If it seemed to you like the holiday season began a bit early this year, you’re not going crazy. According to this www.cnn.com article (http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/11/01/holiday.discounts.ap/index.html), many retailers began Black Friday-like sales a whole two weeks before Thanksgiving. Retailers’ sales and promotions have been in full swing for almost two whole weeks! And I have fallen into their ruse. I can’t wait for Christmas and feel like it should be a lot later in November than it really is. Most importantly, I want to buy buy buy Christmas presents! In previous years, I have been patient and haven’t even thought about purchasing presents until after Thanksgiving. This year, though, I have been so impatient and can’t wait to shop, mostly because of all of the sales retailers are promoting.
And yet, I have not bought any Christmas presents so far. My financial situation is holding me back. And this is the case, it seems, with many Americans this year. An article titled “Retailers Hope Shoppers Are Ready to Spend” in the New York Times from November 16, 2007, claims that “retailers are heading into the Thanksgiving weekend on edge, worried that consumers will keep a tight hold on their purse strings in the face of a shaky economic environment and lack of must-have products” (http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-blackfriday-preview.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).
How can we, as consumers, be smarter shoppers this year? Of course, we can take advantage of the sales on Black Friday. The website BlackFridayAds.com claims to be “your one stop source for all the best Black Friday Deals and information.” But if you are not too keen on shopping at 4:00 a.m., then you can take advantage of certain online stores’ free shipping. My previous blog discusses this further. Some retailers are even offering online only sales with free or discounted shipping. Several other websites help you create a list. If they don’t, using the “shopping cart” feature can allow you to make a list. Using a list when shopping and committing to only purchasing what is on your list, is another way to keep to a holiday shopping budget.
Good luck everyone, and may you have an enjoyable holiday shopping experience.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
The promise of free shipping
Halloween has just passed and the U.S. is ready for the holiday season. I popped into a Rite Aid on the way home from work yesterday and the aisles are already filled with wrapping paper, plastic menorahs and Christmas tree lights. For weeks now, I have been receiving retailers’ first edition holiday catalogs,
The Pottery Barn catalog promises “free shipping on over 150 items!” I went to www.potterybarn.com to see if this was the case with online purchases. It is. Both the catalog and the website offer free shipping on the same items. Yet, when I went through the ordering process on www.potterybarn.com, I found that I was being charged $4.95 for a “shipping and process” charge. Interesting.
On the other hand, L.L. Bean shipping is completely free as I learned from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/technology/08ecom.html). “Bean’s free-shipping offer comes with no minimum purchase requirements. That is in stark contrast to the strings-attached shipping offers used by more than 80 percent of online merchants last year, which left some consumers wondering about the exact meaning of ‘free.’”
Steve Fuller, L. L. Bean’s senior vice president for corporate marketing, says that the company may lose money by implementing this “free shipping” policy. The benefit, though, is that it attracts new customers, like myself. After reading the NY Times article, I visited www.llbean.com and bought something from L.L. Bean for the first time; I finished purchasing my brother a Christmas present for $29.50 and had to pay no shipping or process charge. Will I go back? Yes! Especially to buy more Christmas presents!
Other retailers, like www.oldnavy.com, charge a standard shipping amount for all purchases, and seem to continue to do so throughout the holiday season.
Www.endless.com, www.amazon.com’s online shoe store, claim that overnight shipping is -$5, meaning they will pay customers $5 for every order. Here is the exact policy:
Promotion extended! For a limited time, Overnight Shipping is *negative* $5. That's right, we'll take five dollars off your order for the privilege of shipping overnight to you. We are serious. Enjoy this special promotion while it lasts! Once the promotion is over, you can again enjoy our day-in and day-out offer of FREE Overnight Shipping. Negative five dollar shipping will appear in checkout as a five dollar deduction on your total order. If all items in an order are returned, you will be credited for the total price of the returned items less $5, not the item total before the $5 discount. For example, purchasing a shoe for $100 will result in a $95 order total (before tax if any); if you return it you will be credited $95 + tax.
Feeling that this was too good to be true, I decided to place an order and see for myself. True to its word, www.endless.com did in fact take off $5 from my purchase and did not charge me for shipping! Genius! I will definitely be visiting this website again in the near future.
