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Will You Shop Online This Christmas?

Posted by PetLvr • 10/19/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: christmas, ecommerce, hart, petlvr, shopping, trends

In 2003 we purchased 100% of our Xmas shopping gifts online ... although, they were mostly online stores like Amazon, Futureshop, Chapters, etc... We were buying stuff up until Mid-December and still getting our stuff shipped to us on time.

In 2004 we purchased about 80% of our Xmas shopping gifts online, but this included items from eBay, smaller eCommerce 'niche' stores, and Amazon and a few big ones. The 20% of gifts were from craft sales, and such and I believe we started buying 'the perfect gift' found at these places as early as July that year. I'm pretty sure by mid-November, we were done with our shopping.

In 2005 ... it was about 20% online and 80% at the local shopping centers, craft shops and the like. The 20% was just me, with one purchase (burnt pictures on wall plaques papillonlvr.com/blog/2005/09/wall-plaques-our-papillons-immortalized/). We had fun in 2004 searching for 'that perfect gift and probably so much so - everyone was in agreement that everybody spent about 2-3x's more than we all kind of agreed we would spend.

In 2006 .. We browsed online for everything - and got prices, ideas, and hints where to buy gifts, but nothing was purchased online and 100% was purchased offline and, probably in a weekend or two. My mother-in-law passed away in May 2006 and it wasn't the same. We would ask each other what we wanted, so if one wanted a bathroom items, we found something for the bathroom. If one wanted earrings or jewellery .. they got it! For the person who was wishy washy when we were making lists, they received a gift card or two.

In 2007 .. my father-in-law was in a car accident and suffered brain damage but was present for Xmas. Gift giving seemed less important as the kids have been growing old and the loss of ones parents, either physically or mentally, and shopping was very light. If we bought a bathroom ornament in 2006, we would buy the matching toilet roll holder ornament. If we bought Uncle John's book in 2006, we would buy the latest greatest edition for 2007. If we bought earrings in 2006, we would by the matching necklace .. and stuff like that.

Now - 2008 will start as soon as the Halloween shopping ads cease, and snow will come and people will be in the Xmas cheer. We started to move backwards to 2005 era .. looking for stuff to buy online, and we've been checking out some cool craft shows around the city (just went to a great one last Friday and got half our Xmas gift out of the way).

So - how has the trend of Christmas Shopping for you been in the past five years? Will you be shopping online this year 2008? Have you started your Christmas Shopping? When will your last Xmas gift purchase be ... 11:00 pm Dec 24th at the local gas station?

HART aka PetLvr
christmas.HARTmarket.com
(if you need some Xmas Gift Ideas :D)

User Comments

10/19/08

timethief

No I won't be shopping online for Christmas. I am not a Christian and I do not celebrate it. I celebrate Winter Solstice and no gifts are involved.

BTW - great write up.

[reply]
1. 10/19/08
  
  PetLvr
  
  Well .. my wife suggests that I don't need to celebrate a holiday to purchase her earrings ... um .. when is the Winter Solstice again?
2. 10/19/08
  
  timethief
  
  December 2st is Winter Solstice.
3. 10/19/08
  
  jaffermaniar
  
  December 2st ? LMAO !
  
  December 21st you mean.
  
  Well, I don't "celebrate" Christmas although I wish everybody a seasons greetings.
  
  This year I am thinking of sending postcards to friends that have decided to move further from where I live.
  
  Presents ? May be there'll be a secret Santa - but I know I won't break the bank for that.
4. 10/20/08
  
  PetLvr
  
  @jaffermaniar ...postcards are nice. Beside the online work, I'm actually self-employed and kickstarted my business in 2003 when I left public practice to work on my own. I sent out Xmas cards to all my clients in 2003, and specially printed in 2004 but since then I felt that my client base didn't really appreciate this or did it benefit me so, I stopped. The only person who is not a relative that has consistently sent us a Christmas/happy New Year greeting card .. is our Free Press Newspaper carrier.
5. 10/20/08
  
  timethief
  
  @jaffer
  Thanks I left the "1" out of "21".
10/19/08

loverofjazz

i don't give gifts at this time of year. only on birthdays. and i give out candy on halloween.
but the general trend for all my personal shopping is to buy online. stores have such high overhead that it's impossible to get deals on things anymore.
which is a drag because i love shopping as a social experience.
going to used book or cd stores is fun. you meet other people with similar interests and chat.
but i now know that most of the stuff i'm looking at in those stores can be had much cheaper from amazon or any of the other online retailers that have sprung up.
and i guess i'm conscientious enough that i always feel a little skeezy about going into stores for the sole purpose of pricing things. i still do it, i just feel a little skeezy about it.

[reply]
1. 10/19/08
  
  PetLvr
  
  The thing with me too, is that when I go to the shopping malls (lots of traffic high visible stores) or the side shops (local businesss, less traffic, hole in the wall places) .. I never know what is really "on sale" and what is just being sold at the same price with a sign next to it.
10/19/08

RecycleCindy

Excellent retrospect of the last several Christmas seasons and the on-line shopping trend. I too have cut way back and plan more homemade crafts gifts that I myself have made. I may do some on-line shopping or at least window shopping but at this point I haven't purchased anything yet...

[reply]
1. 10/20/08
  
  PetLvr
  
  Homemade gifts sounds good! We used to do that many many *many* moons ago when I was younger, although they somehow ended up into the traditional Sock gifts.
  
  What type of homemade crafts do you normally create? Do you also sell them to other people online as well so other people can buy your gifts too?
10/20/08

poisonapplesauce

I always do. It's convenient, they come already wrapped and best of all my kids can't see what saint Nick brought them.

[reply]
1. 10/20/08
  
  PetLvr
  
  Good for prying eyes! Where do you normally shop online?
2. 10/20/08
  
  poisonapplesauce
  
  FAO Shwartz, toy-r-us, amazon, a bunch of ebay lots so there are stocking stuffers, Zales, Doggie Gourmet, just random site. Mostly toy or pet motivated.
11/05/08

aofzagroup

comment removed by the community.

[reply]
11/06/08

jpearce

This year I'm only buying one gift online because the last two years I waited too long to get it in the stores. It was too late to order it online too. This WEEKENED I'm making the online purchase.

Last year my bf asked what do you want and I said I wanted a pair of these weird shoes and gave him hints where to look on line. He thought it was fun and I got my weird shoes.

The last two years I crocheted a bunch of scarves and sold them to friends and people in coffeehouses. There are some figures of some non-traditional purchases.

[reply]