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Santa Shopped Online This Year
An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet is reporting on another blockbuster year for online shopping. Online shopping was up almost 30 percent over last year." From the article: " Clothing was the top seller in terms of dollar amount, at $5.3 billion total, up 42 percent from last year's revenue, the report said. Computer hardware and peripherals showed the most growth, 126 percent, at $4.8 billion. Consumer electronics was the second fastest growing category, garnering $4.8 billion, up 109 percent. People spent $3 billion on books online, up 66 percent, and $2.3 billion on products in the toys/video games category of hardware and software, a drop of 9 percent from last year, the study found. "
before the gov't demands all those juicy sales taxes? You know its coming, especially after the huge growth in online sales every year.
I got nothing at all for christmas this year... :(
The summary doesn't seem to have it quite right: the $30b is an estimate of what was spent 31 Oct - 23 Dec. Which is 30% than same estimate last year. But, FTA, another company did a survey for a similar period and found total sales to be $18b, up 25% from the previous year. Which all goes to suggest there isn't an agreed measure of online spending ...
It seems odd that clothing would be the top seller online, given that it involves more to return/exchange items to an online store than a regular store if the clothes should happen to be the wrong size.
This sig left blank for page turns.
I own 2 (and 1/2) retail stores in the Midwest US, and this will be our final year in retail.
Our inventory was better than or equal to more dotcoms. Our service was better (30 day DOA or defect replacement and lifetime labor). Our pricing was equal. Our hours were "better" since we were open 7 days a week.
What killed us? Sales tax. Our average sale in 2005 for about $230 (we sell paintball, skateboards and a ton of clothing). At 7%, we were consistently $16+ over per average sale than the dotcoms, even with instant acquisition.
2005 was our best year ever, so we're ending it at the top. Next year's outlook is bleak as many states want to raise sales tax and other fees. No thanks. In 2005 I paid more in sales tax than I did in payroll.
I'm not mad, actually -- the dotcoms are a great way to save money AND screw the state. I feel bad about my customers who loved our store, but I also know many bought online for the higher margin items that didn't need servicing (we were not competitive on those items as we had to price in future service and were always about 20% higher).
Local communities WILL suffer, though. Retail sales can be a big income base for the local community -- my mechanic performs almost 80% of his work for retail employees' cars. My dentist has almost 1/3rd of her patients working in retail. As retail suffers, these secondary markets will also suffer. But the positive is that the money we save in retail by shopping online should offer us more money to spend on other things.
It was a great 5 years, I did very well financially, and in the end, the state decided they didn't want me around -- otherwise they'd have ended the vile sales tax that is quickly ruining retail.
however, it's up to the individual to volunarily report all internet purchases on their state tax form, so it's a wonder why they even bothered to pass the law.
I wonder if online retailers would change their tune if there was a major crackdown on people evading paying their use taxes. When you buy something online, you are responsible to pay your state a tax equal to the difference between the local rate and the rate you paid (essentially the full sales tax for most online purchases). It isn't that hard to track violators. If ABC web shopping doesn't collect sales taxes AND a citizen of the state received a package from them AND said citizen filled in $0 for their use tax, one can deduce that said citizen underreported their use tax by at least that amount. A list of packages could be generated by forcing companies making local deliveries to report a list of all packages delivered (this would require a federal law as it falls under the Elastic Clause of the Constitution). If you cannot provide the receipts proving you accrued no more use tax than you declared, then you pay the tax with penalties and interest.
Personally, I feel it would be a lot easier and trample on far fewer liberties to just have the web retailer collect sales tax.
Every dime which goes into that register should belong to me, dammit! Let other people pay the bills for state-supplied services! I want it all and I want it for nothing.
Maybe you have signatures hidden or something, but his is: http://www.fairtax.org/ Read that and come back when you have something to say relevant to that.
Should I break the bad news about Santa to the editors?
Its 2006, it hasn't been christmas yet this year...
There isn't much like the scent of a fresh harddisk
...that flat screen TVs (LCD and Plasma) made the largest jump as the prices are coming down. I bought one this year and I tend to reflect the buying habits of most low to middle income tech obsessed Americans. So if I got one, then it's probably very likely that most of you did too. And since we make up about 95% of the people who do shopping online (just so you know I buy about 5% of my stuff online, I still trust brick and mortar over online) it's very likely that we dictate the numbers. So a show of hands... who bought a flat screen TV this Xmas? Any size. 7" - 80".
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
We don't have sales tax. Of course, the property tax is a killer, so you can then complain that online stores can be located in very inexpensive locations.
It's because Santa used the easy button.
Mega pixels!
