit margin.

Super Reason #5 : The Internet marketplace is growing at an incredible rate. If your worried that the market will be saturated, don't. As long as people are looking for information, you will have a market. Your information doesn't have to be totally new inventions, but they should give your customers value - a fresh perspective on a niche, a new twist to performing a task, an updated list of top-ten way etc. And if you find yourself wondering what niche to go into, just look around you.Find a highly active niche in the information marketplace and copy what the successful leaders are doing. In some cases, being an affiliate and selling other people's information products can be just as rewarding as creating your own. As long as you don't steal other people's products, slap your own label on it and sell it word for word as your own, the information product business is quick, easy and profitable.

Super Reason #4 : There are more people buying online each year. With the advancement of technology and online security measures, making purchases online is become, easier, safer and faster. Add too that a continuosly growing and hungry market looking for information and you have a mind-boggling sized market. Stats revealed that over 150 million people spent well over $100 billion online for purchases last year alone. Imagine how great your business would be if you had a store where 150 milliion people with over $100 billion spending money were browsing everyday?

Super Reason #3 : You can work anywhere. You are not tied down to a brick and mortar store where you have to be there to keep an eye on staff, take delivery of products and cash in your daily takings. All you need is an Internet connection and you are connected to your office and your customers. You can sit in a Starbucks in downtown New York or in London or on a beach in Bali and you would still be connected to your money making information empire.

Super Reason #2 : You are your own boss. You set the rules. You decide when to work, where to work and how you should work. You are the big kahuna.

Super Reason #1 : Residual, passive income for the rest of your life. I don't mean to say that this is a hands-free plug and play business where you can just relax, turn on a switch and the money will roll in like crazy. That would be irresponsible of me. However, once you've done the main job of producing your information products and put in place a solid, reliable marketing, and sales system, your information product empire can potentially be a source of residual, passive income that works even when you sleep and lasts even after you're gone - for your family. Now if that's not good enough reason to start your own information business empire, I don't know what is.

An Eco Friendly Home Business - Is Shopping Online Green?

Shopping Online is probably one of the easiest things to do once you get the hang of it. So, when I heard that there was a home business that harnessed the power of the Internet and was earth friendly... I was sold. I could do the majority of my shopping online, make money and help the environment! How easy could this be?

Well, the answer is very easy.

My only concern was the issue of online shopping. Is shopping online a green way to go? I did some research and came across a study by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute. It was great and answered my question... Shopping online is green!

Not only is it green, e-commerce consumes close to 1/3 LESS energy than conventional shopping! Not only does online shopping reduce energy use, it has a smaller carbon footprint than the traditional brick and mortar store.

Here is the information condensed.

Almost all the spent energy comes from transportation when dealing with traditional purchases. The average person drives 14 miles for a purchase. The average purchase consists of 3 items. They divided the energy used per item. This is a lot of consumed energy for one consumer and three items! There was also energy concerns dealing with the carbon footprint of brick and mortar stores. The energy these store use just for being open is amazing.

This is where E-commerce and shopping online shine. They used UPS in the studies. A UPS truck has dozens and dozens of packages on the truck. Most of the packages had several items in the box. One truck stops by several households and makes several deliveries on a route in one day. This is where the energy consumption was a third less. (Imagine the gas used if every household went to the UPS store to pick up the contents of just one truck!)

There were two downsides to Online Shopping: Express Airmail and the packaging. Packaging increased the carbon footprint unless recycled materials were used and Express Airmail consumed more energy than regular delivery.

If you want an Earth Friendly Home Based Business, now is the time!

The Benefits Of Christmas Shopping Online

I recently did a radio interview with a station based out of Arkansas and we were discussing the differences between doing your Christmas shopping at the local mall versus shopping online. I made the point that many consumers still like to go the mall to get some of that Holiday vibe and the sense of giving that is such a large part of the Christmas spirit. The DJ that was interviewing me then pointed out that you lose a lot of that warm and fuzzy feeling when you have to fight the crowded parking lot and the rush of finding gifts when you only have a limited amount of time to spend at the mall.

Don't Fight Those Crowds

In this case, the DJ was a big proponent of online shopping and online coupons, hence this is the reason I was on his show, but he brings up some good points. People are starting to use online shopping as a strong alternative to fighting the crowds at local stores and malls. This is evident by the fact that online shopping in 2006 has really gone through the roof and is up 23% over 2005 numbers as consumers are starting to catch on to the convenience and great deals that can be found online.

Information At Your Fingertips

As I pointed out in the interview, the main benefits of doing your Christmas shopping online are two-fold. First, the amount of information and research at your disposal on the Internet is quite impressive. This includes buying guides, user reviews of products, and price comparisons at different online stores. All of these are not going to be readily available to you when you walk into a brick and mortar store to do some shopping. Secondly, many online retailers offer coupon codes that can get you things like free shipping, or 10%, 15% , or sometimes 20% off your purchase. These coupon codes are typically only for online usage. Free shipping coupons in particular are very popular around the Holidays, as many consumers are afraid to shop online thinking the shipping charges will outweigh any benefits.

Keep Your Sanity

So this Holiday shopping season I would urge you to try shopping online and to keep a running total of the savings you received when using online coupons. For me personally, the time wasted in busy parking lots and long lines in stores also has a value, but it is hard to put a dollar figure on time wasted. Nonetheless, I found the holiday season to be much more enjoyable and peaceful when I avoided busy malls and shopped exclusively online. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you and your family!

© 2007, Kyle James