Online Shopping Essay Example for Free

Online Shopping Essay Online shopping (sometimes known as e-tail from electronic retail or e-shopping) is a form of electronic commercewhich allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. HISTORY English entrepreneur Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979. His system connected a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line. his enabled closed corporate information systems to be opened to outside correspondents not just for transaction processing but also for e-messaging and information retrieval and dissemination, later known as e-business In March 1980 he went on to launch Redifons Office Revolution, which allowed consumers, customers, agents, distributors, suppliers and service companies to be connected on-line to the corporate systems and allow business transactions to be completed electronically in real-time. [3] During the 1980s[4] he designed, manufactured, sold, installed, maintained and supported many online shopping systems, using videotex technology The first secure retail transaction over the Web was either by NetMarket or Internet Shopping Network in 1994.[7]Immediately after, Amazon.com launched its online shopping site in 1995 and eBay was also introduced in 1995.[6] Alibabas sites Taobao and Tmall were launched in 2003 and 2008, respectively. Reasons for online shopping 1) Convenience: Where else can you do shopping, even at midnight, wearing your jammies? You don’t have to wait in a line or wait till the shop assistant helps you with your purchases. You can do your shopping in minutes even if you are busy, apart from saving time and avoiding crowds. Online shops give us the opportunity to shop 24 x 7 and also reward us with ‘no pollution’ shopping. 2) Better Prices: I get cheap deals and better prices from online stores because products come to you directly from the manufacturer or seller without middlemen involved. Many online shops offer discount coupons and rebates. 3) Variety: One can get several brands and products from different sellers at one place. You can get in on the latest international trends without spending money on travel; you can shop from  retailers in other parts of the country or even the world without being limited by geographic area These stores offer a far greater selection of colors and sizes than you w ill find locally. If you find that the product you need is out of stock online, you can take your business to another online store where the product is available. 4) Fewer Expenses: Many times when we opt for conventional shopping we tend to spend a lot more than the required shopping expenses, on things like eating out, traveling, impulsive shopping etc. 5) Comparison of Prices: Online shops make comparison and research of products and prices possible. Online stores also give you the ability to share information and reviews with other shoppers who have firsthand experience with a product or retailer. 6) Crowds: If you are like me, you would like to avoid the crowds when you do the shopping. Crowds force us to do a hurried shopping most of the time. Crowds also create a problem when it comes to finding a parking place nearby where you want to shop and going back to your vehicle later loaded with shopping bags. 7) Compulsive Shopping: Many times when we go out shopping we end up buying things which we do not require because of the shopkeepers’ upselling skills or we’ll compromise on our choices because of the lack of choices in those shops. 8) Discreet Purchases: Some things are better done in privacy. Online Shops enable me to purchase undergarments and lingerie or adult toys without the embarrassment that there are several people watching me and my choices. Product selection Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly or by searching among alternative vendors using a shopping search engine. Once a particular product has been found on the website of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust quantities, like 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. Payment Billing to mobile phones and landlines[13][14] Cash on delivery (C.O.D.) Cheque/ Check Debit card Direct debit in some countries Electronic money of various types Gift cards Postal money order Wire transfer/delivery on payment Invoice, especially popular in some markets/countries, such as Switzerland Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies Product delivery Once a payment has been accepted, the goods or services can be delivered in the following ways. For physical items: Shipping: The product is shipped to a customer-designated address. Retail package delivery is typically done by the public postal system or a retail courier such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, or TNT. Drop shipping: The order is passed to the manufacturer or third-party distributor, who then ships the item directly to the consumer, bypassing the retailers physical location to save time, money, and space. In-store pick-up: The customer selects a local store using a locator software and picks up the delivered product at the selected location. This is the method often used in the bricks and clicks business model. For digital items or tickets: Downloading/Digital distribution:[15] The method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images. Printing out, provision of a code for, or e-mailing of such items as admission tickets and scrip (e.g., gift certificates and coupons). The tickets, codes, or coupons may be redeemed at the appropriate physical or online premises and their content reviewed to verify their eligibility (e.g., assurances  that the right of admission or use is redeemed at the correct time and place, for the correct dollar amount, and for the correct number of uses). Will call, COBO (in Care Of Box Office), or at the door pickup: The patron picks up pre-purchased tickets for an event, such as a play, sporting event, or concert, either just before the event or in advance. With the onset of the Internet and e-commerce sites, which allow customers to buy tickets online, the popularity of this service has increased. Types of Buying Behaviour. There are four types of buying behaviour. 1. Complex buying behaviour is where the individual purchases a high value brand and seeks a lot of information before the purchase is made. 2. Habitual buying behaviour is where the individual buys a product out of habit e.g. a daily newspaper, sugar or salt. 3. Variety seeking buying behaviour is where the individual likes to shop around and experiment with different products. So an individual may shop around for different breakfast cereals because he/she wants variety in the mornings! 4. Dissonance reducing buying behaviour is when buyers are highly involved with the purchase of the product, because the purchase is expensive or infrequent. There is little difference between existing brands an example would be buying a diamond ring, as people believe there is little difference between diamond brand manufacturers.

