Online shops and mega supermarkets have become renowned market places in the modern society. Although such platforms offer convenience and efficiency for their customers, they are causing significant distress for small local shops. The reason behind the difficulties caused and solutions to tackle down such issues are discussed under this essay.
Online and mega supermarkets are preferable for customers this days. Online marketplaces enable customers to simply see, compare and purchase products while they are in remote places and get delivered in doorsteps of shoppers. Similarly, Mega marketplaces provide a wide varieties of products and services to customers with cheap prices since the supermarkets obtain and sell their product in a wholesale and small fractions of price discount doesn’t affect their profit margins. Online shopping platforms also offers price discounts mostly because they don’t have some of extra costs conventional shops usually incur. For instance, an online seller doesn’t have to pay for rent for his shop so he can decrease the prices of his products in proportion to the cost of rent. Hence, it is interesting to note that online and mega markets can provide to customers more efficient, convenient, and less costly services. So it is clear to see customer prefers to shop online and mega supermarkets. Yet, the more people drive their attention to these shops, the local market would lost customers and be driven out of the market. This effect can be seen with the current situations of local shops, which are left with only essential products rather than being developed into flourished market places with flooding customers.
Although the online and mega market places offers convenience for customers, local markets are also essential since not all products can be bought to online. Online shops may take days to deliver their goods and mega market places are not always around. Rather, it is the local shopping centers that are providing us with small products whenever we need them. Hence, local shops need better protection the competition.
One of the prominent remedies for local shops would be reduced taxation rate and government subsidies. Considering the difficulties they are facing, the government can reduce tax imposed on these shops. For instances, such shops can be permitted by the government to import products free of customs duty or their business income tax can be reduced with a certain amount. Moreover, they can be supported by government by arranging rent free shopping centers. Through these mechanisms, the shops will be able to offer fair prices and maintain their competitive power.
To sum up, the convenience and efficiency that the online and mega market places are offering is driving local shops off from the market. But considering local shops overwhelming benefits, they should be supported through taxation system and government subsidies to ensure their survival.