What other website have free shipping? When I googled “free shipping” the following websites came up:
www.llbean.com
www.shoes.com
www.amazon.com
www.shopbop.com
www.zappos.com
www.PotteryBarnKids.com (interesting, considering my findings)
www.bluenile.com
www.bestbuy.com
Among others…
The Pottery Barn catalog promises “free shipping on over 150 items!” I went to www.potterybarn.com to see if this was the case with online purchases. It is. Both the catalog and the website offer free shipping on the same items. Yet, when I went through the ordering process on www.potterybarn.com, I found that I was being charged $4.95 for a “shipping and process” charge. Interesting.
On the other hand, L.L. Bean shipping is completely free as I learned from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/technology/08ecom.html). “Bean’s free-shipping offer comes with no minimum purchase requirements. That is in stark contrast to the strings-attached shipping offers used by more than 80 percent of online merchants last year, which left some consumers wondering about the exact meaning of ‘free.’”
Steve Fuller, L. L. Bean’s senior vice president for corporate marketing, says that the company may lose money by implementing this “free shipping” policy. The benefit, though, is that it attracts new customers, like myself. After reading the NY Times article, I visited www.llbean.com and bought something from L.L. Bean for the first time; I finished purchasing my brother a Christmas present for $29.50 and had to pay no shipping or process charge. Will I go back? Yes! Especially to buy more Christmas presents!
Other retailers, like www.oldnavy.com, charge a standard shipping amount for all purchases, and seem to continue to do so throughout the holiday season.
Www.endless.com, www.amazon.com’s online shoe store, claim that overnight shipping is -$5, meaning they will pay customers $5 for every order. Here is the exact policy:
Promotion extended! For a limited time, Overnight Shipping is *negative* $5. That's right, we'll take five dollars off your order for the privilege of shipping overnight to you. We are serious. Enjoy this special promotion while it lasts! Once the promotion is over, you can again enjoy our day-in and day-out offer of FREE Overnight Shipping. Negative five dollar shipping will appear in checkout as a five dollar deduction on your total order. If all items in an order are returned, you will be credited for the total price of the returned items less $5, not the item total before the $5 discount. For example, purchasing a shoe for $100 will result in a $95 order total (before tax if any); if you return it you will be credited $95 + tax.
Feeling that this was too good to be true, I decided to place an order and see for myself. True to its word, www.endless.com did in fact take off $5 from my purchase and did not charge me for shipping! Genius! I will definitely be visiting this website again in the near future.
What other website have free shipping? When I googled “free shipping” the following websites came up:
www.llbean.com
www.shoes.com
www.amazon.com
www.shopbop.com
www.zappos.com
www.PotteryBarnKids.com (interesting, considering my findings)
www.bluenile.com
www.bestbuy.com
Among others…
Saturday, October 27, 2007
What annoys retail shoppers?
I saw a USA Today poll in the newspaper’s October 11, 2007 edition and saved it because I knew I wanted to address the topic in e(asy)-Shopping? The poll asked, “What annoys retail shoppers?” The answers are as follows:
Too little attention – 24 percent
Too much attention – 15 percent
Pressure to buy products – 12 percent
Difficulty with returns – 11 percent
Being treated rudely – 10 percent
Other categories – 28 percent
My question is, does online shopping help to reduce these ailments?
In my experience, most mainstream online shopping websites like www.amazon.com, www.bluefly.com, www.gap.com, etc., are easy to navigate. The prices listed are straight-forward, shipping costs are clear and the instructions for purchasing are foolproof. If you need more information about a product, you can visit the manufacturer’s website. When I shop online, I do not miss the sales people. And if the consumer has a question, the majority of e-commerce websites have 800 numbers or email addresses he or she can use to contact a customer service representative. An example I’d like to use here is my boyfriend’s experience looking for a flat screen television. He is obsessed with finding the best deal on the best LCD flat screen TV he can find. He visits www.amazon.com almost daily to look for good deals on three or four specific televisions. When he sees a new TV on www.amazon.com, he will visit the manufacturer’s website to see the specifications of the product and the price. He has emailed customer service representatives when he has a question, and usually receives a response with 24 hours.
