Multichannel Shoppers Can Save Money
It’s not necessarily news, but if you shop online there are definitely some tips you can use to help you save money. We’ve been telling people for a while that there are ways to maximize savings by shopping cross-channel. The July 16 edition of NBC’s Today Show addressed this topic with a segment on advantages—and disadvantages—of online shopping.
Most of the people shown in brief interviews on the show said that they basically shopped online because it was more convenient for them because online shopping offers home delivery. Since online retailers have often courted new customers by offering serious discounts, there is at least a perception that online prices can be much cheaper than store prices, and online searching offers shoppers the advantage of comparison shopping.
And yet, the Today Show referred to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal that claims online shopping rarely saves money. For commodity household and food items, for instance, prices are seldom cheaper online, especially when you include shipping charges in the total cost. In effect, Today suggests, shipping fees are the price you pay for the convenience of not having to drive to a store, find a parking place, and stand in line at the checkout counter.
If you are focused on saving money rather than paying for convenience, think of the process of shopping as more of a multichannel experience. For instance, you can do your research online, either by comparison shopping yourself, or by visiting such comparative sites as bizrate.com or techbargains.com. Once you find what you’re looking for online, you can go to a retail store that carries the same item and negotiate the same price. Or you can buy an item online and pick up at store to save the shipping fee.