The popularity of online shopping in the Philippines are becoming more apparent nowadays, especially when different business establishments today have come to use the internet to do their business. Online gift shops, flower shops, apparel shops, toy shops, and online philippine buy and sell shop are among the kinds of online shops that Filipinos have established on the internet. So what made online shops so popular in the Philippines or in other countries?

Advantages

The most common advantage that online shops or any other kind of online businesses is its convenience. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have Internet access both at work and at home. A visit to a conventional retail store requires travel and must take place during business hours. Searching or browsing an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of a physical store. This is much preferable for a lot of Filipinos, especially those Filipinos working abroad. Because of online shops, Filipinos that works abroad can easily and conveniently philippine buy and send gifts or any other kinds of stuff to their families at their own leisure.

Though online shopping have opened up new possibilities for both consumer and business, several problems have also been cited from online shopping. One common problem is fraud and identity theft.

Disadvantages

Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store. Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases using stolen credit cards or fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase. With a warehouse instead of a retail storefront, merchants face less risk from physical theft.

Being new in this trend, many Filipinos have already been a victim of fraud and identity theft. Many business establishments in the philippine buy and sell business or any other kind of business have also been under attack of these problems. To lessen such incidence, a number of resources have offered several advices on how Filipino consumers and other consumers can protect themselves when using online retailer services. These are:

* Sticking with known stores, or attempting to find independent consumer reviews of their experiences; also ensuring that there is comprehensive contact information on the website before using the service, and noting if the retailer has enrolled in industry oversight programs such as trust mark or trust seal.

* Ensuring that the retailer has an acceptable privacy policy posted. For example note if the retailer does not explicitly state that it will not share private information with others without consent.

* Ensuring that the vendor address is protected with SSL or Secure Sockets Layer when entering credit card information. If it does the address on the credit card information entry screen will start with "HTTPS".

* Using strong passwords, without personal information. Another option is a "pass phrase," which might be something along the lines: "I shop 4 good a buy!!" These are difficult to hack, and provides a variety of upper, lower, and special characters and could be site specific and easy to remember.

Although the benefits of online shopping are considerable, when the process goes poorly it can create a thorny situation. This is why its very important that before making a purchase on an online shop, make sure that every documents or any other security measures are present.

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