Anton Chekhovs Selected Stories :: Selected Stories Essays

Anton Chekhov is a master at showing aspects of real life; how fed up people are, how it really is without the everyday pleasantries, and how exploitable people are by one another. Chekhov uses these three aspects with great mastery to show his form of real life in his "Selected Stories." Chekhov shows how fed up people are with one another in his short story the "Jailer Jailed." This story is about a man, who is a prosecuting attorney, is actually living in his own jail; being married to his wife who lets him do nothing but wait on her hand and foot. "I understand what it means to be in jail!" This quote explains just how the man feels living his life the way he is. The above is a direct example in life as how fed up people are. It just makes weird sense that a man with so much power with people doesn't have a prayer with his wife. "Milksop" is another one of Chekhov's stories showing how real life is, but this particular one depicts life without its pleasantries. This story is about a reporter who wants to be invited to this prestigious party but can't go because he works for the press. This shows real life without its pleasantries. Because the man couldn't get into the party because he was a reporter, his public power failed him. "A Nincompoop" also shows real life as Chekhov sees it, but this particular one depicts how exploitable people are by one another. This story begins with a women's payday. But, to her surprise her employer starts to deduct for things she has broken and for other dumb reasons. When he gets all done all she is left with is eleven out of sixty rubles. But she takes them gladly anyway. Then her employer asks if she thinks this is fair, and she agrees. Then her employer says that she is stupid and gives her the

