Forum Moderators: buckworks
An opportunity beckons!
What's your view?
My web traffic from rural areas, particularly Utah, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, outlying parts of Arizona (you get the general picture...sparsely populated regions), has increased. These orders often appear to be combined orders from multiple customers all sending their items to one ship-to; rather smart way to cut down on shipping costs! Then again, they may have always done such things in these areas due to lack of internet access or delivery schedules...I truly don't know as this is a more recent phenomenon for my sites.
My best guess is that B&M sales, and even my sales, will likely see fewer but generally larger orders. Your fuel/shipping charges increase marginally if you purchase 15 drastically different widgets as opposed to one single widget. I am looking at this saying, "I really need one new outfit from the mall...might as well wait until that movie/cd I want is out and pick up a few other things while I am there. It's going to cost me $#*$!.XX in fuel regardless as the distance isn't going to change. May as well combine a few trips."
A good example of this theory: Utah state gov't employees are going to a 10 hour/4 day work week in the next month in order to stem the rise in energy costs. Their theory is that employees commute 4 times per week rather than 5...an easy 20% decrease in energy costs for an employee. The word is that the work-life balance is better this way, too.
Rising shipping costs have the potential to offset the savings of shopping online.
True, but the shops in real life also have to pay for deliveries, fuel prices will hit them too.
