Purchasing Trends – From Brick To Click

With the advent of the internet, purchasing trends have changed in the last 10 years.  When retail purchases were first possible about ten years ago, people were very wary of buying anything online, believing that their payment details were not safe.  Indeed until only a few years ago, making a purchase online was a hazardous process.

Now purchasing trends are to purchase books, music, clothes and even food online.  The rise of sites such as Amazon, Walmart and Tesco now mean that it is possible to buy almost anything online.  There are now more than 10 online sites that have a turnover of over $1bn with Amazon being the largest retailer on the internet.

So how are the conventional retail outlets fighting back?  Well many of them have set up their own online stores.  For example, Walmart the largest retail outlet has a multibillion dollar web site.  It is not as large as Amazon which has triple the turnover but it is the top ten.

Purchasing trends in the 21st Century are definitely moving more and more to being internet based.  Even if people do not purchase on the internet, they do their pricing research on line.  Several experiments have been undertaken where people have been locked into their homes, forced to survive only on what they can purchase online.  As groceries, clothes, music, computers, homes, cars and entertainment can be purchased online and you can now bank online as well – they did not suffer too much.

When looking at the largest and most successful retail establishments and online sites it is also clear that people expect to get the majority of their day to day requirements all in one shop.  Current purchasing trends are building bigger and bigger businesses that are shutting out the small guys.  The small guys however are starting to fight back.

Many of them group together in sites such as etsy where you can buy all kinds of homemade jewelry and clothes.  Amazon now allows the small merchant to sell from their site – they take a big commission – but with the millions of site visitors each day, somehow it seems worth it.

So purchasing trends are for bigger and online – will the small retail outlets survive?  Only time will tell.

 

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