Living in a modern world, the physical need and desire to shop
personally at a store is dramatically less now that online shopping is
an option for most shoppers. The Amazon effect is defined as “the
impact created by the online, eCommerce, or digital marketplace on
the traditional brick and mortar business model that is the result of
the change in shopping patterns, customer expectations, and the
industry's competitive landscape” (Mitchell, 2021). While this
negatively impacts businesses that don’t have the ability to sell their
goods or services online, it does provide many benefits to the
customer.
The positive impacts of the Amazon effect are mostly for the
consumer. With an online shopping world, consumers can now easily
search for the lowest price, the quickest availability, and even
compare products against each other to make the correct choice for
what they want or need. It’s easy, some typing, a couple of clicks,
and a day or two later what we want arrives at the door. b No need to
drive to the store, only to find out the item is out of stock. b No need
to stop at multiple stores to see who might sell the item we want
cheaper. It’s great for the consumer, but negative for humanity. b This
can also be positive for businesses as well. If they can launch an
online shopping experience, this could enable them to have fewer
storefronts. Fewer stores mean a lower profit margin. “High real
estate costs also put the retail stores at a disadvantage” (Mitchell,
2021). By ridding this cost from a business, who can now offer
online shopping, they can stop paying these high rents. b Recently
however, online retailers have found a way to include traditional
stores into their market. b Buy online and pickup in store! b Often gives
the consumer a better experience, shopping online and picking it up
instead of waiting for what we want. This benefits the traditional
stores by a potential for prices cuts and a chance to have more foot
traffic in their store. A conveniently placed pickup counter, can
create the perfect impulse buy, if products are placed accordingly.
“Americans impulsively spend an average of $183 every month”
(Cruze, 2021). In this scenario, both the online retailer and the actual
store win! Profit for both businesses and the consumer has fun and
another new item they weren’t even thinking they needed until they
saw it.
One huge negative impact online shopping allows the consumer to
have less and less face-to-face conversations, because technology
saves us from that. On screen behind a keyboard, we can type what
we cannot say. b Most people would be more reserved if speaking to a
live agent, but the online shopping present in everyday life, also
allows us to deal with customer service with a keyboard as well. “As
society grows more dependent on technology, we could lose human
interaction all together” (Lauzurique, 2018). b Another negative impact
of the Amazon effect, online shopping doesn’t produce as much need
for employment as retail locations. Online shopping offers “fewer
opportunities for employment, but also lower wages, unstable
employment due to reliance on temporary workers and growing
inequality across the U.S. (Kaye, 2017). b While not all loss of
employment can be blamed on the Amazon affect, it certainly has
done more harm than good.
I believe that customers should hold some responsibility for ethical
concerns, negative environmental impacts, and decreasing use of
local storefronts. How much, I think it’s hard to put a number on
that. We as consumers inevitably let technology change us. I do
however believe that we as consumers don’t always keep track of the
companies we shop from and how they treat their employees or the
environment. b I believe that it must be a huge issue for us to open our
eyes more often that not. And while it’s shameful, this also is
partially the fault of the businesses. Allowing unethical treatment of
their employees or doing harm to the environment and not being
transparent about these issues until it’s on the nightly news.
Communities can drive around and look at decaying buildings and
being mad for businesses not wanting to be operating there, but how
many have the thought of what they contributed to that building
now being empty? I can honestly say, until this paper, I didn’t.
Sources:
Cruze, R. (2021, December 14). Impulse Buying: Why We Do It and
How to Stop. Ramsey Solutions. Retrieved from
https://www.ramseysolutions.com/budgeting/stop-impulse-buys
Kaye, L. (2017, February 8). Amazon Slammed for its Negative Impact
on U.S. Jobs and Economy. Triple Pundit. Retrieved from
https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2017/amazon-slammed-its-
negative-impact-us-jobs-and-economy/19941
Lauzurique, N. (2018, February 9). Technology Is Destroying Human
Interaction. The Reporter. Retrieved from
https://mdcthereporter.com/technology-destroying-human-
interaction/
Mitchell, C. (2021, October 31). Amazon Effect. Investopedia.
Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/amazon-
effect.asp#:~:text=The%20Amazon%20effect%20refers%20to,and%
20the%20industry's%20competitive%20landscape
