The changes in our
shopping habits - are they permanent?
The retail industry is in
serious trouble, and over the last year thousands of shops in the
average high street have closed, many of them permanently. The blame
is being heaped on the credit crisis and the general state of the
economy and the may well be some justification for all this but it
cannot be denied that the growth of Internet advertising has made a
tremendous impact on the buying habits of millions of British
people, as they look for bigger and better discounts online as well
as, in many cases, a more efficient service and fast that deliveries
of major items such as furnishings and white goods. Britain now is
the biggest online market in Europe and as the credit crunch has
tightened its grip on our purses more and more time is being spent
on line as we seek the biggest bargains on everything from new cars
to pop-up toasters.
The high street has not been
the only loser in all this. In the past advertisements have been the
main money spinner for newspapers and it was even possible to give
these away free of charge to consumers, secure in the knowledge that
the advertisers would more than cover the costs and leave a healthy
profit on top, and it has not been unusual for several hundredweight
of discarded freebie newspapers and magazines to be thrown away from
every household every month! Perhaps thankfully, the decline in
press advertising is now making this type of marketing at
economical, which is hardly surprising since a newspaper ad has a
very short life, and has to be paid for whether it produces business
not. Radio and television stations have also suffered, and
commercial television which relies greatly upon advertising income
is facing an extremely uncertain future, a far cry from the days
when it was a licence to print money.
Shop here for
everything from
young drivers car insurance to
fancy dress costumes!
One of the main benefits to
many people of buying over the Internet is that different products
or services can be checked out on review sites before a purchase is
made and many of these sites wield an enormous amount of influence;
for instance, I personally would not stay at a hotel that was not
highly rated by contributors to tripadvisor.com and whenever I buy
electrical goods online I inevitably check out reviews beforehand;
if no one has reviewed a product or it has received negative reviews
I simply do not buy it. More enterprising retailers have embraced
the Internet rather than try to fight it; I can now buy my favourite
Thorntons chocolates online and, as with Marks & Spencer's, I can
stipulate not only the day but practically the exact time when I
want them delivered to my home.
The corner shop was destroyed
by the supermarkets; many of these which deal with products which
need to be seen before purchase, such as items of clothing or food,
will no doubt survive and perhaps even prosper in the new
environment but the future looks extremely dark indeed for huge
swathes of the retail industry.
