The development of information technology, especially the creation of internet, has changed the way consumers shop dramatically. The number of online consumers has been increasing. There are many beneficial aspects for consumers. However there are also some aspects that can be a hurdle. This essay describes three main aspects of online shopping such as convenience, easy access to product information and concerns about security and privacy and argues that online shopping will be more popular than traditional one in the future.Convenience is the most important aspect of online shopping. Consumers of modern society are getting busier than ever before, so they do not have enough time to shop offline. Using internet, they can buy commodities at twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. They do not need to bother themselves going around every corner of traditional shops to find the product. According to Ahuja, et al (2003), 30% of respondents in a survey said that convenience is the primary reason to shop online. As society changes to a more industrialized one, online shopping as the way of convenient shopping might be more popular than traditional one in the future.Easy access to product information is another main aspect of online shopping. Many consumers use the internet as a tool to find products. Online shoppers search the product information in detail, compare the price, browse reviews and recommendations of other buyers, and pay for the product online at home. Reviews and recommendations by experts and early adopters also may be useful information to online shoppers. (Chang, n.d.) Both the number of internet users and the number of information available on the internet have been increasing and will increase more. So, these increased internet users and information on the internet might help online consumers to find what they want on the internet more easily in the future. The more convenient online shopping becomes, the more popular online shopping will be in the future.There are not only aspects of online shopping that are beneficial to consumers but also a few significant problems. Many consumers do not shop online due to the concerns about security and privacy. Newspapers sometimes release the news about hackers on internet shopping mall who destroy transaction system and accidents that leak the personal and critical information of clients. These cases are serious threats to online shopping market. Jeffery (cited in Lokken, et al, 2003) showed that 42% of the 1,500 participants said security was a main concern when they shop online. But online shopping malls are developing the technology to protect their customers from a hacker’s attack. As an information technology improves, online sellers can overcome the concerns about security and privacy. It will help online consumers to shop more safely and securely in the future.In conclusion, there are not only aspects of online shopping that are beneficial to online shoppers such as convenience and easy access to information but also aspects that may be a barrier to online consumers such as concerns about security and privacy. Even though there is a hurdle that blocks the consumers to shop online, the hurdle is likely to be overcome as the technology of internet security improves. So, internet shopping will become more popular than traditional shopping in the future.References:Ahuja, M. Gupta, B. and Raman, P., 2003, ‘An Investigation of Online Consumer Purchasing Behaviour’, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 46, Issue No. 12, pp145~151Chang, C., n.d., Online Shopping: Advantages Over The Offline Alternative, <www.arraydev.com>Lokken, S. L. Halbert, L. and Stanford, C., 2003, ‘Comparing online and non-online shoppers’, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 27, Issue No. 4, pp 26-131.PS. it is assey for AEP8 in Insearch UTS term 4 in 2009