What are the thrills that on-line shopping presents to you?

I'm pretty focused when I shop online -- not a lot of trawling. I usually look for something really specific, and then do a bit of comparison shopping. I take shipping into account and will usually go with the cheapest total offer (price of item + shipping), so free shipping isn't really a consideration. Depending somewhat on the item, ease of returns is probably more important.

I don't really do bargain hunting online in a browsy sort of way -- the only thing I can think of there is when I'm searching for bulk items for events that I help plan. Sometimes I'll find some thrillingly cheap things that way. (Like a thematically perfect onsale gewgaw at Oriental Trading that amounted to 12 cents each. [Vs. more like $3/ each if I'd gotten them individually at Target or something.] Score!)

I do online shopping to save time money and gas.

Like soz, I take into account the total cost, including shipping if any.

I'm not going to buy something just because it's free shipping.

There's a store online where I like to buy my work clothes.
I gravitate toward that site because I can always find a coupon code for free shipping, and I can return any unwanted items to a brick and mortar store.

I can by things in differnt sizes, try on in the privacy of my home, and make one trip at my convenience to return anything I don't want.

Living in a rural small town there are many many things that are not available so online shopping should make sense.

Apart from digital content I have never purchased anything online.
my preference is to pay a little more from a bricks and morter store. To actually see the goods and ensure they are what i really need. To ensure i can return the goods if they do not perform as detailed. Sure occasionally i cant return something or the retailer wont give a money back guarentee but you get a sense of who's a rip off merchant and they dont last long around here.
I find it difficult to tell the difference between chineses wholesaler and Australian online retailer, even when it is stated on the web site they could be lying and I'm doing my country a disservie by cutting out the middle man.

I have a concern that online shopping reduces employment of people in my local area (jobs for my kids).

If some goods can be offered freight free online why not all? is that because the freight is already included in the price of the "freight free item"

My wife buys online clothing because the range locally is limited. She only ever deals with trusted brands and/or retail names that have a physical address.

I guess I'm not quite ready for it.

Price is key. Recently bought an iPod Touch from Amazon. $20 less then even the Apple Store sells itself.

Online shopping allows for further research (more then simply relying on the user reviews supplied by the site itself or worse having to rely on the really undereducated and unmotivated minds of the customer associates one meets at the typical brick and mortar store.

Music wise, digital downloads are cheaper and take up less space then buying physical CD's from a recored store. These days, it's more likely that an MP3 store at Amazon has a greater selection of music then a Best Buy or Barnes and Noble music section.

Services like audible.com are far more cheaper way of getting audiobooks then the company's rival brick and mortar store. Plus with a wifi connection, I can get new books and download them in a considerably faster time it takes to peruse the limited selection of the typical bookstore.

I asked my wife what influenced her decion on who to buy clothing from online.
She tells me the site she uses was a mail order/catalouge company she had dealt with before. This mail order company was associated with and had the backing of a high reputation major department store.

We are no longer sure that the website/company she deals with are in fact associated with the original department store but that matters little now that she has built trust.

I love antiquities (reproductions, obviously because I am not rich!) books, home decoration stuff, art, and off beat stuff and I can browse to my little heart's content online.

I buy clothes from one online store, because it doesn't have a shop where I live and I really like their clothes....I am about to return the first thing I bought which doesn't suit me, and they are happy to give my money back as soon as they receive the item so have ensured my custom big time. It'd pricey, so getting things cheaper is not a factor.

I have a kindle which just died. Amazon have made me happy because they are sending a new one free of charge. I now mainly buy e-books so I shop online a lot for books. The joy here is that that I am already overwhelmed with actual books, and I am not adding to my being crowded out by book-cases problem.

I have just bought two kittens online, because no breeders where I live have any available until next summer. I'd much prefer to meet and choose animals personally, of course...

Not quite In my opinion trust is a bigger part
You would not have bought that from an unknown random website.
Amazons reputation would have been a key factor.

Also I disagree with the research comment.
.
Well... it does allow for further research I just dont know how valuable that research is. I often find the same comments appearing on many different discussion websites. I'm suspicious that its the work of the marketing department. plus folks are quick to complain and slow to compliment so complaints are not neccessarily an indication.

When negetive comments are published about a product or service discussion sites are sometimes threatened with legal action if the comments are not removed. Marketing departments are quick to anonamously publish refutation of negetive comments.
Unless the comment (either positive or negetive) is coming from a trusted source I'm inclined to ignore it.

Seriously?!

When do they arrive?

Bloody well after Miranda dies!!!!

They are due mid-April.

