It’s official… 100% of my Christmas gifts were purchased online.
First ever for me.
- Toys and Dr. Seuss books for the new niece and nephew – all from Amazon.com.
- College alumni paraphernalia for the sports fans of the family – CollegeFootballStore.com.
- Books, housewares and electronics – all from Amazon.com
- Baby picture prints – WalMart.com.
Also a first, I paid $0 — zilch — zero — nada — in shipping and handling charges from everything I bought from Amazon.com, while I did pay a few bucks from WalMart and CollegeFootballStore.com.
As I documented earlier in an Amazon order that weight approximately 15 pounds and came in 3 separate shipments, I paid $0 in shipping and handling charges which actually saved me 38% on my total bill. I worked this angle for 3 separate orders that shipped in 8 different packages and got every bit of it free of charge.
The scary thing, especially if you’re a brick & mortar business… I paid less than $8 for shipping and handling for over a dozen gifts.
As retailers have recently learned, shipping and handling costs are a major psychological hurdle for online shoppers, so now that online retailers like Amazon.com have found our “shopping catnip”, the urge to whip out that credit card or use PayPal becomes all the more difficult to resist.
And why not? Who wants to waste time driving to Target et al when someone is willing to deliver to your house for free? Only Christmas shop purists and last minute shoppers I’m guessing.
So it begs the question: will online shopping become the new normal of Christmas shopping in the upcoming decades? Once Gen X and Gen Y get older, who do a greater proportion of their shopping online, is shopping from the comfort of your couch the way of the future?
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Image by boeke