Shopping on the Web and Shopping in the Street ? a Comparison ...

It is often claimed that more people shop online than do not; or that the number of people shopping online is rising beyond the number of people shopping in the street. In many areas this is probably true. Certainly entertainment and leisure shopping is done online much more frequently than off, a result of the fact that people can find more stuff online, get better prices and don?t have to drive anywhere to get what they already know they want.

That?s the rub, right there. With a CD or a DVD, you already know what you?re getting ? and you have probably heard clips of the music, or seen bits of the movie, before buying the item. Certainly new CD purchases can easily be made with a ?listen to the MP3? function forming part of the buying process. You know what a CD looks like, and how big a DVD cases is. There are, in other words, no surprises beyond potentially discovering that your once-favourite band is now rubbish.

Buying other stuff, though, like clothes and jewellery ? now that?s a different story. It doesn?t matter how good the photos are, or how well lit the watch model might be. Whenever you buy something because of how you think it will look, your opinion is changed when the item arrives on your doorstep.

This is not, by the way, to suggest that this is always a bad shift in opinion. Mostly it?s neutral. You tend to think something was going to be bigger than it actually is, or smaller, or a slightly different colour ? but overall it?s essentially no surprise. Occasionally, you get a real departure from what you thought, but not often.

The point, though, is that wearing things and using accessories (like watches and jewellery) to alter the way you look has always been about trying them on. Seeing the item in the flesh is an intrinsic part of making that kind of buying decision, and it is one that the internet has never quite been able to match.

This is why a whole new way of buying clothing and accessories has developed. It?s a mishmash of buying online, where prices are always potentially cheaper and availability is usually greater; and buying in stores where you can look at the item, touch it and spend some time with it before you make your decision.

The technology enabling it is the smart phone ? and the smart business is just waking up to the fact that, far from discouraging browsing for items online while customers are in store, it can make its shop part of its website.

Let?s say you want to buy mens watches. You go out to a relevant store and you find the models you like best. Now you get your smart phone out and see if you can find them cheaper anywhere else.

The store that encourages this, or that uses its bricks and mortar presence as a shop front for its website, keeps the customer. The store that doesn?t, doesn?t. In simple terms ? no-one is going to pay more for the same watch than they have to, when they can order online there and then, walk away and wait for it to be delivered. In this way the shipper gets the best of both worlds ? seeing and feeling the item and still paying online prices for it.

Author Bio : Diyana Hall is an online business analyst. She is compiling a report about online-bricks and mortar crossover based on customers who buy mens watches.

Source: http://www.whatishowto.net/2013/03/01/shopping-on-the-web-and-shopping-in-the-street-a-comparison/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shopping-on-the-web-and-shopping-in-the-street-a-comparison

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