Banking and shopping

The effect of ICT on Banking and shopping

The information age has been sibtly changing the way that we conduct our lives as consumers. This enables users to carry out many different transactions, for example by shopping for goods nd the vast majority of services using the internet, this now allows you to purchase from the internet through your card details and be preccesed through your account.  

Banking has experienced many advantages from recent advances in Information

Technology.

Automated Teller Machines or ATM’s have been a significant advance which allows customers access to their accounts 24 hours a day and so offers a better customer service. The ATM also does not require a bank worker and so saves employment costs, as some one is only needed to fill the machine with cash and occasionally some one to program or service the machine.

Banks are the only users of the MICR system (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition). Banks print cheques with specially designed ink and characters which can be magnetised which then allows millions of cheques to be processed automatically every day.

The internet has helped banking considerably as it offers customers with bank accounts the option to conduct their financial affairs  in the comfort of their own home, 24 hours a day.   

 Shopping has experienced many advantages from recent advances in
Benefits of buying online:

• Generally lower prices - lower overheads have allowed retailers to sell products at a lower price, normally the better the competition the better buy the customer can find.
• Easier - It saves people alot of time and is alot more convient for people as they dont have to go to the shops to look around its all online and genreally more products will be online than instore. A disadvantage of this is that people arent able to try the clothes on, but most stores will allow people to send items back free of charge.



an article about plans to re-write its software applicationso they communicate easily using encryptions.



Information Technology.

One of the latest advances in the field of shopping has been the ability to buy products over the Internet from certain web sites. This allows people all over the world any good they want which would have been otherwise impossible to obtain. Internet shopping also benefits companies doing the selling as they can sell there product on a world wide scale and have potentially limitless customers.

Technology is used every single time you buy a product in a shop. When a scanner reads a bar code it relates the inputted data to database of products, a process is then carried out when the system searches for the product in the same database, the computer then gives an output of price and product name for instance.

These new processes help speed up considerably the time in which shopping transactions take place and also help to show a business what products they have and have not sold and so can work out what goods are profitable to buy and goods which  cause the company to loose money.    

Advantages and disadvantages of online shopping

• There is the convenience of being able to shop 24 hours a day for any type of product imaginable.
•  The ability to shop from home allows many people who have trouble getting to real world shops such as elderly or disabled people or others with transport or mobility issues to still purchase the products and services they need. Many people also have trouble attending shops during their opening hours, such as those that work the same hours as shop opening times, mothers with young children and no one to mind them.
• There are several advantages to shopping online, the first one being the ability to shop at a time that is convenient to you, not just when the shops are open.
• 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.
• Online shopping can also be a lot more comfortable than real world shopping, you do not have to deal with the weather - you won't get rained on for instance shopping online.
• A huge advantage of shopping online is that 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.
• You will also be able to read reviews that have been written by other people who have purchased the item you are considering; you will be able to find out about the item from a genuine user not just the salesperson.
• Finally you will be able to find and buy products all over the world not just in your local area - this makes purchasing hard to find items a lot easier.

Disadvantgaes of online shopping

• The main disadvantage of shopping online is that you have to pay shipping costs and have to wait for the items you purchased to be shipped and delivered. (This could take several weeks if you have purchased a product from overseas, and the costs of shipping may outweigh any savings you made on the purchase price.) You will not be able to purchase an item you need to use immediately online.
• Another disadvantage is that you have to buy the item relying purely on a photograph and description, you cannot feel or see the item you want to buy.
• It can sometimes be quite hard to judge the size or quality of some items purely from a photograph.
• The final disadvantage of shopping online is that it is much harder and takes longer to return faulty goods; you will have to repack it and pay to ship it back to the seller. It can literally take weeks to exchange a faulty product purchased online.

In summary, the main advantages of shopping online are convenience and cost savings, while the main disadvantage is that the item is not immediately available, and you cannot inspect it personally before you make your purchase.

   Banking:   

Barclays bank has introduced Internet banking but now because of this branching out into new technologies they have begun to close down some of their branches which have resulted in loss of jobs and many people not connected to the web no access to their accounts.

Shopping

The Internet shopping company Amazon have set up their business on the internet and offer products across the World. They have potentially limitless customers and have become an extremely large organisation which is well known across the world.   

The advantages of online banking

• First, online banking is convenient.
• It allows you to perform transactions, pay bills and check balances 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• The bank virtually never closes because it is as accessible as your PC or laptop computer.
•  No matter where you are in the country or in the world, you can visit your online bank and handle money matters. You can even schedule to pay several payees ahead of time rather than keeping up with paper bills or trying to remember when to visit a payee's web site to make an online payment.
• Your bank will automatically send the payments on your behalf in the amounts and on the dates you specify.
• Online banking is fast, efficient and effective.
•  Through the internet, transactions are typically performed and executed at a faster rate than ATM's. In addition, online banks give you the ability to handle several bank accounts (checking, savings, CDs, IRAs, etc.) from one site.
• The majority of banking sites are also compatible with programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money, so as to allow for more effective management of assets.

Disadvantages of online banking

• The main issue for most people is that of trust. They may wonder if their transaction went through successfully or if they clicked on the correct button. The best way to overcome this uneasiness is to make a habit of printing the transaction receipt. Keep this receipt until your bank statement or online account view confirms that you have successfully executed the transaction.

• Online banking sites can also take a while to start up and can be difficult to learn at first. Some banks require customers to provide some form of photo identification in addition to signing a form at one of their branches. Spouses may also have to sign a power of attorney if you both plan to access and handle your accounts together online.
• In addition to all of this, it may take a while to learn how to use your banking site. Most if not all banks will offer an online banking tutorial. Some even offer live customer support for online banking via chat, email, or phone.

Clearly, online banking has both advantages and disadvantages. It simplifies life for some people and for them it is frankly a better way to bank. For others it may be a little more complex and downright intimidating. In light of these two perceptions, more and more banks are offering online banking as a viable option for their customersas when they have got used to it its an easier process.


Tills

In shops tills have become alot more interactive from basic tills which only add numbers together, all of these are connected to a database, this will allow them to keep on top of how many items there are, this will help them when them to make orders as it makes them aware of when certain stock is low. The tills also need to be aware of which offers/deals are in within the shop. Also tills have scales in when paying for fruit or veg the system will automatically know which fruit/ veg is on. Tills will also tell you how much VAT there is on the total of shopping and how much money you have saved through offers throughout the shop. Although this is a big advancement of shopping there are some disadvantages aswell such as, people could see your personal information, the weights in a till are very sensitive so could be charged more for what you are actually getting.

This is an example of an offer that barclaycard are doing for customers.

These are the results i gathered from asking 7 people aged between 16-17 years old. My results above showed that 2 out of the 7 of peope owned a credit card and and 5 out of the 7 didnt. Although therer was a few people that didnt own a credit card all 7 owned a debit card and a bank account.