online shopping

I found a few articles I wrote for Drapers Magazine many years ago, on an old hard drive (remember those?).  I thought you may like to read and see if it is still relevant today - enjoy. 

Online Shopping

Whether we like it or not online shopping is here to stay.  With the disappearance of many familiar branded shops, such as Thornton’s, Habitat, Faith, to name but a few, I hope online retailing will not replace our much loved shops.  However, I think it definitely has been one of the factors in the demise of them.

Call me ‘old fashioned’ but I am a looky, touchy type of buyer and thank goodness there many of us out there.  However, every once in a while one is forced to buy something online.  In my case it was perfume and not an unusual brand, as it happens.  Boots didn’t stock it, my local Debenhams didn’t stock it, neither did my local indie stock it – so to keep smelling good I had to go online or go on holiday to get to the duty free – I didn’t have the spare time or staff cover to take a ‘business trip’ to Barcelona or Ibiza so it was the online option.

First of all, how many passwords do we really need?  Tell me I’m not the only one who gets annoyed at remembering what they are.  Tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t print out the order confirmation form – my home computer isn’t connected to a printer.  Tell me that when writing down the order confirmation code, as I can’t print it, that I also remember where I then put it.  And tell me you too forget your online banking code – what a nightmare that is?  How many times do we really need to keep logging on and off to our hotmail account to get passwords resent through?

How much more enjoyable it is to go into a store, have a browse, maybe collect your points, buy a new lipstick or smell other perfumes, pay for your goods, go home and put it on straight away – instant gratification.  Us Indies have to embrace online shopping to stay alive and participate all the various social media interactions out there – onliners have to be convinced that they aren’t a number to make that purchase.  Unfortunately in the case of my perfume purchase that was all I felt like, especially when it didn’t arrive for 10 days, but at least I now smell good.