The Death of the Impulse Shopper

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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The Internet is making us all a whole lot smarter….smarter shoppers, that is. :D Shoppers are now doing their research before hitting the stores or online shopping prior to buying, especially now when the economy requires everyone to find lower prices and greater value for the money. Recent surveys say that 80% of the people research and know exactly what they are looking for before setting out to buy.

Three-quarters (75 percent) of survey respondents assert that they are smarter shoppers than they were a year ago, and nearly nine in 10 (86 percent) believe they are getting more precise in what they buy.
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IF this were true, it would be an amazingly good thing. Unfortunately while it may be true to some extent, it is largely not. There are still unbelievable numbers of uninformed people buying garbage.

I do sincerely look forward to a day where the average shopper is informed and makes informed purchasing decisions. This will force manufacturers to not try and shove half assed products out in the hope of selling enough to make profit before people start avoiding it. Granted that is about as likely as a utopian society, but one can hope.
 
Reputation is becoming far more important, which is a great thing.

In years past, it was so very easy to hide common issues from consumers and pretend to them via your support centers that their issue was so very rare and unique. Online, shoppers can check reviews and see that there are common issues users are experiencing and avoid the product all together, and even see how the manufacturer is responding to address consumer issues.

Unfortunately, there is also a crapload of ballot stuffing going on, with so many obvious professional reviewers out there doing nothing but creating fake positive (or negative for their competitors) reviews.

Then you have companies like Apple that seek to monopolize any discussion of their products on their own forums and strongarm and/or sugar the media to keep silent, and censor their own forum heavily, while simultaneously using modern media to falsely hype their products and mislead the public when comparison shopping.

As a whole though, absolutely I buy almost nothing without checking Amazon reviews and the like.
 
I'd have to say, yes, thanks to the internet, I've found out that there's more than just price/performance to factor in when buying laptops and such. Though, that survey might have been exaggerated a bit I suspect.
 
"nine in 10 shoppers know what they’re buying before they arrive at a store"
People are still buying from stores?

I agree with @Dekoth-E though. People knowing what they're buying does not mean at all that people are smarter buyers, just that they have coupons for this, they've read the weekly flyers showing sales for that, or they're used to one specific brand/product for the rest.

As a newcomer into the U.S., I found magazines such as Consumer Reports invaluable. I bought my Camry based on its reliability and global score, my fridge based on CR score, TV, etc.
 
If this were really true a lot of retail stores would be out of business, who researches something online then drives to Best Buy and overpays for it?
 
Impulse said:
If this were really true a lot of retail stores would be out of business, who researches something online then drives to Best Buy and overpays for it?
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It really depends on what you're getting at Best Buy and what the sales at the time are. I bought a Logitec G9x mouse from Best Buy and it was about $45. I could not find any online stores where I could buy it for even close to that.
 
Well yeah, it was just an example... They usually have decent specials on new CDs and some laptops are actually very competitively priced (most often they are BB-specific SKUs). Who pays 3x as much for RAM or a GPU at BB tho? Clearly someone does or they wouldn't stock them.
 
Impulse said:
If this were really true a lot of retail stores would be out of business, who researches something online then drives to Best Buy and overpays for it?
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I got my TV for $400 cheaper then anywhere else at the time, the blu-rays can sometimes be cheaper then amazon, or same price and if I don't want to wait for the mail I'll just drive there and buy it.
 
DeathPrincess said:
What about the steam sales? :p
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You bring up a very good point. While people are more likely to do their research and go to a store knowing what they want, I feel like people are more likely to buy things online on impulse. I have lots of games I haven't played yet sitting in my Steam library, and a few books from Amazon that I've yet to crack open.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
IF this were true, it would be an amazingly good thing.
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Not really.
I'd rather the un-informed people over pay (such as $100 HDMI Cables) to balance out the low cost deals I buy. If everyone only bought the "deals" like me, the stores would go out of business.
 
Here is reality: Online shopping is NO LONGER cheaper than in store. It USED to be, but last month I set out to buy a decent laptop for the wife's birthday. HH Greg had the one I bought in store, no lie, it was $200-$300 cheaper than the exact same one anywhere online, and I searched everywhere from newegg to amazon to google shopping.

