Small Business Advocacy The INconvenience of online shopping

In our Consumer Shopping Survey, respondents noted convenience as one of the main reasons they choose e-commerce over shopping local. But how much of this convenience is perception and not 100% rooted in reality?

The definition of Inconvenience is “giving trouble or causing annoyance.”

So, let’s say you are an Amazon Prime member, and because of that you automatically go to Amazon for, well pretty much everything you need. You are paying $99 a year for this service, but then the company decides to increase the subscription price by $5, $10 or $20?

That’s kind of annoying.

Or, you absolutely need something to, say, make a product you sell. You are a Prime member, which advertises one of its benefits as two-day shipping, so you order said something from Amazon….and it comes two weeks later. Because in reality Amazon Prime actually promises you’ll get your order two days after it ships. So, really, it comes when it comes. Two days is not a guarantee.

That’s giving you and your business a little bit of trouble.

How about when you order something online, and because you couldn’t actually touch and feel it prior to purchase, you decide to return it because it isn’t what you want or need? The return process requires you to find your order, print return form, find a box and tape to pack it, go to UPS or USPS to drop off the box (because there’s no way for you to be home when they say they’re going to pick it up), and at the end of it all, it costs you $8 to return. So much for free shipping.

And the whole process is not super convenient.

And what about when you receive your order and it’s broken; repeat return process above. After gathering up the broken pieces, that is.

This causes trouble, annoyance and not really convenient.

We recognize that shopping online is at times easy and yes, convenient, and these examples do not represent every e-commerce transaction. But let’s get real. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. And INconvenient is also a word to describe it.