So today is Christmas Eve. and I’m visiting with my parents. Outside of running to the store for a couple last minute gifts, I plan to spend the day snacking on some of mom’s baking goodness, and watching a lot of football (Go Redskins!).

I was just doing inventory on my Christmas purchases, and realized that I had bought roughly half of my gifts online, and the other half in retail stores. I guess I was surprised since I a lot of the purchases I make throughout the year, I make online. It got me to thinking about previous speculation about how online shopping will eventually eliminate physical stores, as it will be more convenient for consumers and cheaper for the seller. I think we have a long way to go before this happens, if ever. I think there are many reasons why people like to go to the store to shop, and many of those reasons have yet to be thoroughly addressed:

• Tangible factor - People like to touch, to hold, to try on items before purchasing.clothes before buying.
• Social factor - Some people like to interact, whether its to ask store personnel questions, or just being around other shoppers.
• Trust factor - With all of the media coverage of hacking, spamming, spoofing, and phishing, there are those who are weary of shopping online, and others who abstain entirely.
• Now factor - People are impatient, and don’t want to wait for shipping. Why wait until next week to receive your purchase when you can drive to the store and pick it up now? Even if people did move toward making most of their purchases online, would the shipping infrastructure be able to handle it?

I think we will continue to move toward more of a hybrid of the two (ie. L.L. Beans’ Dressing Room, where you can create and save a 3d model of yourself or whoever you are shopping for, specifying the person’s physical characteristics including hair color and skin tone, height, weight, etc. Next, you can dress your model and see how outfits that you create look on a person with the specifications you provided). I can see this evolving to a point where you could then send the outfits that you have chosen on to a retail store in your vicinity, so that you could simply drive up and pick up your order.

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