What has happenned is online prices seem to have elevated presumably on the hidden agenda of price gouging feed by the understanding that in today's shopping world, people automatically assume online pricing being better than in store so they no longer even look in stores.

A smart shopper will not take anything for granted and will compare models online and in stores for the best prices.

If you know someone you like, offer this to them as good advice.
 
Impulse said:
If this were really true a lot of retail stores would be out of business, who researches something online then drives to Best Buy and overpays for it?
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I do this all the time. I enjoy driving to the business. I enjoy looking at other products while I'm there. But most importantly I like having it right then and there and knowing that if something goes wrong I can simply return it just as quickly.

Price isn't the most important factor in our lives, at least not to some people. But I agree with the last poster, that the prices particulalry on electronics has become fairly level between online and brick and mortar. My local Microcenter is usually right on level if not cheaper then the bigger reputable online companies. The $8-$30 I pay in tax isn't much more then the shipping.
 
Um, what? You know how much trouble I've gotten into drunk shopping eBay (I'm looking at you, Xbox...) and Amazon...if I would have had to go into a store, never woulda happened. :p
 
B&M won't die because of the problems that's associated with delivery... so many thigns can go wrong with delivery: delays, delivery speed, shipping costs, and like others have mentioned, the ability to see what you get and determine what you are getting.

But for impulse buys.... I do it all the time, every time I go to a grocery store, I end up getting more than I planned.
 
Chimel said:
"nine in 10 shoppers know what they’re buying before they arrive at a store"
People are still buying from stores?
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Some things you just have to fiddle with in person before taking them home.
TVs, cameras, mobile phones, headphones, women.
Probably why 2011 wasn't the year of the mail-order bride.
 
I'll be honest, I buy stuff online to avoid paying 9 percent state sales tax whenever possible.
 
BBA said:
Here is reality: Online shopping is NO LONGER cheaper than in store.
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It really depends on the product and the store. A generic DVD burner from Best Buy was $60+ last time I checked, and a brand-name (Samsung) burner was $22 on newegg.

On the other hand I got my 2500K from Microcenter for $150, while they were $220 on newegg.
 
This is probably mostly true with internet shopping as you can see the item then just open another tab to look up reviews etc.

In-store shopping is not so easy. You see the item on the shelf, but it's not like you're in front of a computer and can lookup whether it's a good deal. This is how people are fooled into buying $90 HDMI cables when in reality if they shopped online they could get one for like 10 bucks.
 
I see an item on a store shelf and I scan it with my phone to find out the price online, I might even hop on HardForum / HeadFi / XDA / etc to see what people are saying about it... :p

I wish I had anything like a Microcenter, Fry's, or some of the music gear stores that you guys in the US have, here in Puerto Rico most of the smaller shops for any kind of electronics were driven out by now. It's pretty much Best Buy (with even higher prices than the US stores) or CompUSA (which has become surprisingly decent, almost MC-esque, only w/o the great CPU specials).

Guess it could be worse tho, sales tax is only 7% here... And I got my two Dell U2412M's shipped for free last month ($300 each), that's probably the first time ever I've gotten something for a better price than most continental US buyers were getting. :p
 
I am the super saver dude, the guy who never pays retail for jack, especially monthly bills like cell or TV.

But I noticed... whenever I try to save someone money, friend or fam, 9 times out of 10 I would say, they could give a fuck less about the extra minutes to save money. They would rather just buy it, and get it right now.

When teleporters becoming invented (supposedly they are almost there) then the internet will shut down stores like walmart and shit..... until then, people will always want things done QUICKLY, usually no matter the cost of a few more bucks
 
Ducman69 said:
Unfortunately, there is also a crapload of ballot stuffing going on, with so many obvious professional reviewers out there doing nothing but creating fake positive (or negative for their competitors) reviews.
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I just saw a commercial from a company that was offering that service. Unfortunately, companies are going to take the easy way out and try to mask their issues by voting own or flooding products with positive reviews.

