Consumption behaviour

Today is Boxing Day, which is the biggest shopping event in the UK; however, some analysts predict that some sales are shifted from physical stores to online retailers and more customers prefer big shopping centres and high streets over small shops. Although the analysts believe that the number of customers going into small shops would pick up later today.

Both the phenomenon show how lazy we have become. Online shopping is so easy that customers do not need to walk in a crowded shop and do not need to line up to queue to buy for their items. In addition, customers could find their preferred items more easily by using search engines and find more options. And there are so many online payment ways that make our online shopping experience much better and easier. However, the most obvious disadvantage of online shopping is that there are only photos and videos representing the items virtually, customers cannot get direct physical contacts with their preferred items. Therefore, many people will still walk into shops to buy their items. When people choose their shops, they prefer large shopping centres and high streets because the goods and services they want to buy concentrate in these areas, so they save their time in traffic and could spend more time in shopping or other things. In addition, the facilities in shopping centres and high streets are luxury and preferred by the majority of customers. To many customers, shopping maybe is their main goal but having a luxury time is also important. Based on these reasons, large shopping centres and high streets become customers' preferred choice.

Some companies are developing VR technology to improve online shopping experience. I think that the current VR technology could shift more customers from physical stores to online retailers; however, in at least a decade, VR I think still cannot replace the functions of large shopping centres and high streets. Firstly, VR still cannot represent the physical touching experience, for example, by using VR customers are difficult to know whether the shoes are comfortable and fit well. Secondly, shopping sometimes is more about the experience of shopping rather than shopping items itself. Having nice meals and enjoy some relaxing facilities are part of such experience, which is difficult to experience by using VR technology.

Overall, the business of small shops will continue its declining track while the large shopping centres and high streets will develop to become somewhere mixed with multiple luxury and relaxing functions.