The other day, I realised that I need a new bag. Immediately, I’ve started thinking about what stores I can visit to search for it, and suddenly, I’ve realised: I’m feeling too lazy to go actual shopping. Instead, I want to go through online shops for what I need.

I used to love shopping. Not always: when I was a kid, I hated going “shopping for school”, because school uniform usually looks like a trash bag, and I had to spend several hours in a hot space with a bunch of people, trying it on. However, since I turned 15, I go shopping for clothes alone, and it truly feels like blessing, spending a whole day in a moll with breaks for coffee, wondering the shops. The sales were the greatest part of this, and even if the clothes there were out of the current or upcoming season, I still bought them and was happy.

The excitement is gone today. It pains me to think about dressing up, taking an hour to get to the mall and back, and travel the shops with no result. Instead, I now prefer to browse online stocks in comfort of my home, being sure that I’ll have what I want in a couple of days, even if that means not finding so much items on a sale. However, I know that it’s not only me who feels that way.

                             Photo: @camdenpamplona

Since 2000, Germany’s e-commerce sector expanded, growing from 203,3 million to 1,724,6 million, busting since 2007 and growing steadily each year since. The graphs for any other country look exactly the same, with the bars growing each year, even if the amount of money spent is different.

Why did it happen? Well, the obvious reason is how the growth of online retail correlates with the growth of worldwide users online year by year. But there is always a second side to the story.

Perhaps the fact that Internet users get younger each year affect the statistics of online sales. Today, 15-34 year olds constitute 53% of the Internet users. Of course, it is more likely for them to buy online and understand the technology better. As well, this group of people is short on a couple of things, and time being one of them.

                                   Photo: @imclaudiachic

From all the reasons for online shopping, the top one is named to be online stores being the most efficient and time-saving ones. It is understandable: being busy with education even on the weekends at first, and then with 8-hour or more day or night shifts each day, the chances that you would want to go into a crowded department store with dozens of the shops on the weekend are very low. Besides, you can buy online anywhere as long as you have Internet access, especially since shopping online using mobile phone has been growing steadily, and almost every store website offers a mobile layout.

The second most popular reason for online shopping is it being cheaper, that the actual shopping. This actually contradicts the common sense of being able to find more clothes on a sale outside the seasonal sale days, but it’s true: buying online, you are buying directly from the retailer, not paying a little extra for transportation to a local store, merchandising, management, shop staff working, and rent. Besides, it will be most likely possible to google some coupons for a check-out discount, which is impossible to do in the department store.

                                Photo: @mochilamilano

So, where did it all lead to? One for sure: fashion became faster than it used to be. In fact, we have stopped treasuring fashion so much to the extent of it being a sign of a class belonging, rather that the things that look nice and we can wear. Even the brands we buy don’t matter much anymore: the world became more accepting of the fact that some can sport H&M better than some can do with high-end.

Of course, people who have time and money can afford going on shopping tours, but in a world where we are forced to move fast in all of the aspects of life, we also need to shop fast, almost not thinking about the shop atmosphere and sales. At this point, can we really call online experience we have “shopping”, when, in fact, we are “buying” on the most basic level even in the actual shops?

                              Photo: @homers_shoes

The facts probably drive you to a conclusion that in-store shopping is at least dying by 2016. Not really, in fact, at least for fashion industry, where online stores have 11% in the retail, which is one of the smallest numbers in online retail. Still, we should be aware that it expands every year, and the fashion industry can experience what the digital industry had: the actual stores shrinking and disappearing, and we are left waiting for our pre-paid deliveries and parcels.