Handcraft Shopping – Online Vs Offline

Many things that were pretty hard to do or to obtain have become so simple since the development of the Internet. Online shopping is one of the many such applications, an activity that many have become addicted to. Some really enjoy shopping and others try to keep it as simple and short as possible.

Following are the advantages of shopping handcrafts online:

1) Online handcraft shopping is the best way of shopping as it is accessible round the clock and if you feel uncomfortable dragging your kids for shopping this way it is easy to counter that.

2) Compared to real-world shopping these are more comfortable, you do not have to deal with the weather – you won’t get rained on for instance shopping online.

3) Here goods are often cheaper as the seller does not have the costs of running a shop and having to pay wages to salespeople, insurance and all of the other running costs of a real-world business.

4) Payment can be done using anyone’s credit card when shopping online. A lot of us are concerned about identity theft when heard about online shopping. Identity theft cases take place in reality in brick and mortar store itself and not online. Nowadays websites are secure with powerful encryption procedures that keep your identity safe.

5) Also here you have the opportunity to compare as many products and prices as you want without having to spend the time and money to travel between several different shops.

6) You can also read reviews that have been written by other people who have purchased the item you are considering.

7) While doing online handicraft shopping you can find and buy products from all over the world not just in your local area.

8) Try to search for the arts and crafts stores that are in your country if you want fast deliveries and low shipping fees.

Disadvantages to shopping handcrafts online are:
1) The main disadvantage is that you cannot feel or see the item you want to purchase; you will have to buy the item relying purely on a photograph and description.

2) You will not be able to purchase an item you need to use immediately online as you have to pay shipping costs and have to wait for the items you purchased to be shipped and delivered.

3) It takes a long time to return faulty goods; you will have to repack it and pay to ship it back to the seller. It may take weeks to exchange a faulty product purchased online.

4) In some cases, handmade store online fail to offer warranties and some sort of guarantees.

5) Despite the fact, how secure the website claims to be, it might have credit card security issues, you cannot always trust them.

arts and crafts stores

Features of an Effective online shopping Cart

Gone are those days when people would actually go to a market for shopping.Shoppinggoods online is the current trend now.Online shopping is the process where consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller through internet. Online shopping cart is a technology that is been in the market for the past few years. It is a software by which anybody can shop or sell any product from anywhere, rather than going into a market. Products like e-commerce, software, games, etc can be sold online and e-commerce payment processing is provided by online shopping carts.

Products can be added as well as removed from the online shopping cart. Shopping carts are mainly meant for those people who don’t have time to go for shopping in the markets; likewise they can save time and money. These new trends lead to the increasing number of shopping carts. In today’s competing world, online shopping cart software is the requirement of each company, to spread their market worldwide. This is quiet useful for both companies and buyers. Profit of custom shopping cart can be increased by increasing revenue and reducing cost. Even though there are a number of online shopping carts, providing communication, data management and security to the clients, each one among of are not good enough, you can rely only on a few.

Following are the features of online shopping cart:

Secure transaction – One of the most important features of custom shopping cart is secure transaction, from where you can develop a customer’s faith and this is how a Shopping Cart Company grows.

Easy back navigation – An online shopping cart should have the option of back navigation i.e., it should let the user navigate from one page to the other easily.

Customer support – You should provide unlimited support to your shopping cart, so in case if you are stuck with any problem, you can troubleshoot.

Automatic calculation of tax, shipping costs and total costs based on information from buyer’s address – Real time shipping rates should be offered by the shopping cart i.e., it does not make any sense in first buying the cost effective product and then add on the saved amount on delivery charges.

Payment processor – Most importantly you should check the number of payment processors to which the online shopping cart is integrated with, so you can determine how good the cart is. If the online cart is integrated with just one or two payment processors it is difficult shop.

Secure saving of customer information – Towards the end you should hunt for the safety and security of the online shopping cart script. If you neglect this parameter, there are chances of your personal details getting hacked while the transaction is taking place.

Enable editing option – Owner should be able to easily add, delete and modify the contents of shopping cart.

International currency payment support – The shopping cart software should support international currency payment.

Contents of final cart page – Final cart page should list all items, prices, user-specified parameters, shipping and handling charges, tax and estimated date of delivery.

Shopping cart is a crucial part of a site and so it is very necessary to satisfy the above conditions.

Advantages of shopping your local handcrafts

Handcrafts can be purchased from any private craftsmen or from shops or even from public markets. From the 3 sources mentioned above, the least expensive handicrafts would be available from the local handicrafts. You can find them in the remote areas of the city or in the villages. No technology or machines are used to create their craft and so they are purely hand made items. Some commodities can be purchased from shops, but here you may have to pay more.  The market sales are also far cheaper when considering shopping from the shops but there could be a considerable difference in the quality of the product. In markets, there could be products from different sources and some maybe not up to the quality that you expect. From local craftsmen, you can choose among a wide variety of selection and pay for the items at a reasonable price.

From local handicrafts, you can find cheap and good quality goods. If you can take some time to go in straight to the local handicraft dealers and purchase your commodity you can save much more money than that you are forced to pay in the shops and other local markets.

Also from local handicrafts, you can get the goods done or created according to your taste and fancy. You can give in your ideas to the local craftsmen on the trend that you require and get them done within no time. But if you go to any art and craft shops you are forced to purchase any one of the products that is displayed in the shop. Local craftsmen are experts in this area as they have many years of experience in the sewing technique. So they will do any kind of intrigued patterns according to your wish and you will be charged only reasonably.

Another advantage of purchasing handcrafted items from the local handicrafts is that here you can bargain on the price and get the goods at cheaper rates. But in shops, they have a fixed amount that you have to pay. But the main point to be kept in mind at this stage is that the quality of the product may vary depending on the price you pay.  However, if you purchase from the best source it is for sure you can get the best and cheap handicraft good from the local handicraft.