A story about a foot stool......
Last weekend I took my mother to House of Frazer as she had seen a foot stool in a magazine that she wanted to buy. We trawled around the home department until we gave up and asked a member of staff. We were told that the foot stool was not stocked by this store but we could order it online from their website. As my mum (aged 88) looked slightly puzzled (she has never touched a computer in her life) the shop assistant took us to a section of the store with two computers. These were for customers to do their shopping on. It allowed House of Frazer to offer their full spectrum of wares in a virtual world but all under one roof and if you needed a ‘real’ shop assistant for advice there was one, ready and waiting for your questions or you could click away without being pestered. It was an odd concept; online shopping in a traditional style shop. I pondered about the concept all weekend and then seeing this week’s topic on Ciao, I decided to explore it some more.
The search for the weird and wonderful
Online shopping has opened up a completely new dimension to shopping. You can buy anything from anywhere. Type the name of the product you seek into a search engine and you will be taken (in a fraction of second) to a ‘store’ that sells your item. Ok, let’s think of something random and see if we can buy it... I want... a vase and I want it to be shaped like a cow wearing sunglasses (typed verbatim into Google.) Let’s see how easy it is to find such a quirky piece. On hitting enter, it brought up 3,199,000 results in 0.20 seconds and on the second link; I have found my cow gift. Priced at a handsomely £8.99. Thank you very much. If I set off to Manchester, armed with a map it would probably take me a whole day to get round all the shops and still not find what I was looking for.
They call me Bargain. Bargain Hunter
My personal favourite advantage to online shopping is that I can price match. Ever conscious with my pennies, I want to make sure that if there is a saving to be made, I am the one taking advantage of it. Sticking to the cow theme, I really want to buy a pair of Moc-cons cow print socks but I want the cheapest pair I can find. I have just typed this into a price comparison website and within seconds I have a list of 25 different retails that sell the funky socks. Now all I need to do is scan through to find the best price. £11.96... too much £8.99... better....£7.74? Brilliant and free delivery? Why not! These socks are travelling from London, I would never have been able to get to London to buy them. Online shopping has opened up the buyer’s market and we can buy anything, from anywhere.
Raising a glass to our beloved review sites!
And the reason we are all here, consumer reviews! If I was to go around the Trafford Centre and ask people their thoughts on certain products, I would get escorted out of the building for being crazy! “Excuse me madam, have you tried this blusher, what are your thoughts on it?” “Excuse me sir, those shoes you are wearing, how do you find them?
” To avoid the embarrassment of accosting members of the public, I could ask the shop assistant about the product however it would be very hard to get an unbiased opinion from someone who was selling the product. Buying on the internet allows me to read genuine consumer reviews allowing me to make an informed decision about which product to buy.
Time! The one thing you can not buy!
Visiting traditional shops does have some advantages though. I am a planner so birthday presents and even Christmas presents are bought months in advance. However my husband loves the drama of leaving things to the last minute and will often be found pulling his hair out in a department store on Christmas Eve! For those of us who choose not to plan their purchases out, traditional shops are the only option. You can pop into a shop, pick up a wonderful gift and have it gift wrapped and brought home ready to take to the birthday party. If you bought online, you would be lucky for it to arrive in the next day’s post. This leads me onto a quick moan about the postal system; at least if you buy from a shop you do not run the risk of the post office losing your item or keeping it hostage for two days. It is very frustrating if the post office try and deliver your item but because you are out they take it back to their depot and advise you to wait 2 days before trying to collect it!
Shop till I drop
There are many reasons why internet shopping is better than visiting traditional shops and for many reasons it is so much easier. One click shopping in your nightie is appealing in some circumstances, however, for me, it is all about the experience. You cannot beat going shopping. I love going shopping with my daughter or my best friend, trying on new clothes, drooling over expensive shoes we cannot afford to buy, giggling when we try silly hats on and trying out make up products. We make the day of it, going out for lunch, a naughty glass of wine in the afternoon after having a long day visiting all shops and spending our hard earned money. Even by taking my mum to buy a very dull foot stool meant we got to spend some quality time together. Shopping is all about the experience; for me it’s a hobby!
Both have advantages but it's shop till I drop for me! 
Well reviewed there :)