5 - #itb8 Is the better shop online?
My students have never seen a world without online-shops. So I want them to understand the discussions about the pros and cons of them.
By the increasing distribution of broad band internet the e-commerce started to become meaningful. Also the decreasing costs for transportation and delivery and
the improved diversity of goods fueled this trend. As there are so many, I do not want to mention one in particular.
Because of that stationary vendors have been complaining about the new competition for a couple of years because an online-shop. They argue that online-shops have
unfair advantages because they do not have to pay high rents for a shop, need less staff and have unlimited opening hours.
Also they point to the customers who first get the advice of the stationary working sales personnel and than buy online for a cheaper price. What they do not mention
is that the opposite, getting advice online and buy stationary, is also happening similarly frequently.
Environmental activists criticize the energy consumption and pollution for the increased delivery logistic by online shops. Although they do not take into account
that a customer consumes energy and causes pollution for his way to the stationary shop. It goes on with the environmental impact of heating and lighting a shop.
That complicated balance gets even more difficult phenomenon of cloth-buyers, who order online different sizes and send the unfitting back, is added.
I do not want to say, that the environmentalists are completely wrong, but as far as I know nobody has ever done a clean calculation for the environmental effect
of online-shops in comparison to stationary ones, though quite some discussion about it is happening in the mainstream media.
Please also take a look at my former post of the #itb8 series
- The content of my IT-Basics Class for my next 8th-graders
- Platform before product
- All about the advertisement banner
- The might of the crowd
- Marketplaces
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