February 26, 2004

shopping prefs

BAR pimp.jpg

From Adrants.com: "A new study from Havas' Arnold Worldwide Partners, Boston has found consumers still prefer brick and mortar shopping over online shopping. According to the study, Americans still prefer human contact. Among the findings, 63 percent prefer to shop a physical store for a gift, 79 percent for clothing and 66 percent for pharmaceuticals. Conversely, for categories such as booking a cruise and banking, the study found consumers don't want human contact and would rather do these things electronically."

So the internet is only good at some things, but not good at everything. Hmmm... reminds me of a few people I know.


Posted by hugh macleod at February 26, 2004 5:05 PM
Comments

all people, really. nobody's good at everything.

Posted by: franny at February 26, 2004 6:18 PM

Yes, Franny. That was also there in the line, in a kinda Garrison-Keillor-character understatement kinda way ;-)

Posted by: hugh at February 26, 2004 7:24 PM

ah. internet = similar to people.

Posted by: franny at February 26, 2004 8:52 PM

The key to whether consumers want to have human contact or not seems to be, at least in part, how much they trust the seller, doesn't it? I mean,I don't know if it is the same abroad but in my culture, a banker is basically someone who steals your money from you with a little help from politicians. And you always get the feeling that the travel agency is ultimately responsible for anything that might go wrong at the airport or the hotel. While, on the other hand, pharmacists are more or less as respectable as doctors and I would ask the shop-assistant if the clothes I'm trying on look good on me -and maybe let her convince me they do look good.

So, in short: if people like/trust the seller, don't bother selling it online. (?)

Posted by: Nia at February 26, 2004 10:41 PM