I am never given too much attention when I shop online. Sometimes I will receive a follow-up email asking me to fill out a survey about my shopping experience. Also, some websites will evaluate what you purchase and suggest other products. This tool, used by www.amazon.com, can be helpful, but it is rarely a hindrance and easy to ignore. The most annoying part about shopping online to me is the massive quantity of emails each website seems to send out daily. For example, I get an email every day from www.bluefly.com and www.jcrew.com. Www.gap.com sends me emails about once a week, as does www.macys.com and www.bloomgindales.com. Yes, this can be annoying, especially when I want to quickly check my email and have to sift through many emails from various e-commerce websites. But it is not as irritating as some sales associates from department stores, clothing shops or electronic stores. It is a lot easier to delete an email than it is to ward of sales associates working off commission.
The worse part, I think, about shopping online is paying for shipping costs, especially when you send something back. Some companies accept returns in their retail stores. But other companies, like www.amazon.com and www.bluefly.com, do not have retail outlets, so consumers have to return things via mail. The return policies for these two e-commerce website are as follows:
www.amazon.com: You may return most new, unopened items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).
www.bluefly.com: For your convenience, we include a pre-paid merchandise return label with every order. At this time, this label is only valid for returns from the continental United States. We are currently unable to offer a pre-paid merchandise return label for international orders. If you use this label and opt for a refund to your Bluefly account, we will cover the shipping costs. However, if you use this label and instead request a refund to your credit card, a return shipping fee of $6.95 will be deducted from your refund. If you prefer, you may use any other return shipping method at your own expense.
Since consumers do not interact with sales people during online shopping transactions, the only real opportunity a consumer has to be treated rudely is if he or she contacts a customer service representative. I think I have done this only once in my nearly 7 years of participating in e-commerce activities.
All in all, it appears that shopping online can eliminate many of the negative experiences traditional shoppers go through.
[The poll was conducted by Accenture’s Institute for High Performance Business and included 1,300 consumers (the margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points).]
Too little attention – 24 percent
Too much attention – 15 percent
Pressure to buy products – 12 percent
Difficulty with returns – 11 percent
Being treated rudely – 10 percent
Other categories – 28 percent
My question is, does online shopping help to reduce these ailments?
In my experience, most mainstream online shopping websites like www.amazon.com, www.bluefly.com, www.gap.com, etc., are easy to navigate. The prices listed are straight-forward, shipping costs are clear and the instructions for purchasing are foolproof. If you need more information about a product, you can visit the manufacturer’s website. When I shop online, I do not miss the sales people. And if the consumer has a question, the majority of e-commerce websites have 800 numbers or email addresses he or she can use to contact a customer service representative. An example I’d like to use here is my boyfriend’s experience looking for a flat screen television. He is obsessed with finding the best deal on the best LCD flat screen TV he can find. He visits www.amazon.com almost daily to look for good deals on three or four specific televisions. When he sees a new TV on www.amazon.com, he will visit the manufacturer’s website to see the specifications of the product and the price. He has emailed customer service representatives when he has a question, and usually receives a response with 24 hours.
I am never given too much attention when I shop online. Sometimes I will receive a follow-up email asking me to fill out a survey about my shopping experience. Also, some websites will evaluate what you purchase and suggest other products. This tool, used by www.amazon.com, can be helpful, but it is rarely a hindrance and easy to ignore. The most annoying part about shopping online to me is the massive quantity of emails each website seems to send out daily. For example, I get an email every day from www.bluefly.com and www.jcrew.com. Www.gap.com sends me emails about once a week, as does www.macys.com and www.bloomgindales.com. Yes, this can be annoying, especially when I want to quickly check my email and have to sift through many emails from various e-commerce websites. But it is not as irritating as some sales associates from department stores, clothing shops or electronic stores. It is a lot easier to delete an email than it is to ward of sales associates working off commission.
