Text adapted from St Clare's, Oxford, OnLine (SCOOL) English Language Newsletter, Friday, 8 March, 2002, by Geoff Taylor, SCOOL Co-ordinator
Introduction
Gender stereotypes...
Here in the UK, the popular media often refer to a gender stereotype in which British women love shopping and men hate it. But is this really true?
- Do British men and women really feel so differently about shopping?
- Are men more likely to shop on-line? Or is gender unimportant?
Internet dangers...
When it comes to the topic of shopping on-line (on-line = using the Internet), the popular media often seem to prefer to publish sensational 'scare' stories where customers are cheated or robbed. But is this really a true picture of the dangers?
- How many of us actually buy things over the Internet?
- What products or services do we tend to buy on-line?
- What are the advantages of shopping on-line?
- Is shopping on-line really so risky? How many of us have had negative experiences?
St Clare's staff: born to shop?
I thought it might be interesting to find out about people's feelings about and experiences of shopping and shopping on-line. So I made a little questionnaire, and did an informal survey of St Clare's staff.
Sixteen members of staff at St Clare's, Oxford, completed the questionnaire.
There were some quite interesting results.
Differences between men and women…?
The stereotype of British men's and women's feelings about shopping seems to be more or less true:
- The majority of men in the survey don't like shopping very much.
- The majority of women in the survey don't mind shopping.
As to the question of whether men are more likely to shop on-line, all of the men had bought something on-line, but only 4 out of 7 (less than 60%) of the women had.
As for how many of us buy things over the Internet, St Clare's staff seem to be well above the national average: 13 out of 16 (over 80%) of us have bought something online.
By comparison, the national average is only about 25%, according to The Consumer Gateway: e-Shopping.
http://www.consumer.gov.uk/consumer_web/e-shopping.htm
What St Clare's staff like to buy...
Products recommended by consumer advice Web sites that I have looked at typically include CDs, books, videos, computer software, clothes, wine, food, flowers, flights, and holidays.
Similarly, amongst St Clare's staff, the most popular items were:
- travel tickets
- music CDs
- books
- household goods
- entertainment tickets
- toys
What we like about shopping on-line...
The most common advantages reported by St Clare's staff were convenience, speed, time to browse/make decisions, and low costs.
The BBC Watchdog Guide to Buying Online gives a very similar set of advantages: low prices, convenience, wide choice of products, and quick delivery.
What scares us about shopping on-line...
It is interesting that although the majority of St Clare's staff had bought something on-line, at the same time, 3 out of 4 of us (75%) were quite or very worried about sending our credit card details over the Internet.
I think this must be due to media sensationalism, because, as the BBC Watchdog Guide to Buying Online points out, in fact, there have been "very few reports of card theft from well-known sites on the net".
The BBC Watchdog Guide to Buying Online lists a number of possible problems when shopping on-line: delivery times may be inconvenient; the total cost, including cost of using Internet and cost of delivery, may not be so cheap; and there is a real risk of buying more than you intended to because all you need to do is to click a mouse button.
Luckily, only three of us (less than 20%) have suffered any major problems, and the majority have had no problems at all.
For more information about what St Clare's staff answered in the SCOOL On-Line Shopping Questionnaire, please see the results of the SCOOL Shopping Questionnaire:
http://www.stclaresenglish.net/pages/eshoppin/shopques.htm
Shopping on-line: further information…
The Amazon experience
Not my idea of fun…
Personally, although I enjoy browsing in computer stores, bookshops and music shops, I hate going into town to shop for clothes, food, gifts, and so on.
Shopping for Christmas presents, for example, in the city centre, trying to push my way through crowds of people, desperately looking for something that might be even slightly suitable, is not my idea of fun.
The trouble with High Street shops…
For me, the trouble with most High Street shops is that:
- they're not open late in the evenings when I have time to buy things
- they're difficult to reach from where I live (out of town) and parking is expensive
- they give so little information about the products they are selling that I usually end up buying something at random, or find myself sticking to big name brands
Why I prefer to shop on-line…
By contrast, with my computer, I can easily visit a completely different kind of store that…
- is open all day every day
- takes only a few minutes to get to from my home
- has branches in the USA (where I personally have a lot of relatives), which is perfect for birthday and Christmas gifts.
The best-known example of this kind of store is Amazon (www.amazon.com), without doubt the biggest - and arguably the best - on-line store: Amazon.com "Earth's Biggest Selection". (Interflora (www.interflora.com) is another good example.)
