Threatening fashion, vacations and electronics shops, online shopping has for a while been the biggest fear of shop owners. How to overcome this threat of low prices? And yes, even though low prices used to be the main argument for buying online I’m not sure that this is the case anymore. Here in France we have this dominating Electronics chain and ever since I live here it is the obvious choice for my needs with a plug. Especially since I’m very pro live shopping: I like seeing, toughing, asking, watching and of course being able to take the product with me straight away.
First time I went there in the city of Cergy Prefecture I got stuck in this wierd system where you order your product, pay the thing and only than take it out. This is OK if it works, however: I waited half an hour to pay the thing and an other half an hour for the guy to search it (yes search, there was no finding involved) Which meant that I had to go back to the paying desk to get my money back. Weirdest thing was that I seamed to be the only one surprised by this: suggesting to check the availability before a client pays was like suggesting to serve people naked, they didn’t seem to figure out why.
Yes, OK an incident, no? Well fact of the matter is that I visited the same store in a city called Chatillon 7 times in the last year and I NEVER left it satisfied. From not saying “bonjour” and cranky faces to the lady being on the phone with a friend while “helping” me. And the days that these guys knew what they were selling seems to be long gone as well: for answering questions the look on the information tag that I can read myself.
Well at least you get to take the product straight away, that is why you pay 50 euros more for the 300 euro TV, right? Sorry sir it is not on stock, but I can have it here in three days… Three days???? I have it within 24 hours if I buy it online for 50 euros less? WHY AM I HERE????
And that is the problem, I ran out of reasons to be there. Because even though this particular store is a magnificent example, they are by far not the only ones. So even though I don’t like online shopping much, my creditcard gets out more and more often. Because if I don’t get a smile, don’t get to take it straight away, and don’t get answers to questions anyway, than I just don’t see the reason for paying the extra 50 euros. And I’m not the only one…