In person for me…I need instant gratification. I don’t have the patience to wait for the item to be shipped.
I like shopping in person, but only up to about 30 minutes. After that I start to get tired and grumpy. I don’t like hard sells, but one of the upsides of the UK’s famously surly customer service is that shop assistants don’t usually pester me like that.
When I’m buying clothes and shoes, I definitely like to try them on first, because it’s difficult for me to tell how well something fits, or how it feels, just by looking at it. I also like going into clothes shops (again, for <30min) because I might come across a style or color I like that I wouldn’t have sought out on my own.
I prefer to shop online whenever possible. But, when I have to shop in a store (clothing, for example - I hate having to send it back or find somewhere to return it), I’m probably the person the sales staff was created for and possibly hates. I generally have a very good idea of what I want, walk in and find someone to help me right off the bat. I give them my size and what I’m looking for - for example, I need a black shoe, a brown shoe and I like red shoes - I prefer kitten heels or low heels, I tend to avoid flats and stilletos; or, I need a suit, I like grey and brown and would like a colorful shirt. My size is X, and I’ll try on whatever you get me.
I don’t particularly like having to wade through clothing or shoes and have someone else do it for me whenever possible. I’m not rude about it, and I’m not going to bark at someone if they bring the wrong size, and I love it when someone tosses in something they think I like and would look good on me regardless of what I’ve asked for, but I just don’t like the whole process of browsing. I’m also cheap if left to my own devices. I’ll look at the clothing, say, “This looks perfect,” then look at the price tag and discard it even if it was exactly what I was looking for. That wouldn’t be a problem if my wardrobe weren’t often sorely lacking specifically for that reason; if someone else brings it to me, though, I’m much more likely to buy.
LOVE shopping online. Everything but groceries (and even a few of those). ETA: or shoes; I’ve been burned too many times buying shoes online. Then NEVER fit right and I hate return shipping. But for everything else:
- Comparison shopping goes to a whole 'nother level online. I can compare ALL the prices, I can look at ALL the options, I can read reviews, etc. etc. I can be as geeky as I want and use a calculator or even a spreadsheet. I can save pictures to my computer and put two of them right next to each other. I can email links to my husband to get his opinion.
- I hate parking. Not that keen on driving, either.
- I hate spending time in malls and most shopping districts. I just don’t like stores much. I don’t like being in an immersion capitalist experience. I don’t like the smells, or the canned music, or the impulse-buy-crap racks, or the corporate branding, or the salespeople being chirpy, or the other customers being clueless and wandering around aimlessly in my way, or any of it. I don’t mind cool little mom & pop shops so much, but there’s not enough of those around here for me to get everything I need.
- I can spend as much or as little time as I like online. I can get bored and stop, then pick it back up whenever. I can go make a tasty sandwich! I can click “Buy it Now” at 3 AM.
- I can use the Evil-Fighting Power of Google. I can save detailed Advanced Searches on eBay and get results emailed to me. I can ask Dopers what they use, and get links. The intartubes is just that awesome. With AdBlocker+ on, I don’t even have to see the equivalent of the impulse-buy-crap racks online.
- Online sellers usually put tons of the information I want right in the listing. I usually have to (gasp!) ASK someone at a regular store, which means finding someone, who often doesn’t actually know, seeing as how they’re a minimum-wage retail slave with little if any training. Sometimes it’s info a live person at a store wouldn’t have anyway, like measurements for a garment.
- Getting packages in the mail is fun.
Probably other reasons too; this is the first stuff I thought of.
Are you me? my twin?
My wardrobe is even more lacking now that I got around to clearing out stuff that doesn’t fit and/or that I’ll never wear again unless forced at gunpoint. Haven’t replaced most of what was cleared out.
I usually do have the time (or make the time) to go to a B&M store. I do a fair bit of shopping online, but, for instance, the other day, I called a few local bookstores before going online. I would’ve preferred to shop here in town, but I didn’t want to wait a week for a product. I usually have a good idea of whether or not what I want is at a particular store.
