Samples / Task 2 essay / Two part question / Band 7

Why people shop online, and what it does to the high street

A worked IELTS two part question answer on online shopping, with a band estimate for each criterion and marked evidence.

The question

More and more people buy their goods online rather than in shops. Why is this happening, and what effect does it have on high street shops?

In recent years more and more people prefer to buy the goods on the internet instead of going to the shops. This essay will explain the reasons for this change and describe the effect it has on the shops in the town centre. There are several reasons why online shopping become so popular. The first one is the convenience. A person can order anything at any time, even at midnight, and he does not need to travel to the town or to find a parking place. This is very useful for the people who work long hours or who have small children. The second reason is the price. An online shop does not pay the rent for a big building in the centre and it does not need many staff, so it can sell the same product cheaper. Also the customer can compare the prices of many shops in a few minutes, which is impossible in the real world. Finally there is much more choice online, and a small town shop cannot keep every size and every colour in the storage. The effect on the high street is mostly negative. Many shops lost their customers and they had to close, and in some towns the main street now have a lot of empty windows. This create unemployment for the shop assistants and it also make the town centre less attractive, so even less people come and the problem become worse. However, there are some positive effects too. The shops which survive are often the ones that offer something the internet cannot give, for example a coffee shop or a hairdresser, so the town centre is slowly changing into a place for the services instead of the products. In conclusion, people shop online because it is convenient, cheaper and offer more choice, and the main result is that traditional shops must change their business or close.

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This answer was written by a language model to a real exam question, then scored by Bandly against the four public band descriptors. The band is a software estimate. No examiner has marked it, and the band a real examiner would award may differ. Scored with hand-authored on 2026-10-11.

Estimated overall

Mean of the four criteria, rounded the way the exam rounds it.

Task Response 8

Your response is band 8 for Task Response because you clearly address both parts of the task and develop relevant, well‑supported ideas, but the discussion of effects on high street shops is not fully extended to the depth expected at band 9.

Coherence and Cohesion 7

The response demonstrates a clear progression of ideas and appropriate use of cohesive devices, but some over-use of simple linking phrases prevents it from achieving a higher band.

Lexical Resource 6

The candidate uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, but attempts to use less common vocabulary are sometimes inaccurate, and there are some errors in word formation and spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy 7

You use a variety of complex structures and produce frequent error-free sentences, but a few errors in verb tense and subject-verb agreement prevent a higher score.

What would take this higher

To raise your Lexical Resource score from a band 6 to a band 7, you need to use a wider range of vocabulary with greater precision and avoid repetitive phrasing. For instance, instead of repeatedly using basic terms like "shops" and "people," you could incorporate more sophisticated synonyms such as "retailers," "consumers," or "merchants." Additionally, refining awkward collocations like "keep every size... in the storage" to "maintain inventory" or "keep items in stock" would demonstrate the natural word choice required for a higher band.

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