Now why would anyone want to shop online? As I see it
there are 3 very good reasons. These 3 reasons are convenience,
availability and savings***.
Convenience: This may be the most obvious reason for online
shopping. What’s easier than sitting in your own home and have the shops
of the world at your finger tips? You don’t have to deal with that
salesperson that got up on the wrong side of the bed or the customer
that has no problem cutting to the front of the line you are in. During
the holiday shopping season you don't have to deal with the crowds. (see
below) You
don’t have to deal with the weather be it the rain and snow of winter or
a hot and humid day in summer. Then of course if you live a big city you
don’t need to deal with the traffic if you are shopping online. You say
you want to get out and not stay in all the time. Well then shopping
online is for you because you will have the time to get outdoors and do
meaningful activities.
Availability: Sometimes the things we want to buy are not readily
available at the local corner store. If you live in a large city you
probably can find just about anything you want or need to buy but you
are going to do some driving and spend some time finding what you are
looking for (see above). But for those that live in the many smaller
towns through out the country and world you won’t find all of things you
are shopping for. Catalog shopping has been the traditional way for
shopping in the past but having a big stack of catalogs stacked up in
the living room or den is not everyone’s idea of cool fashion decor.
With the advent of the Internet and online shopping it is no longer
necessary to keep those catalogs lying around. Now you can have any
catalog you want just sitting there taking up space on the Internet and
not in your house.
Savings: The Internet is the great equalizer when it comes to
retail space. Mom and Pop’s corner store can afford to have a web
presence just the same as Walmart and K-Mart do. Because of this many
retail stores on the Internet must offer special discounts to entice
customers to buy online from them. For those that like to shop for sales
and look for bargains the Internet is ideal. The Internet is full of
sites that find those bargains for you and can point you to current
sales and provide coupons and links to help you save on your shopping.
One of the best bargains is to find those stores offering free shipping
so the convenience of online shopping no longer comes at a price. Just
take a look around and one will find specials that are not available
anywhere but on the web.
***Update: 9/4/05 - When this was originally written the savings on
gas was not the factor that it is at this point in time. With
gasoline breaking the $3.00 a gallon mark the savings realized from not
having to drive around town becomes even more apparent now then ever
before. Of course when you find
Free Shipping offers for your shopping then the savings really start
to add up.
So you can see that shopping online makes sense no matter where you live
or shop. Online shopping is one of the benefits of being an “online”
society that we are all fortunate to have available to us.
