SIFT THIS -- The biggest disappointment I received this holiday season was the report by C|Net that online shopping would only account for one percent of all retail sales in North America. Another reports indicated that all of the Christmas sales completed online would be roughly equivalent to one week's sales for Wal*Mart.
Why am I depressed? Because I want the rest of the world to understand the liberation I've experienced during this years bout of online Christmas retail therapy.
I'll explain. Better yet, I'll demonstrate with a few leading sites:
Amazon.com. If you haven't signed up for 1-click shopping on Amazon then you're just waiting time. I was a true believer that I'd never buy into online shopping because part of the experience involves going to the store and browsing, feeling the books, seeing the pages. Problem is that you usually think of a book you might need when you're no where near the mall. Chances are, you are near a computer. Suddenly, instant gratification rears it's ugly head and you're surfing Amazon for 'that book', you saw 'that one time', that has 'that blue cover'.
The face of the web... it's all in, "User Interface Geeks" Amazon's search interface is brain dead and their expansion into video, music, and giftables is a clear indication that they deserve their outrageous stock price.
Onsale.com. Chances are, you're going to yell at me for not listing EBAY as the top-notch auction site, but listen up. Up until a month ago, I avoided auction sites like the plague. I had no use for Beanie Babies, I had not use for Furbys, so what was the point?
The point is: It's not all crap, there are some amazing deals to be had on auction sites. For those of you who haven't a clue what I'm talking about, I'll be brief. Auctions sites come in two breeds: collaboration auctions (like EBAY) where anyone can sell an item online and warehouse auctions (like ONSALE) where companies are selling surplus, refurbished, or new merchandise. On both sites, an item goes up for bid for a specific period of time when online folks can make bids. Highest bid wins. It's pretty simple, but are there good deals to be found?
An example: I've been watching HP Omnibook 5700s (last years model of a top-notch notebook) for weeks now, examining the closing prices. The results are amazing. For the exact same notepad, the closing price has varied as much as $500. This is great news for patient users of the auction sites since it means that, over time, you're going to get a great price, as long as you do your research. This news is equally good for auction sites since any user who does make a purchase has an effect on setting the price on the item they want. Translation: The customer always leaves happy. (And if they don't, they only have themselves to blame and not some push salesmen) That's a solid business plan.
Perhaps the biggest problem facing on-line retailers is procrastination. With an obscene amount of purchasing done in the final days before Christmas, auction sites are intimately dependent on the mail service to get packages to consumers on time. The end result: only those who are completing their retail therapy weeks ahead of time will benefit from the incredible deals found on these sites.
december 25, 1998
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