Online Shopping this Holiday Season Shows Signs of the New Norm

This holiday season, gift shoppers and shopping enthusiasts alike flood retailers to take advantage of great deals and prepare for what is known as the season of giving. This year while already out of the ordinary, is not much different regarding shopping needs. Black Friday still took place despite many retailers avoiding in-person store rushing, and Cyber Monday hit new records in terms of purchases. According to CNBC, sales on Cyber Monday alone broke the online shopping record set a year ago by doing more than 10.8 billion dollars in sales. This breaks the single-day record by a huge 15.1%. This is not shocking, especially in a year in which virtually (pun intended) everything was done online. Although the year itself might be out of the ordinary, this trend will quickly become the new norm.

The holiday season comes with many stresses. Buying gifts for family and friends and just searching for the best deals all take a lot of time and energy. In previous years, many individuals would choose a weekend and make sure that the whole weekend was dedicated to getting all their shopping done. That is no longer the case. Online retailers such as Walmart and specifically Amazon have provided exactly what they have promised, convenience.  

Rather than driving from store to store or spending large amounts of money and a whole weekend at the mall, consumers can purchase all of their shopping needs and compare the best prices on those items within a few clicks. Best of all, those items come to their door, packaged in generally similar boxes that make wrapping presents or storage that much easier. Why bother going out to the stores anymore? The amount you spend on shipping, if anything, is less than the gas and worth avoiding the headache.

Online shopping will become the new norm is not just the convenience, but instead, because the people who usually do not use online shopping or other online services were forced into that option by the circumstances of this year. They needed to adjust whether it was to find toilet paper or avoid going out to stores for health reasons, and now the convenience is going to make them regular online shoppers. Although many will miss the human customer service or try on clothes before you buy them, solutions are already in the works.  

While in-person stores are not out of business yet, a year full of internet usage and improvements in internet technology only help dig the grave.