Remember Columbia House? BMG Music Club? Back when people bought actual CDs, they were wildly popular. For a cheap price (10 for the price of 1!), members would automatically get new discs every month. No, you didn’t need all that music, but it sure was fun to get.
As much as we live online now, we still like getting stuff. Tangible goods. Things we can hold, use and wear. And lately, it seems, the web-savvy are gravitating towards physical products, partly in reaction to the ubiquity of digital. Just look at the “maker” movement (see On the Make in Think Quarterly’s People issue), the rise of DIY and the popularity of bits-to-its services like Postagram.
Thanks to eCommerce, we have access to more stuff than ever. And consumers have become a lot more comfortable buying online (aided by one-click ordering, free shipping and easy returns). The number of U.S. consumers buying online will increase 14.9% to 170.3 million in 2015, according to eMarketer. Between 8-10% of all queries on Google are shopping related. But there is so much available, it can be downright overwhelming. The paradox of choice is that too much selection makes it harder to select anything at all. It’s a problem of which the internet is both a cause and a cure.
That’s where a slew of new “push shopping” services come in. Including Birchbox, Shoedazzle, and Quarterly.co, these sites leverage eCommerce, online data and expert curation to help consumers make up their minds.
Unexpand article
Join the club. Consumers are signing up for a slew of new “push shopping” services that bring the best of the web to the real world. Words by Allison Mooney.
