College students more prone to shop online than brave the lines at the mall
Dominic DeCono
Shopping malls are no longer the hottest thread for buying goods among college students.
2012 marked the first year that students aged 18 to 25 bought more goods online than at shopping malls, according to freemarketsolutions.com.
Jamie Harris, a marketing associate for Amazon.com, said students are finding better deals online than they are in the actual shops.
“It’s easier to find a better deal through a private party or an online business than it is any any shopping mall,” he said.
Harris also said that, because students have access to so many different sites that are offer so many different things, it doesn’t surprise him that the market is shifting towards online sales mostly.
“Going to a mall or the store is an experience all in it’s own and students often go just for the experience. Online shopping is purely about the deals and the ability to buy things,” he said.
It’s not only things like TV’s, clothes or games that students are using the Internet to buy more from, text books and other basic school materials are also on the list.
“Through Amazon, students can purchase a text book, sell it back and get credit to buy another book that costs them almost nothing. It ends up being a really good deal,” he said.
Jesse Windergard, a student at MCC, said he has only bought his textbooks online and said he has saved several hundred dollars.
“The bookstore will have all the things you need but if you take a little bit of time you can really find some good deals through the Internet,” he said.
Although many people have embraced searching for goods on the Internet, some haven’t.
Alice Hampton, a student MCC, said she has had bad experiences buying things online and won’t do it anymore.
“I have been scammed every time I wanted to buy a textbook online and I don’t want that happening again,” she said.
Although scams do happen online, Harris said they are becoming less common on more reputable sites.
“Most big sites now have a ways to drastically reduce scamming because every sale is automatically reviewed and rated. There is no way for the those scam others to go undetected,” he said.
