A discussion about PayPal in another thread got me thinking about how often you use online shopping. How often and for what?
I live in a small town, and specialty items (electronics, some food) are hard to come by. Even if they are available locally, they may be hard to find and/or expensive. It’s much easier to order some stuff online and have it delivered in a few days. I’m rarely in a hurry, so Amazon Prime isn’t worth it for me – cheap ground shipping is sufficient.
If I see a book I want to read, chances are it cannot be obtained at my library, and even if it can, it will take a week for an inter-library transfer, then I have to go pick it up, and take it back. Easier and quicker to order from Amazon. Then if I don’t want to keep the book, I can donate it to the library for their annual book sale without having to worry about late fees.
Probably weekly. Mostly e-books
For other stuff, we ended up getting a UPS PO Box (NOT USPS). Works great.
All the damn time. I pay bills online, do all shopping other than groceries and gas (and if I lived in a larger metro area, I’d do groceries online too) and a zillion other things I’m forgetting right now. I hate stores, hate shopping, and before online bill pay my stuff was perpetually late because I couldn’t be arsed to keep it all straight and send papers through the mail.
Aside from groceries, I buy things online pretty much any time I can. If I need something today I’ll go to the store, otherwise nope. I’m certainly not lazy by anyone’s standard, but I’m not wasting my time driving somewhere, then walking through the store to find stuff, then waiting in a checkout line, and then driving home when I can just get home from work and have stuff be there. Amazon Prime takes two days. Other places I regularly buy from take maybe one day to a week. Hell, with video games I just have to wait for the download. I know what sizes to buy in every brand I wear, and returns to those places are always easy. The only times I really go shopping anymore are if my wife wants to hit up an outlet mall or we’re in the market for furniture or something.
Amazon prime is a helluva thing.
Unless I need something Right Now, I’m usually content to get it the day after tomorrow.
I hardly buy anything online, except for airline tickets.
I don’t do much real life shopping either.
I did buy a case of wine on line once, that was pretty cool.
I’m another “other than groceries…” person. Oh, and I buy dog food in person from a local shop although I wish I could get it online for cheaper. Stupid conscience.
80% of what I buy is from Amazon, and it’s everything from deodorant to music to electronics. I buy clothes from one or two sites and have them shipped to the local store for free. On occasion I will buy something from WalMart.com because it’s cheapest (for example, a 3-pack of cheap art frames).
I spend a lot on donation sites, usually whenever a friend asks I give. Or the dog rescue I follow. I keep a very full PayPal account, stocked with funds from some online work I do and eBay, and consider all that my “fun money” for spending online.
I also order food online, and pay all my bills online once a month.
I understand UPS doesn’t deliver to USPS PO boxes. How about the reverse – does USPS deliver to UPS PO boxes?
Somewhere between weekly and monthly. If it’s not food, we’re buying it online. I pay all my bills online, too. The only time I buy from a store is I just so happen to be at a mall (because I went to an attached restaurant to eat or something), it’s something I need quickly, or it’d be annoying or difficult to buy online. Like curtain rods, or a type of fabric.
I’ll buy locally if the item is in stock and a reasonable price. But if the local merchant has to order it, then I just order it online - might as well have it shipped to my house rather than make another trip to the local store.
Online is great for items that are hard to find locally. Appliance parts for example.
Me too, online for everything but groceries. I generally buy clothes in a store so I can try them on, but not always.
I am the first “Never!” :o
The computer I use to post with, in actuality belongs to my boyfriend. Every time I turn it on, it tells me that “Malwarebytes, Anti-malware” is expired, needs updated, UPDATE NOW!!!
It also tells me that the “Norton security scan” is outdated, UPDATE NOW!!!
“AVG, Anti-virus” is also outdated, and of course, UPDATE NOW!!!
I’ve offered to pay half the costs of (any of) these, to be able to purchase things online, but he just doesn’t want to renew any of it.
It is partially with great shame that I admit I am not computer savvy. I am not willing to purchase ANYTHING online with my credit card, not knowing what I need to make sure I am secure. 
(The “partially” is very small, because it also keeps me from purchasing things online, which is probably better for me, overall. :D)
Almost everything online.
I love Amazon.
I order my groceries online, but I have to go pick them up. I park the truck; they wheel them out and help load them. They do a good job with picking out produce and such. As long as I order $150 worth it’s free, and I get money off on gas too.
I need to buy some flowers, unfortunately I’ll be doing that in person.
More than weekly, less than daily. I live in the woods - if it wasn’t for buying stuff online, I’d buy a hell of a lot less because we’ve got little in the way of brick and mortar stores around here.
The Geek Squad told me I needed a new charger. They had some in stock for $60. I ordered one from Amazon for $8. A European plug tablet charger, from China, $3 including shipping.
But still. less than one purchase a month for me. But I often go six months without buying anything off a shelf that I can’t get at my supermarket.
Amazon has increased the limit for free shipping. It started at $25, then $35 and it’s now $49. Usually, I’m not ordering that much stuff, so I’ll keep stuff in my shopping cart until the total exceeds the free shopping minimum.
Occasionally. Plane tickets usually. The wife gets some clothes/shoes every now and then.
Air tickets and hotel rooms mainly. Buying actual merchandise is rare. The wife had to spend some time in Israel in the 1990s, because a project she was working on here in Thailand was partially funded by Hebrew University. I e-mailed Lonely Planet in Australia to ask when a new country guidebook was coming out, as the one at the time was a few years old. They offered to send me an early copy of the new edition before it came out. That may be the last piece of retail merchandise I bought, and that was 20 years ago.
I did recently order some legal documents from various counties in the US that I needed to show for the wife’s Immigrant Visa application, and I ordered and paid for those online, as I do with alumni memberships. But physical merchandise? Barely once a century so far.
If paying bills counts, I should probably change my vote from monthly to weekly - I pay everything except the power bill on line, and that’s only because the REMC office is next to the grocery store, and there’s a $4.00 surcharge for paying on line. If we’re talking about ordering a product delivery, monthly is a good estimate.
I have Amazon Prime, because the e-books, streaming music and video, apps, and free shipping are worth $8-9 per month, and package delivery is a happy bonus. The nearest large-ish town with some things I want is about 60 miles away, so it’s cheaper to subscribe than to drive round trip or pay local prices. And when non-perishables go on sale? (Paper towels or a gallon of honey or such?) I’m irrationally happy to see the UPS dude. Looking at my Amazon order history, the last half dozen items we bought were things that would have required a 2-hour round trip if we hadn’t ordered. So ~ $100 per year is cheap, with all of the extras.