New Year’s Day: Shopping at the Mall…STILL!
Stores are closed in Quebec on New Year’s day, so what do we do? Like many other loyal Quebecers, we head to the United States to do some New Year’s day bargain shopping. For our family, we choose nearby Burlington, Vermont for this indulgence. So, we drag the entire family off for this expedition. Problem is, my oldest son (12 years old) hates shopping and we have to bribe him with special treatment, special treats, and special conditions in order to lure him along. As we are driving to our destination, the following conversation ensued:
SON: Why do we have to go shopping at all?
WIFE: To buy stuff we need. If we didn’t shop, how do you think you would have the clothes we wear. Its something we have to do.
SON: Yeah, but you enjoy shopping.
WIFE: No! We do not like shopping either, but there are things we need and we have to shop for them. We are not just shopping for pleasure, we are looking for the specific things we need.
SON: Then why does it take so long? If you know exactly what we need, why not just walk into the store and buy it?
WIFE: Its not that simple. We have to browse, compare prices, try it on?
SON: Why not do all of that online?
WIFE: Er, um, er, um….because we still have to try on stuff, compare prices, checkout the clearance racks, and I did do all my research online first, but we still need to go and check it out.
End of conversation.
As we arrived at the mall, and I saw a near full parking lot, crowds in the stores, and people bustling through the mall, and that conversation really got me thinking….
We, and a few other Quebec families, that went together on this expedition consider ourselves quite tech savvy, as we were texting, pinning, and IM’ing each other back and forth about where we were, where the best bargains could be found, and where we should meet up for lunch. Yet, with all this technical ability we were all still out shopping in physical stores rather than online!
Why do we still shop in stores? Why can’t we do ALL of our shopping online.
As we shopped through the day, I noticed a few things that still lack from the online shopping expereince:
- Clearance racks - rummaging through clearance racks and tables to find those single items left over in your size at a bare bone price is an experience that is difficult to duplicate. There is a real pleasure in finding that real bargain item, and then later bragging to your friends about the wonderful treasures found.
- Trying stuff on - Grab 10 items, try them all on quickly, discard the items that do not fit or look good, and purchase the rest. It is difficult to do this online. Sure, you can return stuff that you don’t like or doesn’t fit, but it is a lot simpler to just leave those items in the store.
- Experience - Some stores still have an experience worth visiting.
- Social - People shop, walk, browse, and TALK together.
- Enjoyable - PSSST, don’t tell my son, we actually still like to shop. Its an activity, its an outing, and there are still some small parts we find enjoyable.
Until the online experience can duplicate all of the above, I think we will still see malls, stores, and people shopping for a long time to come. What is your experience regarding online shopping vs store shopping? Do you have different reasons for shopping in one channel vs the other?
Rick - great post.
I shop in both and I love online shopping. I shop online for the repeat, predictable items such as linens, books/music and clothing basics plus I also buy many gifts online. I find it easy and I am almost never disappointed or finding myself having to return something.
I try to do as little store shopping as possible simply because I’m not a huge shopping fan. I don’t like malls, I don’t like crowds. I also would prefer to pay a higher price to avoid the malls and crowds. I agree with what you say though…there is some shopping that cannot be replaced by online, especially for Canadians where a return to the US is more complicated and costly than it is for the Americans (who don’t have to go to a post office to send something back). If the process for returns was easier between Canada/US, I for one would do more of it as the risk of something not working out would not be as big a deal. I love shopping online at my convenience and I find the US retailers offer more online shopping opportunities.
With regards to the bargain rack, some online retailers have done a good job of it where you can shop the clearance rack by size. And while most stores try to do this as well, you always have to check as someone may have put the item in the wrong section of the rack…so really, the online experience can be much easier. And this business of emailing a photo of what you may want to buy to a friend to get their feedback? Brilliant. Can’t do that from a store!
And I have to side with your 12-year old…I’d resist a family shopping day too
Lori,
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your comments on the clearance racks, because scavenging through multiple display areas and racks for a specific size is time-consuming and frustrating, especially for those with popular sizes. So a consolidated view of ALL available sizes of a clearance rack items online, would certainly be a huge benefit. Can you provide us with any examples of online sites you think do a good job of clearance rack sales?