Amazon is number one for a very good reason: it provides a brilliant service. It offers the cyber-equivalent of a paid personal shopping assistant: a highly personalised service, smart shopping trolleys, an instant payment facility, customer product reviews and ranking, and a gift-wrap and delivery service.
Customer product reviews
For me, this is the biggest advantage, and the reason why I keep going back to shop at Amazon for almost all gifts for my relatives in the USA, and outside of Oxford in the UK.
Normally, when you go into a book shop, for example, you look at the picture on a book's front cover, read the blurb on the back cover, and maybe skim a couple of pages. But because all the information comes from the publisher, not other customers, it can be difficult to know if the book is worth buying or not. There's no way of finding out what other customers think of it.
At Amazon, by contrast, they have a system of customer product reviews. People are invited to leave comments about products for other customers to read and benefit from. They also have a marking system, where you can see what mark (e.g. 4 out of 5) each individual has given the product, and the average of all the individual marks. So, for example, there might be 20-30 comments about a book, some positive, others negative, and an average mark of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars, for instance, which would mean the book was strongly recommended by nearly everyone.
Popular opinion is not always the most important criteria, perhaps, but when you're looking at products that you don't know much about, every piece of information helps.
Personally, I find this feature incredibly useful, because I can read the reviews and get an idea if people similar to my mother-in-law, for example, have enjoyed a particular book, and so, how suitable a gift it would be.
Personalised service
When I arrive, Amazon remembers me and welcomes me by name with a list of suggestions ready of things I might be interested in buying, based on what I have bought previously.
Amazon emails me when something new comes out by my favourite authors, musicians, actors, and film directors
I have no excuse for forgetting relatives' birthdays any more, because Amazon sends me email messages to remind me a week or so beforehand.
When I get round to telling Amazon what I want for my next birthday, friends and relatives will be able to visit the store and choose from my own personal "Wish List" of preferred gifts (Goodbye unwanted ties and pullovers!).
Smart shopping trolleys
As I browse what's on sale, I drop things I might want to buy into my shopping trolley with a single mouse click. When I check out, I can decide what I want to buy. Anything I choose to leave in my trolley will be there when I next visit.
Gift-wrap and delivery service
Traditionally, buying and sending presents to distant friends and relatives is a time-consuming and inconvenient affair:
- go to the shops
- choose the present
- buy the present
- buy a card
- buy wrapping paper and packaging
- wrap the present
- package the present
- address the package
- write the card
- put the card in the envelope
- address the envelope
- go to the bank and get cash (UK post offices don't accept credit cards)
- take the package to the post office
- queue
- fill out a green customs form
- weigh package and card
- buy stamps
- attach stamps and customs form to the package
- give package to post office worker
Buying presents for distant friends and relatives at Amazon is much more convenient:
- visit Amazon
- choose the present
- choose who to send it to from your address book
- choose whether or not to have it gift-wrapped
- write a message to be included
- choose the shipping method (fast but expensive, or cheap but slow)
- put in your credit card details, or choose from list of previously used credit cards
- confirm that you want to buy with a mouse click
- if you want, track the stages of the delivery
- get an email when the package has been delivered
Instant payment facility
Going through checkout,both on-line and in the physical world, is a big time-waster. At Amazon, I can buy things in a few seconds with just a single click of the mouse button, using Amazon's "instant buy" facility - the famous patented "1-click".
Amazon International Sites
Useful Web links
Shopping on the Internet
http://www.consumer-ministry.govt.nz/internet.html
Has a useful checklist of points to look for in an e-shopping Website. Published by the government of New Zealand.
The Consumer Gateway: e-Shopping
http://www.consumer.gov.uk/consumer_web/e-shopping.htm
Provides "information and links to sources of further advice on issues of concern to general consumers", including key safe shopping tips. Published by the British government.
econsumer.gov
http://www.econsumer.gov/english/
Has tips for safe shopping online in English, and links to advice for nationals of other countries. Published by a group including the British government. (Participating countries include Australia , Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.)
Join the discussion
We'd like to hear your experiences - good or bad:
- about shopping in general
- about buying things on-line in particular
Please email your messages to the SCOOL Language Clinic and Discussion Group at SCOOLclinic@egroups.com
If you're not already a member of the SCOOL Language Clinic and Discussion Group, you can sign up for free at the bottom of this Web page! It's easy!
