How About Shop Online, Buy Offline?

from the is-that-so-wrong...? dept

A year or so ago, people tore me apart for suggesting that there were times that I researched products in stores, and later bought them online, even though, it turned out that plenty of people do so. Now, a new study says the opposite is true. A lot of people research online and then buy offline. I don't see anything wrong with either option. There's nothing wrong with researching what you want to purchase and then buying it where you feel most comfortable. I've certainly done both things at times. However, I'm wondering if the people who were so upset at shopping offline and buying online are equally upset at the opposite situation?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. icon
    drteknikal (profile), 26 Jan 2005 @ 10:02am

    sometimes

    There are times when I do my shopping physically, then buy virtually, and times when I do the opposite.

    The first case is usually a matter of inadequate information online, or needing a subjective impression of the physical object, not just its specs. Like needing to know the layout of the jack panel, not just the enumeration of jacks, or seeing how a dynamic picture adjusts to room conditions rather than reading over the algorithms.

    The second case is often reserved for large, heavy objects, or with things I think I might need to return. It's often cheaper to pay a slightly higher price at brick-and-mortar retail than to pay shipping charges for something really heavy. If I think I might have to take something back, especially if it is also big or heavy, I'll look at getting it locally at retail so I can just drive it back if there's a problem.

    Differently put, I think the answer is that price is not the only consideration, there are often logistic issues that influence where to purchase.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Adam Jackson, 26 Jan 2005 @ 10:27am

    when buying offline is your only choice...

    I like to buy products online for obvious reasons but when I need something last minute [birthday gift, whatever] and absolutely can't wait for something to be shipped to me from an online retailer, it's nice to be able to browse local store inventories from the web.
    [insert shameless plug here]
    I've been working on a site to help fix this problem - MarketSquare.com. It's only in San Francisco right now but it allows visitors to search for products on the site that are all available at local SF retailers. Saves a bunch of trips to stores looking for what you need (and helps support our local SF shops!)

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.