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This, precisely. No traffic, no parking lot stupidity, no absent or rude cashiers, no waiting in line.
I voted for in-store, but the real answer is, it depends. I generally wear size 13 shoes, but they were really too small and stores don’t carry 14s. But Zappo’s does and I always buy the same model and now I have a pair of size 14. Many things are like that; the online selection is generally better. On the other hand, I just saw an ad for a machine that allows you to store up to 5000 CDs and play them back at your leisure. But I have many questions and I think this gadget is sold only online. So I probably won’t buy it, since it is really unknown (and rather expensive).
Always online, possible exceptions for cheap/used clothes, used books, and perishable food.
It’s easier. I don’t have to get bundled up, get in the car, drive across town, park, go in the store, look around… I don’t have to deal with salespeople. Doing research and comparison shopping are way easier online. If I find something I’m interested in buying, I don’t have to decide right away; I can sleep on the decision, and if/when I decide to purchase, I’m just seconds away from doing so.
And, screw instant gratification: I like anticipation. I like having something to look forward to. I like getting [del]presents[/del] packages in the mail.
There is no way I can sufficiently convey the depths of my hatred for UPS. If I order stuff online, they don’t tell me how they are going to ship it, and then it comes UPS, and UPS won’t deliver stuff to my home (and I am not supposed to get packages delivered to work) and UPS is 30 miles from my home (60 miles from my work) and not open evenings or weekends, so I have to take time off work, drive the 120 miles round trip to pick up my package. This is a significantly worse experience than stopping off at the mall on my way home and just buying what I need.
It depends on the item and how I’m feeling, and whether I’d have to ship the item to someone in another city.
If I have to ship something, then it’s about 99.99% certain that I’m going to shop online, and have the item shipped. This is an area where online shopping is clearly superior. I don’t get to see my parents or daughter in person as often as I’d like, but there are several gift giving occasions throughout the year.
There are times when I want to get out and browse in person. I’ve also had periods of time when I didn’t go outside the house for over two months at a time, but I was able to stagger to the computer and get online. So whether I shop in person or online is going to depend on how I feel to a very great degree. Also…I’m a night owl. I can shop online at 2 in the morning, if I want to. If I want to shop in person, I’m restricted to WalMart and the various 24 hour drug and convenience stores.
I prefer buying pretty much everything online.
I only buy clothes online if I know what they’ll look like, for instance Levi’s 501s
I do miss used CD stores. I used to love to browse in them. Now in Chicago there are so few left. It’s not the same looking at a list as it is browsing in a used CD store
I think I generally prefer to shop online. The inability to have the product NOW is offset by the relaxed feeling of being able to shop at my leisure and to simultaneously research products as I find them. When I shop in stores, unless I already know exactly what I want, I have to browse for a bit to find some likely candidates then go home and get on the internet to educate myself about them before making a decision. I don’t trust salesman to give me unbiased or useful information. I also get a consistant experience from shopping online, I’m not left to the whims of the sales staff as to whether I’ll get served when I don’t want to be or not served when I do want to be.
Let me guess. You’ve been keeping up with the Australian retailers and their efforts to have GST introduced for international online sales up to $1000. Their argument is that people aren’t going to physical shops because online shopping from international sellers is cheaper. You are wondering if maybe they’re barking up the wrong tree and whether, given equal prices, shoppers would still use online stores because they prefer the experience.
Yes, although I’d put it more strongly than merely barking up the wrong tree.
So to fill everyone else in, in Australia we have Goods and Services Tax of 10% on all retail sales. However, there is a $1000 tax free threshold on personal international imports which means in effect that if you are buying consumer level stuff over the internet from overseas you don’t pay GST.
Bricks-and-mortar retailers are hurtin’ due to internet sales. A coalition of retailers have begun campaigning to get rid of the $1000 tax free import threshold. They say that it gives international retailers an unfair advantage over local retailers who have to charge the GST. The reason for the threshold is not principle but pragmatism: how do you effectively collect 10% on millions of tiny imports to consumers?
