Internet vs. high street

Jodie Humphries

Everyone has their preferred medium of where they shop - for some it's all about braving the elements and hitting the high street, for others, the joy comes from sitting in the comfort of their own home and shopping online.

2009 saw the online market rise to the value of GBP£20 billion - an increase of more than 10 percent on 2008. And as the build up for Christmas hit, 69 percent of consumers said they would do some Christmas shopping online. Popular items for online buying proved to be clothing and books, with 41 percent of consumers saying that had bought these items online.

November research found that presents, including books, perfumes, CDs and toys, were are on average 17 percent cheaper from internet retailers than from high street shops, according to Which? In fact, the consumer watchdog researched the price of 28 of the most popular gifts and compared the standard high street price - looking at a wide range of shops, both national chains and independents - and then compared these findings with the cheapest online price, the British paper The Telegraph reported at the time.

The Centre for Retail Research (CRR), in a study commissioned by shopping comparison website Kelkoo, found that UK shoppers spent more online than anywhere else in Europe in 2009. The research also showed that UK consumers spent GBP£38 billion online last year (the equivalent of GBP£1070 per shopper) and accounted for almost a third of all European sales.

In fact the Centre estimates that online retail sales will grow even further in 2010 with sales expected to grow by almost a fifth to GBP£148 billion, after 22 percent growth by the end of last year, Finance Markets reported.

Both mediums of shopping admittedly have their own strengthens and weaknesses, so let's take a look at each.

Internet

One of the biggest advantages of shopping online is that it allowed consumers to avoid "hitting the high street" and shop from the comfort of their own home. If you know what you want, you can go straight to a website and pick it up, without the necessary temptation that you have in the high street of everything being on show in front of you - not to mention having to walk through everything else to get to what you want.

And for retailers, the option of solely trading on the internet can be lucrative, as there's not the overheads of paying the price on rent for open branches, which can - even for small independent retailers - prove to be very expensive.

What's more, there are various internet comparison sites which allow you to compare the price of a product so that you know you're getting the best deal possible for your money - something you can't do in-store without trudging from one retailer to another. And the biggest plus? You don't have to bother standing in long queues waiting to part with your hard-earned cash.

On the high street

The benefit of shopping in-store is most obvious when consumers are unsure of exactly what they are looking for - particularly when shopping for a gift. Now matter how well-designed or easy to navigate a website might be, it would hard for many to argue that anything beats walking through the aisles, picking up prospective purchases and actually seeing items in the flesh.

What's more, consumers who shop on the high street are supporting local traders, which can help to stimulate localised economies - not a bad thing given the current state of the global economy.