The worse part, I think, about shopping online is paying for shipping costs, especially when you send something back. Some companies accept returns in their retail stores. But other companies, like www.amazon.com and www.bluefly.com, do not have retail outlets, so consumers have to return things via mail. The return policies for these two e-commerce website are as follows:
www.amazon.com: You may return most new, unopened items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).
www.bluefly.com: For your convenience, we include a pre-paid merchandise return label with every order. At this time, this label is only valid for returns from the continental United States. We are currently unable to offer a pre-paid merchandise return label for international orders. If you use this label and opt for a refund to your Bluefly account, we will cover the shipping costs. However, if you use this label and instead request a refund to your credit card, a return shipping fee of $6.95 will be deducted from your refund. If you prefer, you may use any other return shipping method at your own expense.
Since consumers do not interact with sales people during online shopping transactions, the only real opportunity a consumer has to be treated rudely is if he or she contacts a customer service representative. I think I have done this only once in my nearly 7 years of participating in e-commerce activities.
All in all, it appears that shopping online can eliminate many of the negative experiences traditional shoppers go through.
[The poll was conducted by Accenture’s Institute for High Performance Business and included 1,300 consumers (the margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points).]
Friday, October 19, 2007
Is e-commerce assisting in the degradation of Americans’ health?
It can’t be denied that Americans are getting fatter. News about the increase of obesity in America is all over the media. Just go to Times Square in NYC – the famous tourist spot attracts people from all over the country (and world) so you can get a good look at the general population of America only after walking a few blocks. We are just getting bigger! And why?
Well, many factors have lead to the widening of Americans: easy availability and affordability of fast food and junk food; tools to allow us the ability to lead a completely sedentary lifestyle (elevators, cars, good TV, money to pay for gardeners and housekeepers, and computers, among others).
The Internet has offered us many conveniences. We don’t have to visit the library anymore – we can log onto virtual libraries. We don’t have to visit grocery stores anymore – we can order products online and have them delivered right to our doors. We can buy all of our Christmas gifts online instead of braving the holiday mall crowds. We can even order pizza online to have it delivered. We Americans sure are lazy.
According to the CDC, American Heart Association, and American Cancer Society, as reported by www.cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/), in one hour, you burn 81 calories by sitting. When you walk slowly (3.5 mph) for one hour, you burn 280 calories. You will burn 200 more calories an hour by walking around a shopping mall than by sitting at your computer, shopping online.
There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. If you were to spend three hours a week walking around the mall or grocery store, rather than shopping online for groceries and clothing, you will expend about 600 calories. This means, that in as little as six weeks you will lose a pound. That may not seem like a lot, but add it up. Keep it up and you can lose nine pounds in a year. Just by talking a walk in the mall or local Stop & Shop on the weekends instead of order clothing and food online. Yikes!
Yes, I know that shopping online may save time. You don’t have to get in your car and drive to the mall and can browse many website simultaneously while you can only look in one store at a time at the mall. I support online shopping – to an extent.
Over the past twenty years, Americans’ waistlines have expanded, significantly. Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. If you look at the data provided to cnn.com by the state health departments’ figures from monthly phone interviews with U.S. adults, you will see that in 1985, the largest percentage of obese individuals in a state was 10 to 14 percent; only eight states reported this percentage. Ten years later, 27 states reported that 20-24 percent of residents were obese. In 2006, 32 states reported that more than 25 percent of residents had a body mass index of 30 or higher.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map/
All of the factors I mentioned above contribute to the increasing number of obese individuals in America. I can’t help but thinking about the significant weight loss or gain one can succumb to by choosing shopping online v. mall shopping, and visa versa. I like shopping online as much as the next person. But just do it occasionally. Having a rough week at work and you need to buy a present for your mother’s birthday. Ok, go to www.1800flowers.com and order her a bouquet. But stop being lazy America. Browse the mall shops; go to the grocery store; pick your own apples. Getting away from your computer for a few hours a week, and running errands like you did in the pre-Internet days may help you drop a dress size and ultimately extend your life.
Well, many factors have lead to the widening of Americans: easy availability and affordability of fast food and junk food; tools to allow us the ability to lead a completely sedentary lifestyle (elevators, cars, good TV, money to pay for gardeners and housekeepers, and computers, among others).
The Internet has offered us many conveniences. We don’t have to visit the library anymore – we can log onto virtual libraries. We don’t have to visit grocery stores anymore – we can order products online and have them delivered right to our doors. We can buy all of our Christmas gifts online instead of braving the holiday mall crowds. We can even order pizza online to have it delivered. We Americans sure are lazy.
