Nowadays online shopping is extremely popular Discuss the impact of it on the environment and on people who lost their jobs because of it

Although the Internet has been around for the last 30 years, it is only these days that online shopping has become a widespreas phenomenon. Long before companies like Amazon or Ebay made it into daily routine, customers used to purhcase items chiefly in physical stores. This essay will revolve around the impact of online shopping on the enviroment and on the employmnent situation.

As computers have become cheaper and Internet connection affordable for almost everyone, online shopping has grown into one of the leading industries in developed countries. The story of Amazon is a good example to understand how quickly this market has developed. Started as a small online company with the aim to sell books, nowadays Amazon is worth billions of dollars and is a giant with several overseas branches scattered all over the world. Many reasons explain the success of this company and of online shopping in general.
Firstly, people can find almost everything they need on online catalogues without leaving home. It is possible to search for different items, to compare them, to watch videos that show how they work and finally to decide to buy the one with the best price. Along the price and the fact that online shops are open 24 hours a day, the most appreciated feature is that online stores ship goods directly to the customers so that they do not have nothing but to pick up the items they want, to pay and to give an adresse. This new way of shopping brings additional aspects, which at first glance could slip under the radar.

Many claim that online shopping has a positive impact on the environment in the light of the fact that people, giving up cars to go shopping, traffic jams and air pollution are reduced. On the other hand, some think that online shopping is more dangeous indeed. They express concerns because online stores produce a huge amount of package, whicjh is basically something people throw away in the rubbish. As a consequence, pollution generated by unrecycled paper, plastic and bags has dramatically increased in the last decades.

There is another front many are worried about. Online shopping is sometimes the mean reason why small stores have to shut down. Online stores have numerous edge over traditional stores, as they do not have to pay a rent or other expenditurs linked to a physical adresse. Secondly, the Internet can reach potentially millions of customers, while stores have to rely chiefly on traditional advertising through papers or word of mouth. The most direct and detrimental effect is unenmployment. Although this is a dwonside of online shopping, we should also notice that there is good news. The digital economy has created lots of new professional figures, like web designers, programmers and in some cases giants like Amazon or Ebay offer people and stores the possibility to sell their own products taking advantage of the company´s logistic.

After all, in conclusion, it seems to me that the advantages of online shoppin outweight largely the drawbacks. People have now more choice, which in turn has always a positive follow out on product quality. Not to mention the fact that people do not waste time searching for items in a shop and do not have necessarily to use the car to go shopping.