The effect of ICT on the way we shop.

In-store shopping Vs Online shopping
Shopping in store and online both use methods of ICT.


Many people are now choosing to shop online to save money on fuel costs and the time travelling which may be even longer if there is traffic. People from all around the world can purchase items online, so the company get a wider range of people.


Shopping online has shown to be good for the companies as it saves money on staff costs and buying a shop to set up the company. 


It can have disadvantages for customers as they have to wait to receive the item rather than paying and taking away the item straight away like in-store shopping.
The customers can also not try on the items of clothing like you can when shopping in-store, the online clothes shopping companies provide measurements but many people still find this to be difficult to imagine yourself wearing the item, then when the customer receives the item and it doesn't fit or they don't like it they have to send it back and may have to pay to send it back also which can be time consuming and expensive if the item is big and bulky.


Shopping in-store can have disadvantages for the customers such as the ques can be longer and waste valuable time, unlike shopping online. They may also not have the correct colour or size of something you are purchasing unlike online where it is more likely they will have all the colours or sizes you can pick from. 


Many shops choose to have stores in towns and an online shop so they gain a big variety of customers, the elder generation who do not have access to the internet who use the stores in town and for the younger generation who use online shopping as they are more in touch with technology.


How buying online works:

EFTPOS & EPOS.
EPOS (Electronic point of sale) is used in many shops to control the amount of stock they have.
It i used when an item from the stock list is scanned using the barcode. This barcode is matched to the item held on the stores stock database and the stock number will decrease by one. The store can use a helpful feature on the database so when a certain product has a small stock number, a message is sent to the supplier so more stock of that item can be ordered.


EFTPOS (Electronic funds transfer point of sale) is the chip and pin way of paying. The amount to be paid is taken from a bank account using a credit/debit card and is transfered to the supermarket's account. I have explained this in more detail further down.

EFTPOS system used
by customers to pay for items.

Self-scan tills.


Self checkout machines are used by customers to pay for purchases from a retailer without direct input to the process by a member of staff. They are an alternative to the traditional cashier-staffed checkout. They have been implemented in most supermarkets and large-scale stores.
In self-checkout systems, the customer is permitted to scan the barcodes on their own items, and manually identify items such as fruits and vegetables (usually with a touch screen display), which are then weighed where applicable, and place the items into a bagging area. The weight observed in the bagging area is verified against previously stored information to ensure that the correct item is bagged, allowing the customer to proceed only if the observed and expected weights match.

The benefit to the customer is in the reduced checkout time because stores are often able to efficiently run two to six self checkout units where it normally would have had one cashier to each checkout. 

Some customers appreciate the ability not to have to deal with anyone. 

The benefit to the retailer in providing self checkout machines is in reduced staffing requirements since one attendant is all that is required to run 4 to 6 checkout lanes at one time.

The time efficiency requires that the customers using the machine be reasonably competent. An inexperienced customer can cause even more delays and older customers may expect the attendant to assist them directly with scanning items, preventing the attendant from dealing with other customers who actually require intervention.

Another frequent problem is the bagging scale failing to register properly the weight of the items purchased. The systems often falsely report that unscanned items have been bagged, or that scanned items were not placed in the bag. These false alerts halt the checkout process and require the store attendant to come and approve the weight exception, often eliminating any time savings that could have been realized by using self-checkout instead of waiting in line for a regular register. 

Self-checkout is vulnerable to shoplifting. 

It can be irritating when purchasing certain items that assistance is needed to continue scanning items as it had not recognised a certain item. It can also be irritating for any customers over the age of 18 to purchase alcohol, as assistance is needed to proceed and pay for the alcohol.

The red circled area is the monitor that displays the items
that have been scanned.
The pink circled area is where the item is scanned and the
barcode is read, if the shop accepts loyalty cards they can
be scanned here also.
The green circled area is the bagging area, this is where items
that have been scanned are placed, the technology automatically
checks the weight has increased (checking the item has been
placed into the bagging area.)
The orange circled area is where the payment is made.
The purple circled area is where the receipt is printed.

Chip and Pin

This is method to pay when in-store shopping. It is used much more than swiping the magnetic strip on credit cards as it has a much more secure way of paying. If a credit card was found by a stranger and swiped the transaction would go through without verification needed unless a signature is needed which they could forge, if a stranger found a credit card and they had to use the chip and pin way of paying, it would be much harder for the transaction to go through as they would have to guess the 4 digit pin number if not the transaction would fail and the purchase would not be made.

How it works: credit and debit cards contain an embedded microchip and are authenticated automatically using a personal identification number (PIN). When a customer wishes to pay for goods using this system, the card is placed into a "PIN pad" terminal which accesses the chip on the card. Once the card has been verified as authentic, the customer enters a 4-digit PIN, which is submitted to the chip on the smartcard; if the two match, the chip tells the terminal the PIN was correct, otherwise it informs it the PIN was incorrect.

They can be very beneficial for customers as it is an alternative method of paying. Credit/Debit cards can be carried in purses and wallets without feeling nervous unlike if you were carrying cash that could be taken and spent straight away, with cards this cannot happen so the person can feel more secure and at ease. They also do not weigh the person down carrying a large amount of change around with them. It can be beneficial for shop owners also as the tills containing less cash means if they have criminals demanding to hand over the money they have little to hand over.

Chip and Pin system.

I asked a questionnaire to 20 people to find out if they believed ICT in shops
had influenced them to buy from them, the results I displayed in a pie chart.

This graph shows as over the years,
the amount of people buying online
and the amount spent online
has risen dramatically!

-video of online shopping-