Online shopping is known for being both a blessing (everybody has heard of retail therapy) and a curse (who hasn't seen Confessions Of A Shopaholic) and now more than ever I'm able to testify to it. Recently I was browsing through the many online stores available on the Internet as a mean to procrastinate a paper, I found stuff that I really needed and stuff that I really didn't care for. Nonetheless, it kept me occupied and therefore it made me achieve my goal to put off my dreadful paper. I notice, though, that there are several steps people go through when shopping on the Web:

1. Need

You go on your favorite website store to get something very specific that you really need or have been wanting for ever and put the item in the cart but don't conclude the purchase just yet.

2. Curiosity

Once you have identified the object of your desire, the random browsing starts. Something might catch your attention in the "similar" or "people who bought *insert item* also bought" section.

3. New Tab(s)

So you begin to lose track of time and to open an absurd amount of tabs with too many things to see and a random melody plays in the background, while you frantically try to decide which tab is the one that's annoying you with its elevator music without success.

4. (Double) Checking

After finding the infamous tab and closing it, along with all the others, you go back and check the price of your item in the cart. Finding it too expensive, you start looking for other alternatives and sellers that might offer a better deal.

5. Outcome

This could end in two ways, the first is positive and you finally are able to find what you have been looking for and actually get it; the second one has the negative outcome of not buying anything upon long reflection and many different opinions you asked to anybody passying by you during your "judging/deciding process". Either way, you will go online for more because, after all, buying online is way more convenient than physically going to a store and possibly ending up with nothing that satisfies your interests.