Risk in Online Shopping

We can now consider Philippines as one of the countries that primarily use online shopping applications when buying items; wherein you can find every single thing that you might need by a simple click or through some voice commands. People prefer shopping online nowadays because it saves time, gas, and is more accessible. A lot of online shops also offer discounts, sales, and promos. The prices of their items are also cheaper than the prices in actual stores. According to Henneberry (2012), being able to compare and review products at the same time is one of the many reasons why people are more inclined towards shopping online. He also stated that the reviews and ratings from other buyers are helpful in buying online. But as we enjoy our shopping, we may as well consider the threats and disadvantages in using online shopping apps instead of doing the traditional way of shopping wherein you yourself will go to a mall/physical store in order to search, check and purchase the item yourself.

However, in this era, most of us people prefer to be more laid back and just order and purchase an item within the comfort of our home; disregarding all the negative possibilities there is that one may encounter when purchasing an item online. This study would like to gather more information regarding the risks and negative effects an individual may encounter in shopping online.

Our world today is drastically changing. With new technologies being made every day, of course the things that we got used to will change too in order to keep up with the fast paced change in our world. One of those things is the way how we can almost get everything we need through the internet. According to Roesler (2018), a recent study showed that almost a lot of consumers use the internet to supply for their every day needs. In March 2018, McKinsey’s periscope gathered data from more than 2,500 consumers from the whole world to know how consumers get information and purchase products on the internet. The findings from that conducted study showed that there are a lot of transactions happening online. From the data collected, it showed that 70% of the respondents are shopping online and that 40% came from the French, 39% from UK, 33% from German, and lastly, 32% from the U.S. despite being recognized as the most active users of technology. The results from the survey showed that the consumers still preferably bought in-store items if the product has a short shelf-life. The study also showed that the Millennials or people who are aged from 18 – 29 are the largest group of consumers to online shops.

Our technology can do almost everything for us, all while saving time, energy and money, same thing with online shops. But as much as it has its own advantages, it also has a lot of negative sides and risks that we may face such as fraud, privacy concern, security, scamming, and many more.

According to Ariffin, Mohan, and Goh (2018), the findings from their study proposes the possible risks and dangers one might encounter when purchasing online. There are apparently five factors; financial risk, time risk, product risk, psychological risk, social risk and security risk. In which, the social risk was found to be insignificant while the security risk was the main reason why a lot are discouraged from purchasing online. In another study conducted by Mamman, Maidawa, and Saleh (2015) information security risk and financial risk was used because they are found to influence online shopping negatively according to another study. Their findings showed that financial risk doesn’t affect shopping online while the information security affects shopping online.

The study conducted by Masuod (2013) seeks to know the effect of the perceived risks; financial risk, time risk, information security risk, product risk, and delivery risk in the behavior of online shopping consumers in Jordan. To prove the hypotheses of this study, collection of data occurred. Online consumers that previously purchased from popular online stores in Jordan were surveyed, with a sample size of 395 shoppers. SPSS and Amos 18 were used to compute the data collected. The findings for this research revealed that the risks that affect the online shopping behavior negatively are the delivery risk, information security risk, and product risk. There was also no significant effect in the time risk and social risk in terms of affecting online shopping in any way.

According to Claudia (2012), online shoppers also have concerns in regards to the delivery. She stated that damaged products, being delivered to a different address, or late delivery and improper product handling and packaging during the travel time are the things that make up the delivery risks.

Online Shopping

The act of purchasing products online has become extremely popular nowadays. Due to a lot of people having access to the internet, dozens of traditional shops started selling their products online too and more people preferred buying online than going in to stores. In a study by San Martin and Camarero (2009), their findings showed that people who don’t frequently shop online are more cautious and needs to know if a specific store has a good reputation and if the service’s quality is good. Meanwhile, people who buy stuff online regularly may trust a website at once, even if it is only based on their previous transaction and contentment.

In a study conducted by Choudhury, D. & Dey, A. (2014), they suggested if the factors such as gender, internet literacy, website usability, online product price, and educational qualification has any significance in terms of consuming products online. In which, the results of the study showed that the factors; gender, internet literacy, and online product price plays an important role when it comes to online shopping. While the factors of education and website usability didn’t have any importance in online shopping.

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