A recent article in Time magazine indicated that online retailers gained more than 15 percent in sales over the previous year, making 2011 the most profitable online shopping season ever. Here is the rub: Buyers’ remorse is also at its highest rate ever, with returns going up a record 8 percent to nearly 20 percent.
One of the benefits I get from visiting area merchants is experiencing first-hand the quality goods and services our business community provides. There is just no way a computer screen, catalog or phone can stand up to touching, feeling, seeing and smelling what our area businesses produce. When you make your shopping a personal experience, there is very low buyer’s remorse and extremely high customer satisfaction.
For example, you can buy sweaters from a lot of different online locations: specialty shops, second-hand stores, national retailers, etc. When you get your sweater in the mail, it may or may not be exactly what you wanted. Maybe the picture on your computer screen was not perfectly clear, or maybe the body style of the person wearing the sweater in the ad is not exactly the same as yours. Maybe the material doesn’t feel good on your arms or neck. Maybe the smell is … well … smelly.
I think you will agree that any combination of these factors leads to buyer’s remorse. The best case scenario for this situation? You send the sweater back and get another one — which you may or may not like — a couple of weeks later.
Compare the latter to an in-person shopping experience at Winters Gone Farm on Main Street in Bath. As soon as you walk in the store, you are welcomed by a variety of beautiful merchandise that you can immediately picture on yourself or a loved one. When you get to the sweater section, you can see, smell and touch a variety of different textures and styles. You can tell immediately if the large black sweater (made from baby alpaca) fits you, or whether your many weeks of working out has paid off and you now fit into a medium!
Once you find the sweater you want, it is easy to match gloves, socks or any other accessories you’d like.
When you finish your shopping, you know your purchase is exactly what you wanted. No hit and miss games to play. No returns or additional mail orders to be filled, just a great sweater that fits and feels awesome. In short, no buyer remorse.
As I visit stores and talk to member and non-member businesses alike, owners and employees tell me how their business is doing. I am happy to report there seems to be an uptick in sales for most sectors — but not all. A big reason for that is a lot of Midcoast folks have rediscovered shopping and buying local. This is a trend that needs to continue even as our state and national economies recover.
If you are reading this and you have a stack of merchandise to return because it doesn’t fit right, doesn’t feel right, doesn’t look right, doesn’t smell right or doesn’t (insert a reason here), remember to give your local vendors a chance to make your shopping experience right the next time.
Online might seem to be easier, but you deserve better than only getting the right product or service 80 percent of the time. Buy local, be happy, and leave the buyer remorse to the folks from away.
Hope to see you at a local café or store soon.
Upcoming events: Thursday is Mid Day Chambers and the presenter is financial adviser Virginia Caruso of Edward Jones in Brunswick. The program is free and meets 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Topsham Public Library, Foreside Road. Mid Day Chambers provides business-to-business networking, a time to market your business and an information exchange.
Members in the news: SMMC welcomes Resurface Skin and Body Health, located at 30 Bath Road, Brunswick, and the Thayer Corp., located in Auburn (www.thayercorp.com).
The chamber proudly serves businesses in the following communities: Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Dresden, Edgecomb, Georgetown, Harpswell, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Westport Island, Wiscasset and Woolwich.
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