These days, technology has made it possible to get things done in a convenient manner. Thanks to online shopping, we can stock our closets and pantries straight from the comfort of our own homes. But while it eliminates the need to spend hours running errands and driving to a slew of stores just to get everything we need, there are many downsides to the world of online shopping.
The concept sounds good in theory: you find what you need, enter in your billing information and eagerly await the arrival of your package. But one of the major problems with online shopping is how easy it is to spend money. Thanks to high shipping costs, many of us fall victim to the “spend $200 and get free shipping” deals and as a result, rack up huge credit card bills. Because buying items simply requires the click of a button, it is easy to get carried away with the “add to cart” option and before you know it, your paycheck has been depleted and replaced with fleeting happiness and lingering regret.
That remorseful feeling is intensified when, more often than not, the items you have bought do not fit you or are different from how they looked online. The excitement that you get from tearing open your package fades to a gnawing disappointment that makes you wish you had read the consumer reviews more carefully. And when you have decided that you no longer like the things you spent an afternoon browsing online for, there is the inconvenience of having to either ship back your purchase or take it to the brick and mortar store to return.
While online shopping can be fun and easy, it comes with the risk of overspending and buyer’s remorse, and is thus not as great as we always seem to believe.