According to the CDC, American Heart Association, and American Cancer Society, as reported by www.cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/), in one hour, you burn 81 calories by sitting. When you walk slowly (3.5 mph) for one hour, you burn 280 calories. You will burn 200 more calories an hour by walking around a shopping mall than by sitting at your computer, shopping online.
There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. If you were to spend three hours a week walking around the mall or grocery store, rather than shopping online for groceries and clothing, you will expend about 600 calories. This means, that in as little as six weeks you will lose a pound. That may not seem like a lot, but add it up. Keep it up and you can lose nine pounds in a year. Just by talking a walk in the mall or local Stop & Shop on the weekends instead of order clothing and food online. Yikes!
Yes, I know that shopping online may save time. You don’t have to get in your car and drive to the mall and can browse many website simultaneously while you can only look in one store at a time at the mall. I support online shopping – to an extent.
Over the past twenty years, Americans’ waistlines have expanded, significantly. Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. If you look at the data provided to cnn.com by the state health departments’ figures from monthly phone interviews with U.S. adults, you will see that in 1985, the largest percentage of obese individuals in a state was 10 to 14 percent; only eight states reported this percentage. Ten years later, 27 states reported that 20-24 percent of residents were obese. In 2006, 32 states reported that more than 25 percent of residents had a body mass index of 30 or higher.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map/
All of the factors I mentioned above contribute to the increasing number of obese individuals in America. I can’t help but thinking about the significant weight loss or gain one can succumb to by choosing shopping online v. mall shopping, and visa versa. I like shopping online as much as the next person. But just do it occasionally. Having a rough week at work and you need to buy a present for your mother’s birthday. Ok, go to www.1800flowers.com and order her a bouquet. But stop being lazy America. Browse the mall shops; go to the grocery store; pick your own apples. Getting away from your computer for a few hours a week, and running errands like you did in the pre-Internet days may help you drop a dress size and ultimately extend your life.
Friday, October 12, 2007
E-commerce and Travel
In the past month or so, I have realized two things about the relationship between e-commerce and international cultures. First, e-commerce can bring bits of a culture or country to you without you ever having to leave home. Second, it enables us to begin thinking about visiting other countries and can help us make plans to visit these civilizations.
Several weeks ago, my nineteen-year-old brother, Brett, was bored with his schoolwork and decided to take a break. Half-way through an episode of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel, he logged onto eBay.com to search for an item he has wanted for years and was reminded of while watching Bear Grylls navigate through Kimberly, Australia. Minutes later, he became a proud owner of a hand painted Aboriginal style didgeridoo, a wind instrument of the Indigenous Australians of northern Australia. When I asked him why he wanted a didgeridoo, he said, “Because it’s cool looking. I could get one, it wasn’t expensive, and not everyone has one.”
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=didgeridoo&category0= E-bay is amazing. For the small price of 25 dollars, Brett was able to bring a piece of the Indigenous Australian culture into his dorm room. “I may never go to Australia,” Brett told me. “But at least I have something that makes me feel like I have been there.”
While I haven’t succumbed to the lure of e-bay, like Brett has, I have recently fallen to the ploys of expedia.com. That’s right, I booked a trip using this website. My friend, Samantha, and I decided that we want to go to Istanbul next March. For weeks we searched throughout cyber space for Istanbul vacation packages. While it crossed my mind to visit AAA and work with a travel agent, the Web is just so much more convenient. Not to mention the ease of booking a vacation online – it’s just like buying a t-shirt from gap.com! Therefore, we stuck with the Internet and found airfare and hotel on expedia.com that fit our budgetary obligations and location requirements.
Eyefortravel.com is a global online publisher focusing on distribution, marketing and technology developments in the travel and tourism industries (http://www.eyefortravel.com/). It is an information portal for the travel industry and it includes international travel news stories that are updated daily. Eyefortravel.com compiles annual travel reports for the U.S., Asia Pacific region, and Europe, among others, that helps the reader understand more about regional travel markets, with an emphasis on e-commerce. These reports are really expensive (the U.S. one is $995) so I haven’t read any of them, but I’d be interested to see where Americans are traveling and how many of them are booking vacations online as opposed to going through a travel agent (much like myself and my friend). There are also countless blogs that provide daily airline news (http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/), highs and lows of the online travel business (http://tims-boot.blogspot.com/) and discussions about online travel marketing (http://blog.relactions.com/).
