I read an interesting article on the BBC News site this morning (what? really? I hear you cry).
Apparently in the US, the amount that people are spending online is decreasing rapidly in line with what’s going on in the general economy. It’s the first downturn in online spending that has been seen since they started to monitor it back in 2001. Figures are down 4% on last year.
Kelkoo have added their tuppence’ worth and have said that the opposite can be said for the UK and Europe, online shopping appears to be replacing the high street as the primary shopping location.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7749989.stm
I have to agree with this. The majority of the money that I earn is spent online, not in a bricks and mortar shop. At times of the year like this, when I’m holding out on buying things because I might get them as Christmas presents, I won’t be buying as much online so the food bills at the supermarket and lunches out in Halifax then my offline spending might be getting somewhere near my online spending. If Sue buys the majority of my presents online and I buy the majority of her presents online it blows the balance out of the water again.
I think last year was the first time I managed to completely avoid the shops at Christmas time. As much as I like wandering round, I haven’t been to Meadowhall or the Trafford Centre for 2-3 years. The White Rose centre I have been to this year, maybe once or twice earlier in the year, but certainly not in the last 6 months.
The problem I have, especially with Amazon Prime is that I can’t just pick something up and buy it in the shop, I’ll price check it and if its cheaper then I have no problem in waiting till the next day for me to receive it.
When you take something like Blu Ray for example – Tesco, (£1 in every £8 spent goes in their pocket in the UK) sell Blu Ray discs for between £20 and £25. The same Blu Ray discs can be found on Amazon from £13-£17. I have no quibbles about making a list of things I see when I’m out on my phone and buying them when I get home from online retailers.
Hell, the last time I went to Leeds, it was a Friday. I ordered stuff I’d seen and wanted on the train on the way back to Bradford and I had everything Saturday morning.
I mean, there are occasions where the shops are good. Cards for example, it’s nice to have a look round card shops (although I might look at trying moonpig out for Xmas cards this year). HMV can sometimes be good, sometimes they even have deals that aren’t available on their website. It’s also interesting to look around at the DVDs. Play/Amazon/et al can be difficult to browse as a casual shopper, it depends on what they’re advertising.
Speaking of Play, it’s been a long time since I had a proper good look around on there (I blame Amazon Prime), I’ll have to put some time aside to do so.
Shopping on the high street (if you’re lucky enough to have one – in Bradford, we have a giant hole where ours used to be) especially at Christmas is stressful, busy and non productive. It’s like wandering round the supermarket on a Saturday. I avoid it like the plague. Other people can be so inconsiderate, standing in the middle of the aisle, walking in front of you (some people do this incredibly slowly). It’s why I prefer to go to the supermarket at 7am, the only downside of that is that you have to use the god awful self service checkouts. I hate those things – but that’s another story entirely.
So, to sum up. Online shopping = WIN Offline shopping = FAIL (with the occasional WIN thrown in for good measure)
