The future of shopping

Historians say one of the big new things 100 years ago was the expansion of shopping.

One of today's biggest shopping web sites, of course, is eBay.  But eBay's newest acquisitions have nothing to do with physical tangible "stuff."  eBay has acquired PayPal, the online payment service; and Skype, the voice-over-the-internet online telephone service.

Which raises today's question, NineShifters: what do you think the future of shopping for "stuff" is? Will people be buying tangible goods as much as they do today, or are younger people purchasing more intangible services and experiences, and "stuff" is on the way out? Your thoughts: : :

Comments

[Term Papers]

One of today's biggest shopping web site is eBay, we can easily buy every things for eBay.

[Suzanne]

My five-year-old and I went on the Old Navy website to pick out clothes before we went to the store for school shopping (you need to go in with a plan when shopping with a Kindergartener). But once we picked out the clothes, she wanted to order them online. Her dad accused me of flaking out on school shopping. So I asked my daughter, "Are you SURE you don't want to go to the store?" She said, "Yes, mom, it takes too long to go to the store."

Out of the mouths of babes....

[Helen Antonucci]

The next step "feels" like virtual shopping. You get to put on special glasses and gloves go to the computer and virtually shop by feeling and looking at the item from the comfort of your own home.

[Rich]

I think we see two distinct shifts in shopping. One shift will be how we search for what we want to buy whether its tangible goods (a new home theather system that is web enabled, includes a service to convert my CDs to MP3s and matches my decor) or intangible (find me the best value for a trip to go whitewater rafting in September that leaves on a Thursday and returns on a Monday, avoids Hartsfield/Jackson airport and includes reservation with a top rated whitewater outfitter) through the use of shoping agents - little bits of code that we turn loose to look for what we want and reports back to us when they find it or if it needs more information. The second shift wil be an increase in the services and experiences that we purchase and how we preserve and share them. Instead of a video of 6 or 8 rafts on a whitewater rafting trip watcghing each one go thought a particular rapid you'll be able to purchase a HiDef DVD or your trip down the river via the helmet cam that you can watch on that home theather system and share with your friends where ever they may be maybe even in realtime.