E-commerce is not just about buying DVDs and clothes anymore. We can bring cultural artifacts into our homes and book customized trips to visit different civilizations. E-commerce is quick and easy, and it can help open our eyes to other cultures.
Several weeks ago, my nineteen-year-old brother, Brett, was bored with his schoolwork and decided to take a break. Half-way through an episode of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel, he logged onto eBay.com to search for an item he has wanted for years and was reminded of while watching Bear Grylls navigate through Kimberly, Australia. Minutes later, he became a proud owner of a hand painted Aboriginal style didgeridoo, a wind instrument of the Indigenous Australians of northern Australia. When I asked him why he wanted a didgeridoo, he said, “Because it’s cool looking. I could get one, it wasn’t expensive, and not everyone has one.”
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=didgeridoo&category0= E-bay is amazing. For the small price of 25 dollars, Brett was able to bring a piece of the Indigenous Australian culture into his dorm room. “I may never go to Australia,” Brett told me. “But at least I have something that makes me feel like I have been there.”
While I haven’t succumbed to the lure of e-bay, like Brett has, I have recently fallen to the ploys of expedia.com. That’s right, I booked a trip using this website. My friend, Samantha, and I decided that we want to go to Istanbul next March. For weeks we searched throughout cyber space for Istanbul vacation packages. While it crossed my mind to visit AAA and work with a travel agent, the Web is just so much more convenient. Not to mention the ease of booking a vacation online – it’s just like buying a t-shirt from gap.com! Therefore, we stuck with the Internet and found airfare and hotel on expedia.com that fit our budgetary obligations and location requirements.
Eyefortravel.com is a global online publisher focusing on distribution, marketing and technology developments in the travel and tourism industries (http://www.eyefortravel.com/). It is an information portal for the travel industry and it includes international travel news stories that are updated daily. Eyefortravel.com compiles annual travel reports for the U.S., Asia Pacific region, and Europe, among others, that helps the reader understand more about regional travel markets, with an emphasis on e-commerce. These reports are really expensive (the U.S. one is $995) so I haven’t read any of them, but I’d be interested to see where Americans are traveling and how many of them are booking vacations online as opposed to going through a travel agent (much like myself and my friend). There are also countless blogs that provide daily airline news (http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/), highs and lows of the online travel business (http://tims-boot.blogspot.com/) and discussions about online travel marketing (http://blog.relactions.com/).
E-commerce is not just about buying DVDs and clothes anymore. We can bring cultural artifacts into our homes and book customized trips to visit different civilizations. E-commerce is quick and easy, and it can help open our eyes to other cultures.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Welcome to e(asy)-Shopping?
Welcome to e(asy)-Shopping?, a blog investigating e-commerce and online shopping around the world. Researchers are finding that consumers generally prefer to use e-commerce for buying products that are not required to be physically inspected (Peterson et al., 1997, Klein, 1998). Yet some consumers may hold out on purchasing any goods whatsoever over the Internet because they are not sure the convenience of doing so is worth the potential risks (Soopramaien et al., 2007). On the complete opposite site of the spectrum, other people, many of which I maintain close friendships with, shop online for anything and everything. Their entire wardrobe has been purchased on line; they complete all of their Christmas shopping via the Internet, and they order their groceries from www.wegmans.com.
There have been amazing advancements in cyber-shopping during the past 15 years including businesses like eBay, Amazon, and shopping.com. With slogans like “Shopping.com – Shopping Made Simple” and eBay’s “Shop Victoriously,” Internet businesses are appearing to try and reach out to those who may be more reluctant to share their credit card numbers online by communicating the simplicity of shopping on the Internet.