Both Neiman Marcus and JCrew allow you to search by size and by colour. Essentially you are just filtering on their clearance merchandise. Lands End does a pretty good job as well, although they just separate regular sizes from petite versus plus sizes. I imagine several other retailers do it as well, but these are the ones I have been impressed with.
I normally run from a clearance rack as I don’t have the patience to sift through every item and check for colour/size. I appreciate the ease of doing it online with these retailers.
I do quite a bit of shopping online, but also for particular items. I find that shopping online gives me the opportunity to find the bargins - for example, when looking for filters for our furnace humidifier, a local Canadian supplier was charging $60 per unit plus tax (and I had to drive about 40 minutes to pick it up). I was able to find the same filter online from a US company for under $6 US. With shipping and handling charges and exchange - two filters came out to less than $25 Canadian (explain that price difference to me). It was delivered to me within 4 days.
Price comparison is a huge reason I shop online. But like Lori, the types of product I buy are limited. I think as a society, we haven’t gotten our head around a few concepts:
1. seeing but not touching - we are used to having a shopping experience that pulls on many of our senses. What does the product feel like - is that material soft? Is the product flimsy? Is it comfortable to sit on? The feel of the product gives us a sense of it’s worth.
2. time - there is the arguement that shopping online saves time. However, I find sometimes it takes more time because there are so many choices that I spend hours and hours checking each vendor, reading customer review, etc to ensure I’m making the right decision. If we physically shop, we tend to limit our visits to a few potential vendors and make the decision then and there.
3. not having enough information - many people don’t know about return policies. What would they do with the product if they don’t like it, or it’s not what they are looking for? What additional energy will they have to expend to return it?
4. trust - will this online vendor actually send me the product even though I’m giving them my money? Will it come damaged from the shipping and then I’ll have to deal with the hassel of getting a new one send and the old one returned? Is this a reliable company?
It takes people a very long time to change, but how do online retailers get over these - and other - concerns?
IMO. Shopping, as Rick described above is more of a social thing. However, actually purchasing something is just Business, nothing Social about it.
When I need to purchase something, I first consider where it lies on my internal “Potential Need for Immediate and Future Service/Warranty Meter”. My meter goes from zero - no need, up to 5 - big need. Books rate a zero & so I log into Amazon.ca to make my purchase. However, I recently purchased a snow blower and given it’s cost, complexity & potential dismemberment risk factor for me, I rated it a 5 & purchased it from a local certified retailer. Based on Cindy’s comments, she probably has a similar Meter.
The same could apply for clothing except being up here in the Great White North (Canada) - as mentioned by Lori, where we have to deal with Customs & cross-border shipping, the Returns issue bumps the needle up on the Meter. (I do know someone, who knows someone, who has a daughter living in the States, does all her clothes shopping online & finds it more convenient to ship back her Returns than it would be to actually go back to the Retailer.)
The same does not apply for computer hardware/software only because I’ve had better purchase/support/service experiences online than with local retailers.
However in general, my decision to purchase online, or, brick-and-mortar, lies between the zero and 5 on my “Potential Need for Immediate and Future Service/Warranty Meter”. And as it’s needle rises, so do my efforts to shop/research online. In those cases, I typically research online and purchase from a local retailer.
This works great for certain products like cameras, Wii Consoles, Playstations, games, ect. However, after scouring through online reviews, opinions, buyer-guides, etc., I may come to the conclusion that I want to purchase a particular product/model number. Say for example, a Samsung HDTV Model 12345. I then start calling, or, running around trying to locate it. For starters, one problem may simply be that of availability. But a bigger one is the silly fact that many retailers carry the exact same Samsung HDTV but under a different model number. That means I have to trust the Sales Associate knows the equivalent
Perhaps one possible solution is Twetailer. In general, it’s as if you opened up your window and shouted “I want to buy a nikon d5000, am willing to travel 25 miles to get it, provided you - a real Retailer, have it before Valentines Day.”. In Twetailer-speak, that would be “d twetailer nikon d5000 locale:90210 us range:25 mi expiration:2010-02-14 #demo”.
Rick is actually well versed with Twetailer and can probably help with where it best applies. In addition, you could simply send “d twetailer ?” to interact with its Help System to learn more about it.