Pedestrian TV had it right when it confessed we all share a general understanding that “some kind of serious shit's going down with the global economy.” What with journalism's inundation of scary financial jargon in journalism over the past months, I was inspired by Pedestrian’s Guide to Online Shopping in Debt Crisis, which trumpets the advantages of the financial black hole into which the United States has sunk by reminding readers that the Australian dollar, comparatively, is at an all-time high. This means that right now, when Australians purchase items from online international retailers, our wardrobes can be happy without our wallets feeling too hard done by. The Guide cites a range of clothing styles and items, spanning from Luxury/High End to Vintage at its cheapest, and even includes the online outlet where you can supposedly get ‘everything’ – a.k.a. Amazon.com.
Being somewhat of an online shopping novice, I clicked on a few of the Guide's back-links, and was amazed at the way idiosyncratic fashion genres are now engaging niche consumer tribes within sophisticated, interactive online spaces. Designer Discount online outlet The Outnet, for example, enables its visitors to ‘shop by occasion’ by entering the unique event for which they need an outfit. The site then searches its cyber-shelves and uploads a variety of options for the customer to browse for their 'first date', 'summer wedding' or 'Sunday yacht trip'.
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Online shopping is no longer a two-dimensional experience of adding arbitrary items to a pseudo-shopping cart and ‘continuing to check-out’: it has become highly dynamic, symbiotic and personalised, with vendors creating retail interfaces with interactive features, and shoppers, in turn, being assisted in their purchase decisions by the customisation of the electronic shopping environment to their individual preferences. The explosion of interactive e-shopping is explored by Haubl and Trifts in their journal article Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids, in which they suggest that the availability of such tools may lead to a transformation of the way in which shoppers search for product information and make purchase decisions. Another example of a hands-on online shopping space is Polyvore, where visitors can browse and create different "sets" or outfits virtually. Shoppers can also create their own profile, collect favourite outfit sets and exchange style advice with other shoppers – or “tastemakers” - by adding them as contacts. The experience is not just about ‘machine interactivity’ but also ‘person interactivity’, combining the ability to interactively access information in an online database with the ability to communicate with other individuals (Hoffman and Novak 1996).
In creating our 'How To’ guide for Australian retailers opting to launch their businesses online, I feel that it is important to draw our users' attention to these ‘interactive decision aids’ that are currently transforming the online shopping experience - perhaps even practicing what we preach by incorporating them within our own site itself. With a view towards attracting consumer user groups that will stay curious, committed and constantly excited by their sites, amateur online retailers should be encouraged to utilise dynamic and interactive tools within their online interfaces, in fitting with the all-encompassing purchase lifestyle in which consumers are now immersed.
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