I think the retail lobby’s position is (at best) ignorance and at worst a deliberately dishonest ruse.
I am the first to recognise that this thread and the poll above are likely to be inaccurate in any number of ways. However, I think what the poll shows is that there is an (at least) significant contingent of people who choose to shop over the internet for reasons that have nothing at all to do with price. Whatever the size of the contingent in question (and I doubt outside the SDMB the number is 70%) it is high enough to really hurt bricks-and-mortar retailers and account for (at least a large part of) their drop in sales.
The real reasons people are shopping on the internet rather than in local retail stores are at least twofold in my view. Firstly there is the personal preference and convenience angle. Tempting as it is, I’m not going to bother padding out this already over-long post by setting out all my gripes with retail in person shopping. Suffice to say that I much prefer shopping over the internet, and clearly this poll shows I am far from alone. For many items, Mr Lew, Mr Harvey et al, I am lost to you and your stores. Gone. Never coming back. Forget me. Not even if you are 10% cheaper, let alone the same price.
The second issue is price. Most stuff is much cheaper to buy on line (not 10% cheaper, much cheaper). Internationally certainly, but even locally, and particularly when compared to the very large department stores who are spearheading the campaign. There is no way in hell that GST accounts for the difference. The shipping cost alone, payable on international internet purchases (but not on local in person retail sales, obviously) would gobble up all or most of the saving on GST anyway. One of the key reasons for high bricks-and-mortar prices I suspect is that in times past those who *just want to buy things have had to subsidise the heavy costs associated with retailers providing the bells, whistles and frippery necessary to keep those who want to go shopping happy. Ain’t going to happen no more.
Maybe the retail lobby haven’t figured this out. I doubt it. I think they know this damn well. I think they know that the GST thing is neither here nor there as far as price is concerned. What they do know, however, is that for the government to impose GST on tiny personal retail imports would involve imposing unfeasibly detailed levels of bureaucracy and red tape upon international internet sales. That bureaucracy would involve cost and inconvenience, thereby crueling the advantage of internet purchasing from overseas. In other words, the local bricks and mortar retail lobby do want a level playing field: they want internet shoppers to be brought down to the levels of inconvenience and cost that their own customers endure.
*Thanks for that useful rhetorical distinction, Leaffan.
I was going to say that the bigest problem with the poll is that it is a poll of internet users who frequent an internet message and who are therefore far more likely to be comfortable shopping online and would bias the poll in that direction. Then I realised that the retailers are trying to get back exactly that sort of person, so maybe this poll is not such a bad selection after all.
If the difference in price was just GST I would probably buy from domestic internet shopping sites. In fact I do buy from Australian websites when I can because I like to know, particularly with electronic goods, that I can easily get an item repaired under warranty by a local service centre. The times I buy from international sellers is when the price is significantly cheaper or when it is an item that is not available locally. My latest international purchases were a rare PC game from the mid 1990’s that is not available from anything other than specialist stores, and a music effect pedal that was literally half the price purchased from the USA compared to the cheapest I could find in Australia, that saved me $500.
I haven’t been following this much at all but I’d think that a major problem facing local retailers at present is the high Australian dollar which is making international imports a whole lot more attractive.
Well in general I can find things online cheaper than in a physical store. Also I absolutely hate shop assistants.
In person for items I haven’t used or seen before, or am otherwise not exactly sure what to expect. I find myself reading through pages of reviews trying to get a grip on what the item looks and feels like in person. Then I say to myself, “Hey dummy, if you go to the store, you can tell what it looks and feels like, and even play with an in-store demo.” I was buying a new cell phone last week, and as I was paging through review after review trying to find the right phone, I thought, This is stupid. There’s an AT&T store downstairs.
Also, I’m impatient and want my things now.
For all other things (if I know what I’m in for, and/or in no rush to get it), I prefer online.