Analysts believe that in the next five to 10 years, people who are already familiar with shopping online will likely continue to do so, and even purchase more via the Internet. However, if you are one of those reluctant to use the Internet to make purchases, you will continue to shop at the mall. Businesses are spending loads of money to come up with slogans like the aforementioned two, but it may not be a good use of funds.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20321999/
For me, I will most likely be one of the previously mentioned individuals. I currently shop online, but for limited items. I will purchase airline and train tickets; tickets to see a Broadway show, Knicks game at MSG or concert at the PNC Bank Arts Center; electronics, and of course, songs on iTunes. In terms of shopping for clothing and apparel, I will only purchase regularly priced items from stores in which I am familiar. I find that sale items are usually not returnable and as I can’t try on the item, I will only purchase something I can return if necessary.
However, I find that as I get older and more entrenched in my education and career, I have less and less time to drive to and from the mall to spend hours browsing through racks of clothes, tables of shoes, rows of flat-screen televisions and shelves of books. In going through my receipts from the past year, I can determine that about 10 percent of my purchases have been made online. To me, this seems to have risen from previous years. My receipts come from the same five online “stores,” with the exception of the occasional ticketmaster.com record. I am the perfect example of what many experts are now predicting of e-commerce.
In addition, to maintain a consistent growth in online sales from devoted e-customers (like myself), some retailers are experimenting with their online business. Analysts believe that as long as retailers can integrate their online and “brick-and-mortar” operations, they will gain the necessary competitive edge to justify keeping their online business.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20321999/
Klein, L.R. (1998) Evaluating the potential of interactive media through new lens: search versus experience goods, Journal of Business Research, 41, 195-203.
Peterson, R. A., Balasubramanian, S. and Bronnenberg, B. J. (1997) Exploring the implications of the Internet for consumer marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 25, 329–46.
Soopramanien, Didier G. R., Fildes, Robert & Robertson, Alastair. (2007) Consumer decision making, E-commerce and perceived risks, Applied Economics, 39, 2159-2166.
There have been amazing advancements in cyber-shopping during the past 15 years including businesses like eBay, Amazon, and shopping.com. With slogans like “Shopping.com – Shopping Made Simple” and eBay’s “Shop Victoriously,” Internet businesses are appearing to try and reach out to those who may be more reluctant to share their credit card numbers online by communicating the simplicity of shopping on the Internet.
Analysts believe that in the next five to 10 years, people who are already familiar with shopping online will likely continue to do so, and even purchase more via the Internet. However, if you are one of those reluctant to use the Internet to make purchases, you will continue to shop at the mall. Businesses are spending loads of money to come up with slogans like the aforementioned two, but it may not be a good use of funds.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20321999/
For me, I will most likely be one of the previously mentioned individuals. I currently shop online, but for limited items. I will purchase airline and train tickets; tickets to see a Broadway show, Knicks game at MSG or concert at the PNC Bank Arts Center; electronics, and of course, songs on iTunes. In terms of shopping for clothing and apparel, I will only purchase regularly priced items from stores in which I am familiar. I find that sale items are usually not returnable and as I can’t try on the item, I will only purchase something I can return if necessary.
However, I find that as I get older and more entrenched in my education and career, I have less and less time to drive to and from the mall to spend hours browsing through racks of clothes, tables of shoes, rows of flat-screen televisions and shelves of books. In going through my receipts from the past year, I can determine that about 10 percent of my purchases have been made online. To me, this seems to have risen from previous years. My receipts come from the same five online “stores,” with the exception of the occasional ticketmaster.com record. I am the perfect example of what many experts are now predicting of e-commerce.
In addition, to maintain a consistent growth in online sales from devoted e-customers (like myself), some retailers are experimenting with their online business. Analysts believe that as long as retailers can integrate their online and “brick-and-mortar” operations, they will gain the necessary competitive edge to justify keeping their online business.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20321999/
Klein, L.R. (1998) Evaluating the potential of interactive media through new lens: search versus experience goods, Journal of Business Research, 41, 195-203.
Peterson, R. A., Balasubramanian, S. and Bronnenberg, B. J. (1997) Exploring the implications of the Internet for consumer marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 25, 329–46.
Soopramanien, Didier G. R., Fildes, Robert & Robertson, Alastair. (2007) Consumer decision making, E-commerce and perceived risks, Applied Economics, 39, 2159-2166.
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