Some might say that I’m addicted to online shopping. I’ve noticed that there are two main reasons why I, along with many others, love to shop online.

The first is convenience; online shopping has managed to make our hectic lives just a little bit easier. There are so many more things you can do while online shopping versus if you were shopping in an actual store.

Online, it’s a lot easier to do price comparisons. The consumer can easily go from one product to another and browse the different brands, prices, specifications, features, qualities and performance. And you also have the product reviews that you are able to look at that help you judge a product. I almost always take a look at product reviews before buying something because I know that they are usually honest with what they say.

Another convenience that comes with online shopping is a wider selection. Often I will go into a store that won’t have my size, doesn’t have the right color or will be sold out of the item I want. I have never come across these problems while online shopping. Online retailers often have colors and sizes that you didn’t even know existed.

With these positives of online shopping come negatives as well. The first is that if you are buying any sort of clothing, you always have to worry about if it’s going to fit. And then if it doesn’t fit, how do you return it? Do you have to take it back to an actual store? Is there even a store around you where you can return it? Or do you have to try and ship it back? From my experience, returning something you bought online can be a huge pain.

The other disadvantage of online shopping is the price of shipping. At first you may think, “Oh, $5.95 to ship a bunch of jeans and shirts doesn’t sound too bad.” But depending on how much you shop online, the prices of shipping can start to add up. For some online sites, the shipping is right around $10.

A lot of times, if the shipping is really expensive I’ll end up not getting what I wanted to buy.

Online shopping will only become more and more popular. Although there are both pros and cons, I am obviously someone in favor of it. I like to be able to shop online and multi-task. I also like to be able avoid all the long lines you have to face walking into a mall. I definitely shopping, but buyers beware — it can become addicting.