I felt awful and would have preferred to wait...but was searching Cornish Rex catteries and found they are rare, as are the pointed kittens I wanted....the closest to Siamese I can get without the fur!


http://www.kiewacats.com/Past-Kittens.html

Cornish Rex are the ETs of the cat world, and hardly shed. They have a similar, but different mutation to the Devon Rexes, and tend to have been bred to Siamese a lot

I wanted Lara and Lucy (Lucy is at the top right of the page the url that takes to you, but Lucy was sold while I was waiting for the damn breeder to get back to me!)


My girls are at the bottom of the page. You can have a look at her adults if you want to get an idea...or just search for Cornish Rex images.

Lily clearly isn't a Lily, so her name will have to wait until I meet her...I like Lara but we'll see.


Were Miranda to live, I'd just have to cancel and lose the deposit.

Actually, I bought them when Miranda had a definite execution date. Such is life.

Wow, congrats!!!

They're both very very cute. I like the tilt of Lara's head.

How old will they be when they arrive?

A bit older than three months. That's normal for breeders.

A lot of these breeders are getting into a practice I hate...de-sexing before you get the kitten. So..they have to be a kilo before the vets will do it.

I de-sex at six months.

I get my research via product reviews published by what I consider reliable media outlets: CNET, PCMag, Consumer Reports, etc....

I take product reviews by individuals with a grain of salt. Often I completely dismiss these reviews as they tend towards pure unadulterated hyperbole:
Giving a product the highest score when clearly they note major defects for the product.

Vice versa as well. They might note great features and such on a product but give the product the lowest score simply because it doesn't come in the color they want or the seller had wronged the buyer in some minor fashion but the buyer somehow transplants this grievance onto the product review itself (especially true if the online store is selling a third party product).

Often, the amateur reviewer makes claims like "this is the best ______ I have ever owned" and it turns out they have only owned two ______ in their lives and thusly don't have the proper amount of anecdotal experience to make such grand statements product review wise.

Thrills of on-line shopping?

None.

Sometimes it's practical.

I find I'm doing less on-line shopping now than I did 3 or 4 years ago. I'm back to supporting my local shops.

about the only things i buy online (other than digital purchases) are books, and i don't buy those too often, usually if i have gift cards

Yep, the only regular online purchases I make are digital media and that's only because the brand I prefer isn't offered in any stores. I like the convenience of it...not sure that qualifies as a 'thrill' though.

The last thing I bought online was this neat little book holder, and yes, it is advertised to have the ability to hold a Kindle. Why online? Well, I tried Waldenbooks and Hastings. For Farmington, that's about the extent of the choices, and checking out both stores took an easy hour and a half. Time after time you end up spending hours and half days trying to find something. Finally, you just go to Amazon and order the darn whatever it is you're looking for. And you don't have to put up with some smug little sales 'associate' saying b-o-o-k h-o-l-d-e-r very slowly just to make sure you understand that he/she knows darn good and well there is no such thing and he/she is dealing with a total retard.

Eventually, if you need a brick, you go to amazon and plug in what you want, read the reviews, prices, and features of the many bricks offered. Then you order it. Price plus shipping is often less than local price plus sales tax, unless the order is something very low cost.

me too. Although most of my local shops are national chains. But, even there, keeping the shops open helps with the employment situation for those who work there.

Ah, there's 2 more very good reasons I shop online (only I will technically take out the word "smug" about the sales associate, but I'll get to that later)

Even living in an urban environment it'll take an hour and a half just to go leave the house, drive to 2 stores, look around, buy (or not) and come back home.

I know that for a lot of people that's a form of leisure activity, entertainment. It's not for me. I don't care for browsing around stores or going to events where the main purpose is to sell stuff. I don't care about looking at the other people. I get plenty of that if I go for a walk, or work in my garden.

I will browse at things on the internet, if it's related to the thing I first when on there to get. That's because there aren't sales people standing there watching to see if I'm going to steal something. Or worse, coming up and asking if they can help me. I don't know how many times I've said "yes, I'm looking for an green xyz with an extra long lmno attachment" While saying this, I will be standing in front of the entire xyz supply in the store, and I've pretty much looked over all of them for what I want. The sales person will then start to look through the exact same object I did. I'll say "Don't bother to look through that, I've already done that. They just keep looking.

I know they are working there to make a living, or for extra money, but 99 times out of 100, I really don't need them.

When I checked the mail before, there was a flyer in the mail for something I could be interested in. Why should I have to go to the store, and take all that time, potentially have an accident, have to look at least somewhat presentable to go there, when I can click click click for 5 minutes?

Well, I prefer to buy used books online... there's a site where I can buy a used $20.00+ book for $1 or $1.99 and shipping is nominal (depending on where). I bought two of my favourite books and sent one to my cousin in England and the other to my daughter in Ontario, and the total cost was around $12.00 CDN. So, yeah, once in a while I shop online.