In marketing theory, specifically the area of online marketing, there exists a concept known as shopping kart abandonment, which forms part of the process in which we go through, when we are either shopping, browsing or searching for more information on products and services. This is essentially game over for the online 'sell' when the consumer adds one or many items to their online 'basket' and then don't go ahead with the purchase, at least not online.
But what about the opposite phenomena? When people do their research in the flesh, at the David Jones's and JB-HiFi's and perhaps online as well, but then purchase online from another source that is selling the exact product for less. Often, especially when people are buying high cost products, the natural human tendency is to want to touch and feel the item's first. I myself was in the market for the some designer sunglasses (swish) which we looked at a bricks and mortar store, obviously because you would need to try them on and see if they make you look like a bug-eyed idiot, a wanker, or a quality more desirable. Then we say thank you very much to the delightful staff member and walk out the door and purchase them from America for half the price.
Now trust plays a pretty important role in all this, as people may fear the online product will be of inferior quality, not genuine, be damage in transportation or simply may not want to wait for the item to ship from the far away land. But undoubtably consumers are getting more savvy about getting the best deal on products and services and some will leave the safety net of the brand's website or physical store. For businesses, lets not forget they are still making the sale, albeit at a lower price so it couldn't be classified as 'loss'. For these businesses the challenge is to offer something more that gives the consumer a reason to shop through official channels, either online or offline.
What are you experiences purchasing online? Have you ever done what I did? We've probably all abandoned a online 'cart' at one point at least. Did you end up purchasing the item, perhaps from somewhere else?
Great post, James! The whole shopping experience mirrors the buyer decision making process we've studied before. Putting something in your "shopping cart" online isn't the decision at the end of the process, often it's much earlier (e.g. "evaluation of alternatives").
ReplyDeleteOne of the big factors that prevents us from proceeding with an online purchase is the shipping cost. The sooner retailers realise this, and decide to strategically "absorb" shipping as one of their costs, the more they'll sell.
It will be interesting to see how Aussie retailers innovate over the next few years in an attempt to fight back against the cheaper overseas imports, too!