Intentional Gift-Giving: The Benefits of In-Person Christmas Shopping
Without fail, each year as the Christmas season approaches, we endeavor to find the most thoughtful, perfect gifts for our loved ones. Like most families, we typically don’t even begin thinking about Christmas gifts until December is in full swing, but this year is different.
Our holiday shopping was finished by early December. All that’s left on our to-do list is to get the last gifts on our doorstep wrapped and placed under the tree.
Most of our holiday shopping is done online these days, even our grocery orders. Every year it happens much the same way. I open up my Amazon app to search for a gift someone would love and just as quickly close it because of the overwhelming number of results. There’s simply too much to sort and sift through to decide what he’ll want or what she’ll love. When the options are endless, the anxiety is infinite.
Brick-And-Mortar Stores
Walking through Target seeing the art supply aisles, my nieces pop into my mind, and I kick myself for not thinking of gifting them something from here earlier, before we bought their gifts online. The more I peruse aisle after aisle, the more people spring to mind.
Laying my eyes on the physical item which might turn into a Christmas gift—getting to touch and feel them outside my phone screen—makes discerning what gifts others would most like to receive from those gifts which elicit a tight smile and a clipped thanks…you shouldn’t have, much easier.
More than 60% of the U.S. prefer to buy Christmas gifts online, according to this site, and 60% of the U.S. who prefer to shop in-person for their gifts, do so to have more interaction with the items.
With the onset of COVID and the advent of Cyber Monday deals, many were liberated from those 5 a.m. lines wrapped around the building and have altogether abandoned the brick-and-mortar stores for their Christmas shopping. I find there is something about the physicality of moving through the store, shopping cart wobbling ahead of me down the aisle, looking at the real item sitting on the shelf that aids in the creativity of gift-giving.
Think about the last time you bought the shirt with the cute saying on the front only to find the fabric scratchy and the design hard, unyielding in its conformity to a human-shaped body. To make matters worse, a vast majority of people wait to do their Christmas shopping so late there is no time to return and re-order before the holiday gets here.
What are the benefits of online Christmas shopping?
- 1. You can do it sitting on your couch, wearing your home sweats (you know, the ones you wear around the house, but don’t dare set foot out the front door wearing.)
Using this method of Christmas shopping it doesn’t matter if you haven’t showered or brushed your teeth, if it’s midnight or 3 a.m. The store is available because online stores never close.
2. There’s no dealing with holiday crowds and increased vehicle traffic getting to and leaving stores.
When I first learned to drive, the holiday season was the worst time to drive through town. Other drivers were impatient and unforgiving, going out of their way to cut you off when it wasn’t a deadlock. You could easily add 30-45 minutes to your outing, even just for groceries, because of the increased traffic from frantic shoppers needing that last minute gift.
3. You can take advantage of Cyber Monday deals, and other sales not offered at in-person stores.
This might be the biggest benefit of shopping online. You used to have to fight literal crowds to get the best deals, standing outside in the cold at 4 a.m. waiting for the doors to open. Now you’re simply fighting against the next online purchaser.
4. Shopping ‘local’ from different states, supporting local businesses from other states.
In recent years, a movement has swept through the U.S. to do more to support local businesses, especially after the lockdown of 2020 which affected so many of them. By shopping local stores online, it doesn’t matter that you live in a different state or down the road from the brick-and-mortar local store. If they have an online outlet, you can shop local from anywhere!
Those were some of the benefits of shopping online. Rather than list why you shouldn’t shop online this year, I’ll make a list of reasons to shop in brick-and-mortar stores when you can.
Why shop in brick-and-mortar stores this Christmas season?
- 1. Physically interact with the products you’re considering.
I mentioned this earlier, but it’s a important part of making any purchase. If you buy a shirt, a pair of pants or leggings, or a pair of shoes online and the fabric feels scratchy, the pants are too tight, or the shoes are too big, you send them back. When you buy in person you’re more likely to buy products you’re already comfortable with because you know how they feel, you probably tried any clothing items or shoes on in the store, and you’ve had a chance to walk around with them in your literal basket. Less time is wasted waiting for its delivery, possibly returning an item, and going to the Post Office or UPS to get it in the mail.
2. Buying with more intentionality – giving more consideration and thought toward your purchases.
Have you ever seen something in a store that you just couldn’t pass up? You grabbed it right away, stuck it in your basket and continued walking around. As you moved through the store you realized this was something you didn’t need or you didn’t really have the money in the budget for it. As you make your way out of the store you put it back on the shelf. The physical movement of walking around a store for a few minutes, pondering a purchase, gives us valuable time to consider what we’re buying. When it comes to Christmas shopping, I have time to think about how the person will receive my gift, if it’s the right fit for them. You have a moment to stop and consider the person you’re buying for and if this gift is something they’ll love. Maybe this is the slow processor in me but shopping online often feels too rushed. I’ll let things sit in my virtual cart long enough that they aren’t available anymore because each time I open the app I feel hurried and pressured to make my purchase now.
3. Having a realistic understanding of how much you’ve spent and the number of physical items in your basket.
I know we don’t always do our Christmas shopping all at once, but let’s say you’re doing the shopping for a single person on your list this outing to the store. You have a clear idea of exactly how many presents they’ll have to open and how much you’ve spent on that person. While you can do this online, you miss the chance to be giddy anticipating the receiver’s response to their gift, to smuggle the items into the house under the noses of others.
If you hadn’t picked up on it already, I am a proponent of in-person shopping when it’s possible to do so. I am easily overwhelmed with online shopping, which feels too impersonal at times to make a decision. I’m sure others will argue that the convenience of online shopping outweighs the drawbacks of using it for Christmas shopping, and for those people this is completely true. But if Christmas shopping gives you more anxiety than joy, if the sheer volume of choices online makes you want to avoid it until it’s down to the wire, then try shopping within the actual four walls of a real store this year.
