6 Reasons Why Consumers Buy Things Online

Everyday there’s an increasing number of people who begin to buy products from an online retailer over a brick and mortar store. Shopping online has become even more commonplace because of the coronavirus. There are people who now even buy things such as groceries on online stores. If you told someone 20 years ago that consumers would be buying groceries online, they would think you are insane. However, that is now an everyday thing for millions of people and here are 6 reasons why that is:

1. Choice: Have you ever went to a store like Wal-Mart just to realize that they don’t have the product you’re looking for or that they don’t even sell said product? Well on the internet that simply just doesn’t really happen. Even if one site doesn’t carry the product that you’re looking for you can always easily hop to another site and find the product you are looking for there. Going to a different website is much easier than travelling to a different store. Realistically have you ever heard of someone going on to Amazon and not be able to find what they’re looking for on that platform? The answer will be no the majority of the time.

2. Communication: These days it is easier than ever to reach a retailer and find out the status of your purchase or the availability of a product. You can also go through social media profiles to see what your favourite retailers are up to. You can even get E-mail notifications of when your favourite products become available or when your delivery will reach you. Most businesses now even have instant chat/messaging services to answer any questions you may have. It has never been this easy to get information from a business about its products before.

3. Control: The control is completely in the hands of the consumers when they’re shopping online. Imagine you’re at best buy and you ask an employee what the best computer is for your personal needs. It’s literally impossible for a person to know the in’s and out’s of every product off the top of their head. However, shopping online there are programs that easily compare separate products and will show you which product is best suited for your personal needs. Shopping online gives consumers the ability to obtain as much information as possible and make buying decisions on their own time 24/7. The control is simply in the hands of the consumer when shopping online.

4. Convenience: The closest Wal-Mart from where I currently am, is a 15-minute drive away. However, it is possible to get to Amazon’s website in 15 seconds from our current locations. Websites are much easier to reach than it is to get to the closest store with the product you’re looking for. Why drive an hour to the apple store when their online marketplace is just a click away? You can scroll through a page of results much faster than you can walk down an aisle of a store. If the website being used is designed well then it will always be the easier choice when being compared to going to an actual store.

5. Cost: Nothing excites a lot of shoppers more than getting the product they desire at an awesome price. Many shoppers look for the best deals that they can possibly find, and the internet has made this even easier for them. Prices online sometimes are affected by real time supply and demand conditions. Also, it is possible for you to skip the process of product going through multiple middlemen. MVMT Watches have famously been able to sell amazing watches at a very cheap price because you purchase them directly from MVMT rather than some middleman. Being able to get a product directly from the manufacturer without dealing with a retailer is a game changer.  

6. Customization: Have you ever went to a store and wanted to buy a product, but they didn’t have the colour you wanted? This is giant in the fashion industry! Everyday people see an article of clothing and go that looks awesome do you have one in black? Well when you’re shopping online the chances of them having it in black are much higher. Microsoft, the company that owns xbox, has created an interactive customization process with Xbox controllers. You can go to a store and hope the store has a kind that you like, or you can order it directly from your Xbox console and design the controller yourself. 

The internet has just made shopping easier for consumers. Online retailers like Amazon even offer two-day shipping on many products these days due to their large presence of distribution centres. Of course, people will always want the brick and mortar satisfaction of seeing the product in person and taking it home right then and there. However, online shopping is still constantly growing in popularity every day. If your product is not available somewhere online, then it will be nearly impossible to keep up with your competition.