I don’t know why a tech person want to write about shopping habit. But I start to notice the way how I shop around stuff over the internet, so would like to document the change, because I never thought I would change especially in terms of shopping.
Amazon first
Amazon is the first website I normally would go to, not necessarily it would end up with placing orders at amazon, but most of time yes. The point is that Amazon becomes the reference point in terms of getting to know a bit better what the market is. Of course the price is the first thing, so we would like to know what’s the cheapest price we can nail this item generally. Most of important, Amazon does give the overall lower price than any place else if you consider all the fact, including shipping, handling and returning. It’s so cost effective that your brain wouldn’t want to pick up anything else.
Of course this can be dangerous in the end if you are so attached to something. But this is another matter to handle, which is not part of this blog.
Shopping cart
Shopping cart starts to lose its effectiveness. What do I mean by that? It supposed to be the one that we take a time to review the order we’re going to place, it’s still be that way. But we spent less and less time in shopping cart, instead we move most of time to shopping! The item that is putting into shopping cart essentially will be converted into shopped, not necessarily that item you picked initially, but eventually it will be with something placed there. So “Quick Buy”, “Express Checkout”, “Click Once”, whatever the terms, are getting more and more popular. We want to buy it and then regret it later, or maybe never regret it.
Of course this is not a good habit to have, but from the functionality perspective, I think shopping cart is going to die out in the future. What’s replacing it would be more streamlined selecting an item and then taking some time to confirm and then straight to be ordered.
There’s still decent amount of time that customer will wait to decide, this time can’t be underestimated, it ranges from seconds to months. Therefore a Todo list might be more proper to categorize the functionalities of shopping cart.
What’s right is never important in this world, especially if you talk about the reality. My friend, this is not programming we are talking about.
More or less to consider
When we compare items, it’s important to notice that we don’t aim for the price only any more. This is a very important thing.
There’re more to be read! For instance, pictures to check experience, comments to check whether others like it, other similar items sold by same or other stores, there’s a lot more to read about to expand your knowledge before determining whether this is a good move.
I also start to care very much on the deliver date! If it can be delivered now, I would rather get it now, especially when I have an important event to attend tomorrow. I would rather to know whether this item is going to suite my need RIGHT NOW. Of course this is based on whether this requirement is feasible or reasonable.
Amazon made it possible, you can get it today, tomorrow or later this week. Sometimes it can be measured by minutes, no kidding. Therefore when I place order I consider items that can be shipped to my door faster. This is very interesting, because I don’t have that expectation in the past, but now the urge is there and it’s real. I even take this as one of the important factor to consider! This is crazy.
My shopping habit
Last but not least, yes my shopping habit, I’m a guy, so I don’t shop that often, at least not before.
These days, I shop quite a bit. I’m 45. Maybe I’m a bit richer comparing used to be, and I start to take care of myself more. So I would like to spend money for myself, and sometimes I buy gift without knowing I’m buying for others. If I tried it not liked it, but my children or my wife picked them up right away, I would let it be. Big family matters.
So my shopping habit becomes to a buy-buy-and-buy model. I’m still cautious, at least that’s what I’m telling myself. But how I become this monster that I didn’t know before still shocks me from time to time. I can’t even recognize myself. But why?
Because I can buy and then return!
When I’m returning it, I get money back, get credit back, get credit points back, whatever I spent on it, I got it all back. Maybe not the time I spent on it, but Amazon squeezes the overall time to minimum. So I’m not worried that much how much I spent in total in the transition state.
As long as by the end of the month, I can control the bill to be within my budget of spending, this model sustains. Of course, based on what I have shown you, I will spend a bit more considering my frequency of buying definitely increases. But I can justify the final result, which is a better life style given my budget. And most of important, it’s a sustainable model.
Hopefully I’m right.
Conclusion
My shopping habit changes dramatically after I turn 45. I find out this is most because how Amazon offers, including buying experience, returning experience and my status of looking at my own money. This is a bit fascinating to observe, and it should speak for the trend how the e-commerce has become. And I look forward to the future.
