Online Shopping ahead 13% on 2008

Dan:_4

Maybe all these various reports about 'ghost towns' and empty shops is because everyone uses the internet these days?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7946754.stm

BenL

Wonder if e-bay is included in the figures?

I've been on this morning and bought some stuff on "buy it nows" for much less than any shop could with a high street presence could sell it at.

Imagine all the running around, driving, parking, fees i would have to do.

At the moment i am finding that even with postage fees added in the prices of the things I am buying are less than a standard shop.

For some items it didn't used to be like that.

All items bought are from "proper" ebay shops and brand new in boxes/packaging so not 2nd hand.

lostinrates

One of the things with internet shopping is that one doesn't buy things one wasn't looking for, so in a way I can see even though internet is up it would ultimately bring down volues, if most people do even half my impulse purchasing.

b0rker

lostinrates wrote: »

One of the things with internet shopping is that one doesn't buy things one wasn't looking for, so in a way I can see even though internet is up it would ultimately bring down volues, if most people do even half my impulse purchasing.

To counter that point I buy a lot more on the Internet than I would ever buy from shops if the Internet did not exist. The simple reson being that I hate shopping in real shops with screaming children, old people who walk in front of you at a snails pace and uninformed and disinterested shop assistants. I would therefore maybe go shopping in real shops once a month if I absolutely had to, if there were no Internet. Before the recession I would probably buy myself about 3 'toys' a week on the Internet. Now that I am fighting off negative equity that has had to slow down a lot to maybe 2 a month but the point still stands.

I never shop in town/supermarkets now unless it is for food.

lostinrates

b0rker wrote: »

To counter that point I buy a lot more on the Internet than I would ever buy from shops if the Internet did not exist. The simple reson being that I hate shopping in real shops with screaming children, old people who walk in front of you at a snails pace and uninformed and disinterested shop assistants. I would therefore maybe go shopping in real shops once a month if I absolutely had to, if there were no Internet. Before the recession I would probably buy myself about 3 'toys' a week on the Internet. Now that I am fighting off negative equity that has had to slow down a lot to maybe 2 a month but the point still stands.

I never shop in town/supermarkets now unless it is for food.

This is why God created wives.

No, I take your point, and we buy some stuff on the internet too, but though I hate crowds etc, I do like to shop within my community, and somethings I just like to see before buying. And thats when you see the darling little teapot, or earings that will make me undenyably ravishing, by the till.:)

agent_orange_2

Statistics may suggest an increase in on-line shopping, I can only go on my experience - which isn't actually scientific. I do home delivery on behalf of DHL, prior to Christmas (take the 6 weeks directly before Christmas out of the equation) and I averaged about 26 parcels a day. Over the weeks since Christmas I am averaging 16 parcels a day.

Q1969

To be honest i don't do much shopping online at all. The last thing i bought online was a mobile phone from ebay about 3 years ago.

piggeh

High street shopping cannot compete, seems entirely plausible that it will suffer. They need to differentiate. Imagine if you walked in a shop and got good service and they had some product knowledge... that would be awesome

lostinrates

piggeh wrote: »

High street shopping cannot compete, seems entirely plausible that it will suffer. They need to differentiate. Imagine if you walked in a shop and got good service and they had some product knowledge... that would be awesome

Well, very occasionally you do find this.

Something I do a lot is research what I'm buying on the net and even find someone local, or localish, to buy it from. e.g. I'm buying some chickens this week and I'm getting a different breed. I have found the person from whom I want to buy and could have bought them over the net to be delivered, but I'm going to go and meet the person and bring my chooks home myself: its a sort of best of both worlds option, I know what I'm buying and what it'll cost and I get to see them and check I'm happy with purchase before proceeding. Its relatively local -long distance local, but I wouldn't have stumbled across this person without the net. Unless of course when I go there there is an unbelievably cute duck or something, by the till

piggeh

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, very occasionally you do find this.

Something I do a lot is research what I'm buying on the net and even find someone local, or localish, to buy it from. e.g. I'm buying some chickens this week and I'm getting a different breed. I have found the person from whom I want to buy and could have bought them over the net to be delivered, but I'm going to go and meet the person and bring my chooks home myself: its a sort of best of both worlds option, I know what I'm buying and what it'll cost and I get to see them and check I'm happy with purchase before proceeding. Its relatively local -long distance local, but I wouldn't have stumbled across this person without the net. Unless of course when I go there there is an unbelievably cute duck or something, by the till

Ahhh, the old cute duck trick..

Thing is, retailers should realise people are doing this and make it unnecessary. If you're looking at reviews online etc, then you'll more likely to just buy it online. Why dont they have proper info in stores so when you go shopping you can make an entirely informed decision there & then. Proper info including review scores, full technical info etc. Still, I have a dream and all that.. once I get the motivation I might show them how it's done.

Of course what I'm saying is actually utter tripe as they of course know better than me.. but still.

Conrad

As I said when Wollies closed, the crunch has merely bought forward the inevitable. Every year I buy more and more online and hardly ever 'go shopping' now.