In today's digital age, almost anything and everything can be delivered to your front door after pushing a few buttons on your computer, potentially even less with options such as amazon.com's buy with one click option. Because of this, consumers are leaving their houses less and therefore gaining less exercise. Also, by spending all of your money online, less money goes into the local community. There's also the cost of shipping to consider when buying online, although more and more companies are now offering this at discounted prices, sometimes even free, which can increase the net price of your product substantially, and the ESG disadvantages of transporting your purchases to your address, but there are some serious benefits to shopping online.
Firstly, it's convenient. It's a time saving method which eliminates the need to walk to town, and what used to take an hour can now potentially take five minutes. Some services, particularly online supermarkets, will remember your previous purchases, so while your first visit to the online store might take some time to complete, your second visit could take merely minutes if you require the same grocery list as before.
With more competition online, prices tend to diminish and so you have more chance of finding a good deal. Sometimes you can buy direct from the manufacturer which cuts out the middle-man and pushes that price down even further. With the advantage of not having to keep and maintain a physical shop, the companies operating online tend to be able to save a lot of money and to attract a larger consumer base off their cheaper prices. Also with more competition comes more variety. If you're looking for something very specific, you are most likely to find it, and if not, you are likely to find a website or a contact you can consult on how to get that. The high street is a little more refined and generic and can't compete with the variety online. There are even websites these days that do all the hard work for you and find the cheapest prices and tell you where to shop to save the most money.
Sometimes you can even cut yourself out as the middle-man. If you require sending a gift to somebody, often you can have it gift wrapped and shipped directly to the intended recipient without having to lay your hands on the purchase yourself.
There no crowded shops online, and for people who don't like being around busy markets or other people for that matter, or for people who don't have time to be waiting in a queue every time they go to buy a new t-shirt, online shopping is perfect. There is a lot less pressure to buy things quickly as people can shop at a pace that suits them, and this also encourages less spontaneous purchases which are often initiated by good deals at the checkout.
One disadvantage is when you're shopping for attire, because you can't physically try on the product. This however is beginning to change as some larger clothing companies offer free return services if it is the wrong size.
As long as you don't mind cutting the social interaction from your shopping experience, online shopping can save you a lot of time and money.