Holiday Shopping: Online or In-Store?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go...

Although it’s only mid November, the sounds, smells, sights, and sales are all aimed at promoting spending during the holiday season. Holiday advertisements are everywhere--for mailbox to inbox, from broadcast to in store promotions, one cannot avoid the fact that jolly old St. Nick will soon be flying around the world with Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer gang.

I've begun my shopping early this year, and have already made a sizeable dent in my holiday shopping. I'm still brainstorming the perfect gift for some friends and family members, but my main issue is: where do I shop? Online or in-store?

Let's go over the pros and cons of each:

The Good:

In Store

Shopping in the store is an event for consumers. Consumers go to stores because they want to spend money, peruse inventory, and usually be seen in public. Products are tangible, and consumers like the fact that they can see what they're getting now, buy it now, take it home now, and use it now. This immediate gratification from shopping makes people feel good--literally a chemical reaction stimulating a pleasure center, and ultimately triggering a "shopper's high." Happy customers not only tend to spend more, but they also might come back to purchase more (loyalty) and experience the "shopper's high" again.

In-store shopping allows consumers to see (and feel) similar items, and make impulse buys. For example, one might go into a hardware store to purchase a lawnmower, and ends up with a rake, work gloves, and some seeds—all purchases made just because the buyer might have thought of them after arriving at the store, or there was a good deal on the product, etc.

Online

-In the information age, data is everywhere and luckily for consumers so are personal reviews, price comparisons, and a seemingly limitless supply of products (both handmade and mass produced). All of this information is literally right at the buyer’s fingertips and without leaving the comfort of one’s own computer—with purchasing power only a click away. Side-by-side product comparisons, price shopping, and discounts/coupons are easily obtained through searches.

The Bad

In Store

-While some people thrive off of the hustle and bustle of in-store shopping, long lines and crowds jam stores, slowing down the shopping experience. With this consumer volume, the total number of items available for in store purchase is severely limited, items are easily damaged, stolen, or misplaced among other goods.

Online

-Online shopping provides an overload of information—there’s almost too many products in cyberspace to sometimes locate exactly what consumers are looking for. Online vendors add extra shipping/handling/insurance fees thus escalating an item’s purchase price. In addition, purchase gratification is delayed because items are shipped, and cannot be taken home immediately (in most cases).

My shopping plan for the 2009 holiday season, since I’ve begun shopping early, I will most likely peruse some merchandise available in-store to gain ideas for family and friends, and then see if I can purchase those items online (where I can usually find a better deal). I think that many consumers are the same way—perusing in store items (for the exposure and hustle and bustle, without having to wait in any lines) and purchasing if the deal and time is right.

I think that vendors—both online and in-store—need to do a better job at wooing consumers to spend more. Twitter is one way vendors are instantly appealing to consumers want for a good deal—offering short term bargains both online and in-store.

Happy shopping!

References:

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2005/Shopping-Dopamine-Junkie6dec05.htm