Decrepit Old Fool has a very good post on how retail electronics folks should very much consider how they are falling way short of the online purchasing experience, and what this may mean to them in the coming years, drawing on his experience over the past several months in buying a digital camera for his wife. I made the following comment, then decided to post it here:
I do a huge amount of my shopping online. That said, I find going to electronic retailers like Best Buy and the like valuable for three reasons:
- I like being able to pick up and poke and look at and prod the equipment. I wouldn’t buy a digital camera without a lot of “hands-on” first, even if it’s tethered to the display by an annoying security cord. Of course, if it’s then out of stock at the store, I can always do some web shopping, find the best price, and buy it that way.
- Immediate gratification. You walk out of the store and you have it in your hot little hands. I find this is most valuable at the highest end (once I screw up the courage and money to buy something expensive, I want the payoff *now*, dammit) and the lowest end (damn, forgot a cable I needed …).
This also ties into immediate returns/replacement if something is wrong. It’s fine having a DOA warranty from an online/catalog sale, but it’s nice to be able to walk back into the store, find the sales guy, and say, “Remember me?”
- The last three computers we bought for the house were open box specials at a local electronics retailer. The price was cheap, the feature set high, and I could judge for myself whether the missing or scraped or worn/display pieces were key to my consumer enjoyment. Sure, you can hit eBay and do something similar, but I like seeing what I am (and am not) getting on a multi-hundred dollar purchase.
That said, the advantage in online sales of reviews (particularly by pros, but occasionally the “just plain folks” reviews will reveal other questions that need to be addressed) and other supplemental info is big, and I often adopt a hybrid approach:
- Go to the store. Get a feel for what’s out there. Write down some models and prices.
- Go home. Research online. Price compare. Read reviews. Learn the difference between product A and product B and whether it’s a real difference to me, not something idiosyncratic to paid flacks or prejudiced reviewers. Judge whether end-user ratings were influenced by a set of bad reviews by folks who hate all non-iPod digital music players because they aren’t, well, iPods.
- Either go back to the store or buy it online, depending on cost savings, urgency, convenience, etc.
That strategy has served us well with most of our equipment purchases for the last five years or so, and I’ll likely trust it for what we do with the TiVo and printer purchases upcoming.