One thing I do is filter out the 1's and 5's on the review sites. Those numbers are more likely to be shills (for or against). Depending what the 2-4 people say, I can guestimate whether it's a decent product or not.
 
Greene420 said:
But I noticed... whenever I try to save someone money, friend or fam, 9 times out of 10 I would say, they could give a fuck less about the extra minutes to save money. They would rather just buy it, and get it right now.
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That's not the worst reason in the world to spend a few extra bucks... I've seen people who spend more on the same product because they wanted it blue instead of black, or because they like shopping at X store better because they have a rewards car even though Y store has the same product 40% cheaper.

Anyway, it's thanks to all those people that the rest of us can reap the benefits of good deals, so whatever. :p
 
I was told from a reliable source that people who use the internets are dumb. Therefore, you can't get smarts from using it.
 
I don't think that we stopped buying things we don't need, just that we're better at getting them at lower prices and avoiding the really crappy ones. I have to say that web shopping has actually made me buy more stuff than before, and some that I don't use. Like someone else said, I have a ton of games that I buy but don't play. But they're well researched good games. :)
 
I definitely buy more music now... Hell hearing about good deals online probably goads me into as many purchases a year as retail shopping ever did. :p
 
Red Squirrel said:
This is probably mostly true with internet shopping as you can see the item then just open another tab to look up reviews etc.

In-store shopping is not so easy. You see the item on the shelf, but it's not like you're in front of a computer and can lookup whether it's a good deal. This is how people are fooled into buying $90 HDMI cables when in reality if they shopped online they could get one for like 10 bucks.
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Bring a smart phone with a barcode reader app, check prices on line in seconds.
 
I always know what I am buying when I go to a store to buy and If I don't I like to look at the stuff buy my self and I know what it is I just want to LOOK at the fucking things in person.

So I hate in when store clearks ask if they can help me if I am looking at fucking HDTVs or video games or what ever other electronic crap is in front of me.

No you can not help me go stand at your counter and fucking let me look at your crap if I want you I will go to your counter and get you or go to the check out stand with it and buy it.
 
Oh and I hate it when the stores do not have a store display of what ever I want to fucking look at like the 3ds 99% of the stores did not have any opened and on display so I said fuck that since I wanted to look at the colors and the screen in person before buying it so I did not even bother.

Besides it had no games any way other than ports of crap n64 games like the suck ass n64 zelda games. and the n64 star fox sucked balls to comapred to the SNES zelda and star fox games so screw that junk, I didn't buy it until it got games last month and bought a red one to play mario land 3d and stuff like that.
 
Customers reviews are the main reason I like the internet. If there's ever a reason to visit Newegg, it has to be for customer reviews. I find them to be spot on. I never look for the positive reviews, cause that's what I expect. I'm looking for the negatives. For the most part, no negative reviews is a good product.

Then comes the price difference. If you buy a phone, then a case protector is $30+ from the phone company. Yet, on Amazon you'll find them for $1. I kid you not. Even less for the screen protectors.

Buying cheap is expensive, and buying expensive is expensive. What people want is in between all that. I don't want a product that breaks on me, and I want it to work well.

Car parts are WAAAAAY cheaper online.
Electronics are cheaper online.
Everything but food and clothing is cheaper online. You don't have to drive and burn gas, and waste your entire day shopping. Deal with parking, and deal with huge lines.
 
I bought $140 worth of clothes and a camping cook set on impulse at the store I was at over the weekend. Of course the store is closing and things were 40-50% off.... but it's still an impulse buy!
 
I think it's almost necessary at this point. Manufacturers are cutting every cost they can at the expense of overall quality, so if you want something that will last, you have to research the options.

Combine that with an ever-increasing range of product selection and the choice is further confused. I can't buy shampoo without poring over dozens of options. As a guy, my requirements are not substantial: 1) Make hair clean. 2) Don't stink. But they're marketing such granularity as to make a simple need complex. (Shampoo is just an example that annoys me.)

More to the point, it's not like Best Buy has 3 TV sets for you to choose from. The cheap one, the good one, and the middle one. They have closer to 50. If you don't research it, you're just foolish.
 
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