Two Different Shopping Styles

張貼日期：Mar 31, 2012 9:30:30 AM

Nancy Lin

Shopping is an increasingly popular leisure activity. From the old to the young and from women to men, no one does not like shopping. Walking on the street, we can see most people have many shopping bags on their hands. Because of the development of technology, people can also enjoy shopping on the Internet. They just need to stay at home and use their computers. Then, they can get anything they want. These two shopping styles, shopping online and shopping at the store, have a common function: satisfying our desire and helping us release our pressure. Nevertheless, they are totally distinct from each other in the time and place we shop, ways of shopping, and our sense of reality.

The first difference is time and place. As long as we are not lazy to turn on our computers, we can shop at any time we want. We also have no limitation of place on the Web. We only need to sit in front of the computer and type some key words. And then, we can browse through thousands of stores and purchase goods we would like to have. The most important thing is that the process takes only a few seconds. By contrast, shopping at the real store has the limitation of time and place. For example, a shopping store has its business hours, so consumers have to buy things in that specified time. If we want to buy some households, for instance, we may spend fifteen minutes, sometimes longer, getting to the store. Furthermore, we may not be able to buy everything we need at the same place. Therefore, we should spend extra time getting to another place to buy what we need. The shopping may take us half a day!

The way of shopping is also different between these two styles of shopping. When consumers buy commodities at the store, they pay money and get their goods at once. However, shopping on the Internet, we pay money first and we get our things after a few days. Besides, no matter where we go at the store, the store clerks always accompany us and stare at us. In fact, this behavior makes consumers feel uncomfortable and stressful sometimes. While we shop on the Net, we do not need to worry about this kind of annoyance. We can shop with a comfortable and joyful mood.

The third is the sense of reality. The greatest advantage of shopping at the store is that consumers can see and touch the real objects. We can know the material of objects, the real color of goods, and the exact size of things. On the contrary, we are unable to do that when doing Internet shopping. After all, it is only a virtual world. Even though consumers can see pictures on the Internet, the goods they see are plain and not solid. Especially, the color we see on the Web is a little different from the color we see in the reality. For instance, I once saw a piece of blue-violet clothing online and bought it. However, upon receiving my clothing, I was extremely disappointed. The reason was that I got an INDIGO one! Due to this experience, I always think twice when I shop online.

Shopping style becomes more and more diversified. Take an example. Online group purchase is a hot shopping style and it becomes our current tendency. In fact, no matter what kinds of shopping ways, they all have their good and bad sides. What we do is to choose the one which benefits us and enjoy shopping. For me, I still like to shop in the real store in person. Paying money and getting goods at the same time, I am not worried about being defrauded.