Is Online Shopping a Better Option than your Local Store?
So, you want to buy a new chair for your home. Ok, so you start browsing the Internet and the first site you come across is the giant home good’s e-commerce store. You know, that company that has all those happy people dancing around their homes in their ads. Now, your fingers start that exciting hunt for the perfect chair!
Once you find what appears to be the best design, you look for the cheapest price you can find, right? So you keep searching until you find what appears to be the identical chair for fifty dollars less. Great! Now you want to get it to your place as fast as you can because you really want it now. Some companies offer free shipping so you select your chair from this vendor. Mission complete!
Now you’re ready to add to cart and get your comfy chair or are you? Do you really know if it’s going to be comfy or meet your expectations? Well of course you do…you have read all the reviews right? How could it be so bad if it has a 4.5 star overall rating? So you pull the trigger and order it!
Well, that was the easy part. As we all know, shopping online is fun, quick, and in some cases cheaper than buying at your local retailer. There’s no middleman so of course it is, right? Ok, so a few days later your doorbell rings and the truck drops your new chair on your driveway in a carton. You’re so excited you sign the paperwork and off goes the driver. You drag your new chair up your front stairs into your living room.
Now comes the fun part… You proceed to unpack your new chair with your box cutter but when you take the packaging off you notice that there is a tear in the fabric. Oops, did I do that? Or perhaps it just came damaged from the vendor. Who knows for sure? Well that’s the least of your problems as you quickly come to realize after a few hours that the chair is much too large for your room.
The worst part is that the new chair is uncomfortable. Ughh.. It also doesn’t look like the same fabric that you saw online. After all, you chose it from that huge one centimetre photo online. Yikes! So you call the vendor and they inform you that you must make a claim with the carrier for the damage and either repair it or return the chair.
After spending countless hours on the phone and computer with the Freight Company and vendor you decide that all this isn’t worth the effort. You’re just going to return the chair. Now comes the thing that’s going to put you right over the edge. In order to return it, the chair must be in brand new condition and in the original carton. Well you’ve broken down and recycled all that cardboard already but that’s not the main issue. The vendor’s policy dictates that it’s the purchaser’s responsibility for all return shipping and handling costs.
It’s decision time. Bite the bullet and just keep the damaged chair even though it’s not comfy or the right size for your room. Or you return it, pay all the shipping charges and hope the vendor refunds your money in 2-3 weeks once they receive and inspect it.
Now, I’m not saying that all online transactions end up this way. Many have excellent prepaid return policies and some will even send you a replacement item at no charge. In fact, buying online is a great way to get goods that you may not be able to source at your local bricks & mortar stores. However, it just may not be the best way for you to shop for certain types of products that require you to see it, touch it and try it out.
Sure, the middleman, storefront and sales associates have been eliminated enabling these giant online vendors to sell their wares cheaper while stocking huge inventories. But when all is said and done, you many find that your online purchase may not always be cheaper, faster or better.
Written by David Adelman, Founder and Owner of The Adelman Group