Engines of economic growth Essay

Economic growth refers to an increase in the amount of goods and services that an economy can produce over a specified period of time. Percentage increase in real domestic product is conventionally used to measure economic growth. In order to net out inflation effects on prices of goods and services, growth is measured in inflation adjusted terms or simply real terms. Typically, economic growth means an increase in potential output, a situation where there is full employment due to growth in observed output or aggregate demand (Kennedy, 1990, 34). Engines of economic growth refer to variables or elements that determine the level of economic growth, either propelling it forward or backwards. Normally, such variables are geared at improving the status of economy but not slaging it. However, because of the challenging economic conditions all over the world, many economies are observed to experience depressions and booms respectively to the conditions of the economy. The economy therefore does not assume a straight line but a curve with minima and maxima and sometimes flat shapes. Therefore, engines of economic growth manipulate the path of the economy, as they are also manipulated by the market state (Collins, 2000, 20). One of the engines of economic growth is the level of investments. For capital goods to be accumulated and facilitate the production of greater volume of consumer goods in time to come, certain percentage of consumer goods should be given up in the current time. Accumulations for the future period can only be achieved through sacrifices of the present time. Increase in the quantity of capital goods is called investments. In the economy, many goods and assets undergo depreciation day in day out. Depreciation may be due to use or as age of the assets increase. Investments are made to cancel out such depreciations and other unanticipated costs that may come up in the process of economic operations. Depreciation is occasionally defined as the monetary value by which machineries and equipments become obsolete or wear out during the year. For stability of the economy, the level of investments should be kept greater than the level of depreciation (Scott, 1991, 45). The greater the investments above depreciation, the higher the potential output of the economy in future. Investments are not only made to bring efficiency and increase production in future, but also to serve as a security tool for the economy. This is because today’s economic arena is filled with many risks and uncertainties, which if not well taken care of can devastate an economy. Market area is characterized by innovations in all fields of production including the nature and types of commodities, the level of technology, international standards and requirements and change in customers’ tastes and preferences. As a result, any economy which does not respond to these dynamics can easily be overhauled. However, for economies with sound investments, any challenge that comes by the way can easily be countered. Resources used from investment must therefore come from postponement of today’s decision to consume to the future as illustrated below (Moore, 1998, 43). Consumption Investments 0 C B The diagram describes that economies with high rates of consumption in the current period, will have little investments for the future. This is shown by PPF CC and. An economy that restricts consumption today will have an expanded ability to produce in the future and therefore will be able to move to a higher consumption point (A), operating at PPF BB. This means that investments are determined by the rate of savings of an economy (Rostow, 1960, 10). The analysis depicts that savings should be high for growth in gross domestic product to be achieved. Prosperous economies have ever subjected their citizens to compulsory savings through the government, because without savings, investments can not be realized. The government can do this through increased and enforced taxation (Scheers, 1999, 30). Currently, the mostly pronounced engines for economic growth are innovation and entrepreneurship. The notion that these two aspects can spur economic growth is based on several research works from both developed and developing economies around the world. National priorities have of late encompassed entrepreneurship, innovation and knowledge at firm, regional, national and international levels. Attention towards these variables has been driven by the complexity of the change process and the multilevel and multivariable nature of the world economic competition. In the theory of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs are seen as economic agents who may either operate within or outside firms but pay attention to economic happenings at all levels. These agents consistently seek for information from different economic settings, apply the spillovers of that knowledge and ultimately create innovative results through creation of new firms and enterprises. Entrepreneurial capital is determined by the degree of the presence of economic systems and entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurial capital serves as an important component for economic growth to be actualized. Apart from human capital, financial capital and knowledge capital, entrepreneurial capital has been proved to play greater role compared to knowledge capital (Mclindon, 1996, 51). Innovation refers to the process of creative thinking after which new techniques, products, formulations, markets, designs and ideas are brought forth into an economy. It is this process that takes place before entrepreneurship, because it is carried out by entrepreneurs. Innovators act as watch dogs for the economy. An economy undergoes consecutive reformations because it is influenced by national, regional and interregional factors. It is therefore advisable for any economy to make close observations of what new is coming up in the economy. For economic growth to be sound, ignorance of the outside reforms lags the economy behind. Entrepreneurs enable the economy to realize and respond to new products in the market. Goods and services are undergoing improvements in the way they are packaged, manufactured, blended, distributed and labeled. This slow response to the above aspects may render an economy of a country uncompetitive. Innovation still can call up the economy in times of technological progression in the production channel (North, 1996, 21). Currently, the world is talking about developed economies and developing economies, of which the big difference is the level of response to technology of the concerned economies. Production of commodities has to be as efficient and effective as possible to minimize costs and time. The western world is using high technologies in production and trading activities that have not yet been realized by the rest of the world, or even if the third world has recognized them, they may not have the capability to implement them. As a result, their economies are propelled forward to extremes that the rest of the world runs after with a lot of limitations. Therefore, the ability to realize arising opportunities and utilize them immediately and efficiently has propelled these economies to far ends. It is true saying that economies without entrepreneurs, innovators and discoverers are being exploited by such individuals from developed world. After considering this kind of analysis, it will be significant to state that economic growth is directly related to the level of innovation and entrepreneurship in a nation (Osterfeld, 1992, 14).

Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus - An Insatiable Desire...

Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus - Corrupted by an Insatiable Desire for Knowledge, Wealth And Power The Renaissance period is characterized by a grand desire for acquisition of knowledge and a passion for emerging individuality. Scholars and educators . . . began to emphasize the capacities of the human mind and the achievements of human culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things in this world (Slights 129). However, the whirlwind of change brought on by the budding ideas of Humanist thinkers was met with a cautious warning by one the greatest writers of the era. Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus acts as mask, containing and disguising the dramatists criticisms of Renaissance thinking.†¦show more content†¦Marlowes protagonist is a learned scholar who is driven by an insatiable desire for more knowledge, more wealth and more power. After preaching of his academic successes, he exclaims, Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man (Barnett 104). He is frustrated by the stagnation of his knowledge declaring then read no more, thou has attained that end (104) and decides both law and physic are for petty wits (106). He desires . . . a world of profit and delight,/Of power, of honor, of omnipotence (105). His lust for knowledge through magic evolves into greater goals to use the black sons of hell (155) to gain physical wealth by stealing gold from India and to ransack the ocean for orient pearl (106). After speaking of wealth, he yearns for power stating he wants to be sole king of all the German states when he says Ill levy soldiers with the coin they bring And chase the Prince of Parma from our land And reign sole king of all our provinces (106). Following this remark, his desires reach new heights when he declares Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war Than was the fiery keel at Antwerps bridge Ill make my servile spirits invent (106). These lines show that he is going to create new methods of war to use against humans. His desires have