Who won the sales war?
By Dave Adamson in Reader
Posted in Uncategorized on January 2, 2008 at 3:23 pm
For years we’ve been hearing how high street and destination retail is losing out to its online competitors. I guess the key exception to this would still be food shopping. It comes about, usually, this time of year or when a high street retailer suddenly hits difficulty. But is it all just doom-sayers saying doom for the sake of doom saying?
But, what draws people the high street?
For me, it’s still the destination for impulse buying as opposed to planned purchasing (invariably, all my pre-orders for DVDs, for example, tend to take place online) and just generally having a browse. It’s also nice to actually be able to talk to someone, as opposed to spend hours trawling websites for information. The internet is wonderful for research, if you’ve got the time and the inclination - but it’s still nice to actually talk. And, as much as I hate the hustle and bustle of the high street especially around sale time, it’s still nice to have a particular product there-and-then. I know some of the sales prices are just the same as online prices elsewhere but, if I’m being honest, it makes no difference to me whether I buy from HMV, Virgin/Zavvi or WH Smiths for a fiver, or online for a fiver… it’s still a fiver, I’m not being conned into paying more!
Even thinking about my online habits, I tend to buy from only a small number of online retailers. My reasoning for using Play.com, for example, isn’t to do with being the cheapest, but to do with excellent customer service. I know that I could find any particular DVD cheaper by trawling through one of a dozen other sites, but I prefer convenience (unless there’s an absolute killer of a saving to be made.)
I’ve recently been attracted to www.hotukdeals.com as a source of finding killer deals quickly, though obviously they can’t cover everything!
A number of retailers have started to bridge the gap between their online/high street realm with something that I’m sure will be christened (by me, mainly) clicks-and-mortar (if it hasn’t already.) It’s nice to be able to reserve something at an online price and pick it up instore, though obvious it still will never be as cheap as with online only presences. It is, however, a step in the right direction.
Whatever I do buy online or in stores, it tends to be physical. I went through a brief phase of buying digital music from a variety of online stores, but found it a bit disappointing. I guess there’s something to be said for actually having a physical product in front of me.
What are other people’s buying habits? Do you (or would you) buy everything online? Or do you mix the two? Is there anything you definitely wouldn’t buy online? Can you impulse buy online? And, do you really think the days of the high street are numbered?
Rated: 60% (1 votes)
Loading ...Comment by Jason Slater - January 3, 2008 on 12:28 pm
Certain things are just simpler online. For example over Christmas we bought a number of photo gifts and we used the Snapfish online service to lay things out, try out ideas and finally order the products. Could you imagine trying all that in a local store?
Food shopping is much easier too, mind you we were going to try the Ocado service for some of our Christmas food and we went through the whole time consuming process of choosing what we wanted but when it came to the delivery options they couldn’t deliver until the 27th which was a little late for Christmas - I just wish they would have mentioned it at the outset!
If I was spending a lot of money on something say perhaps a plasma TV or Cinema system I would definitely visit the shops - some things you just need to touch and feel!
Make a comment
Tag cloud
Archives
Most commented posts
- Samsung D900 - the fun and games of a new mobile
3 comments
- Kicking off the pirates - A UK Green Paper
- Philips X55 Laptop - A Mystery of Marple Proportions
- Moduslink - Could have been better on both sides of the equation
- Has the "death" of HD-DVD made the choice easier?
- Google Docs and a paperless office ... I know, I'm late the party
- Google and Viacom - And the point would be?
- That Ebook Reader
- Bluetooth Accessories - It's want, not need!
- The HDTV Nightmare
Highest Rated Blog Posts
- Should Sony fear the Asus Eee? (90%)
- iPlayer and 4oD (90%)
- Walking on (Macbook) Air (80%)
- Google Docs and a paperless office ... I know, I'm late the party (80%)
- Do people challenge your purchasing decisions? (80%)
- Let's have CEX (80%)
- I love reading, but not e-reading! (60%)
- Stupid Filter - What a wonderful idea! - (and watch how I move onto the Eee PC 701 in the blog!) (60%)
- Who won the sales war? (60%)
- Bad Phorm (60%)