Why Is Online Shopping Becoming So Popular?

Statistics don’t lie, on-line shopping is booming, and by the year 2012 some experts predict it will be a 61 billion dollar business. So what are the reasons for this?

Convenience is one, you can sit in the comfort of your home or office and just buy stuff. It doesn’t matter what you are wearing, or how you look. No long lines with rude sweaty people all fighting to get in the shortest line. The line in your house is as long as the number of people waiting to use the computer, and you can usually control that.

I for one am sick of playing the guessing game of which line will move the fastest. I always get stuck with “new cashier” who has to look up every price, or annoying customer who when asked “Did you find everything you need” says no, so someone goes to get stuff they didn’t get while the rest of us wait. How about the person who realizes they actually need money when they finally get to the front of the line and they wait til then to start looking for it. What were they doing the last 10 minutes while they were waiting? I’ve had a strange throwback phenomena happening to me lately, people writing checks. Grab another magazine while you wait for this transaction to take place, three pieces of ID and a blood test later that transaction gets completed.

The beauty of buying on-line is getting to avoid all of the above. Sure nothing’s perfect, slow internet speed can be a pain, or you hit the “buy now” button after entering all your info and nothing happens, but those problems are much easier to deal with than actual people.

When I add up all the pros and cons, the pros win this one, staying home and shopping means the only screaming kids I have to deal with are mine, the lady with enough perfume sprayed on to fill a bathtub won’t make my head ache, nobody will be smoking around me, nobody arguing about mismarked prices, rude sales people, bad parking spots, or no parking spots. And best of all, when my credit card gets declined, nobody standing in front of me with a pair of scissors cutting my card in two. I feel like Dorothy clicking my heels together, when it comes to shopping, “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”
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George Siegal and Luis Ramirez are the creators of watchnbuy.com. You can contact George at george@watchnbuy.com or Luis at Luis@watchnbuy.com.

Watching and Buying

I’ve always been fascinated by on-line shopping. How do people figure out what to sell on-line, then how do they get other people to buy what they are selling. I am a frequent user of Craigs List and Ebay, and am constantly amazed when someone puts and item on there that looks like it’s seen better days, they attach a price to it, and someone bids on it or buys it. One mans trash is another mans treasure. I saw one lady actually offering to rent a child safety strap that costs a hundred dollars. She had an ad posted offering to rent it for $25.

I’ve also spent time shopping on Amazon and Best Buy’s sites, and Gifts.com as well. As I went through those sites they always left me with the feeling that I’m watching, and I’m buying, but I’m not really watching because I’m only looking at pictures. So like the guy with the peanut butter who runs into the guy with the chocolate I thought, why not use video. And one step better, what if you could watch the video and actually click on the products you wanted to buy. A true merging of the terms watch and buy into one name, watchnbuy.com.

So that’s what my partner and I developed. An entire website devoted to watching videos and buying what you want. With internet sales soaring into the billions we’re hoping this becomes the next great way to shop on-line. We haven’t bought fancy sports cars yet, or second homes at the beach, but we hope it’s something people like and start taking advantage of.
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George Siegal and Luis Ramirez are the creators of watchnbuy.com. You can contact George at george@watchnbuy.com or Luis at Luis@watchnbuy.com.