Even if you know your correct size not all clothing sizes are equal. They can differ among different brands, and even different lines of clothes manufactured under the same brand name. Clothing is something that you really have to try on before you can be sure about making a purchase. Unless you are "wasting" tons of money on sales tax for over-priced designer clothes, I really don't see the benefit of purchasing clothing online instead of at your local department store. In fact, the only reason I buy electronics online is because I usually save a decent amount of sales tax (though it is sometimes offset by the shipping price) and the only stores local to me are Walmart and Office Depot, neither of which has a stellar selection of electronics / computer equipment. The closest "real" electronics stores are Best Buy and Circuit City, both over 2 hours away and still don't have as good a selection as the online stores. I would much rather spend a little extra to get it today, but sometimes that option just isn't available.
Santa would HAVE to shop on-line this year. It would be the only way that he could legally get the toys.
The old way of doing things, by having his elves make the toys, is now illegal. It constitutes "Intellectual Property theft". And WIPO, the RIAA and MPAA all joined forces to force Saint Nick to adhere to the New World Order.
Our now less jolly old Saint Nick has had to negotiate Patent Cross-licensing, Manufacturing, Trademark and Copyright agreements with all of the major corporate entities this year. This left little time to build toys; hence the need for Santa's web shopping spree.
Consequently, the Elves have had their prior work outsourced to the Elves in India, China, and elsewhere. Fortunately, they are still gainfully employed, as they have now become either high-powered Lawyers or PEB's (Pointy-eared bosses). This was a bit hard on the Elves, as they are normally good, by nature.
Santa's visits have also had to come to a stop. The delivery by flying Reindeer constituted illegal border crossings and smuggling, as well as breaking and entering via the Chimney. Now he has to use UPS.
The various State Attorneys General are also looking into the issue of whether Interstate taxes have to be paid, from previous years.
Somehow, I liked the old way of doing things (before this ad-hoc notion of "Intellectual Property" was created) much better.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
A lot of electrons are being thrown around about how sales tax is giving internet retailers an 'unfair advantage' compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. I ended up splitting my money roughly evenly between Amazon and their ilk, and their brick and mortar equivalents. Even with roughly equal prices, the internet stores allow the customer to avoid a major costly, time consuming, and stressful part of holiday shopping: the trip to the mall. If you figure the cost of car operation, and the time wasted driving, parking, walking past stores you won't patronize, and the aches and pains of shlepping all those packages around, sales tax barely registers. People are realizing that avoiding much of the hassle is valuable in itself.
On the other hand, when I finally broke down and went to the local Mega Mall and went into the Books a Million to get a few fill-in gifts, I was surprised by how much being able to scan a large number of titles in a very short time was helpful in selecting gifts for hard to buy for relatives. While Amazon has their suggestive selling algorithms to suggest related information, seeing a book out of the corner of my eye frequently had me saying K--- would like this or TR would like that. It just isn't possible to present that kind of information as completely online as it is in a brick and mortar environment.
Sex is great, but it's not the real thing.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
Because it's not good to stay indoors all day? And it's sometimes fun to go out and browse through a store physically.
My only reason for shopping online is the fact that a lot of stuff I can *NOT* find at local stores... like a lot of music or DVDs I like.
I dont know anybody whos gonna buy something like a TV online. Yeah, the TV may be $50 cheaper, but freight shipping is a major PITA, and is probably more expensive total. I'll certanly shop and compare online, but when it comes time to buy something large, heavy and fragile, i wanna put it in my car myself from the store.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Most of these items are model specific accessories. Fry Electronics is your best chance if going to a local store. Unless it has quick turn-over in a store, it will cost you money being that it's taking up valuable shelf spaced that could be used for more sellible items. Now given the size of most BestBuy stores, the lack of such items should not suprise you.
Life is not for the lazy.
But how much of it was on the all-important "Cyber Monday?"
Remember, there are over 44,000 sales tax jurisdictions on all 50 states, and betweeen:
1. Trying to figure out where the buyer is located to get the exact right sales tax level.
2. Trying to disperse the sales tax revenue back to the local jurisdiction.
This is hardly surprising. Buying DVDs, CDs, games etc in the UK, the high street shops have a crappy selection, poor layout, overly loud music blaring and high prices. I was looking through some of the post-christmas sales offers and the prices only just matched Amazon's, even with a bunch of coupons.
You forgot number 11:
:)
11) Not having to be around idiots^H^H^H^H^H^H people.
Not having to deal with crowds of "consumer zombies" is the number one reason I now shop for practically everything online. If they're not blocking the aisles by standing 4 abreast in them whilst drool hangs out of their mouths as they stare vacantly at the latest retarded "singing arsehole" "novelty" item they're either backing into you, stepping across you (whilst attempting to read some packaging) or shouting about the amazing price of tomatoes into their fucking mobile phones.
And don't get me started about the screaming, ill mannered little bastards that pass as their children. Gassing is too good for 'em.
Contrast this with making a few mouse clicks whilst having a relaxing pint of beer in the comfort of my own home. Luxury
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
Your employer reports your earnings to the IRS for you, if you work for someone else (as most people in this country do).