Shopping catalogues that allow you to purchase items from home is not a new concept. However, they operate in a way that has become better and easier for modern customers. Gone are the days when you could only choose items from a bulky paper catalogue and mail your orders by post. Now you can shop online using the convenience and speed of the internet, browsing shopping catalogues and ordering your items in just a few clicks.
Since most people lack time and finances these days, catalogue shopping offers you two important things – the ability to shop from home without having to go into high street stores and the convenience of making smaller affordable payments to suit you.
Today you can also find many websites that offer online catalogue shopping. The advantages of shopping online include more variety and quicker searches to find what you need. It is hard to name any common product that cannot be purchased online these days. If you want it, you can probably find it online.
You can find different types of catalogues for a variety of different items. These range from men’s catalogues, women’s catalogues and gift catalogues to more specialised areas such as over 50’s catalogues and plus size catalogues.
Shopping from a catalogue allows you to purchase items such as:
- Fashion Clothing for men, women and children
- Footwear including shoes, boots, sandals and trainers
- Electrical Appliances, including fridges, freezers and washing machines
- Electronics including consoles, laptops, computers and mobile phones
- TV & Audio Home Entertainment systems including plasma TVs, Hi-Fi’s and DVD players
- Home and Garden items such as beds, sofas, tables and sheds
- Jewellery including watches, bracelets and rings
- Home Furnishing items including table cloths, bed covers
- Sportswear including fitness wear, gym wear and outdoor sports equipment
- Toys & Gifts for kids and all occasions
Many people in the UK are now relying on the internet and home catalogues for their shopping needs and a recent survey report from Rakuten indicates that Brits are the biggest online shoppers, spending on average over £1000 per person each year (2012). This is ahead of USA, Germany and Japan. The lowest spending nation is Indonesia with an average of roughly £200 per person. The UK is spending billions each year shopping online, but few know it was a grandmother from Gateshead who pioneered it from her living room.
The greatest benefit of catalogue shopping is the convenience. Catalogue shopping allows you to shop anytime, from the comfort of your own home. In addition, if the paper catalogue does not provide enough selection, catalogue companies operate a website where you can also shop. Even if you prefer leafing through a physical catalogue, the official website is an easy place to set up your credit account in minutes as well as keep track of your active account. You will be able to track purchases, see balances and many other features, all from any internet connected device.
While shopping through credit catalogues has many benefits, there are a few drawbacks. The main thing to remember is that you can expect to pay a little more for the convenience of buying on credit. In addition, you will have to pay interest on any balance you carry. However these drawbacks are often negated by the many benefits such as being able to pay for a large ticket item over a period of time instead of all at once.
It is actually pretty fun to shop with these online catalogues too. You can also sit down with your family to find items to buy or put on your wish list. This might be a lot less stressful than trying to drag your entire family to a store to go shopping. Plus, it is also a lot of fun to get packages delivered to your door 🙂
Many of these catalogue shopping companies allow customers to spread the cost of payments over a number of months. Your shopping might be paid weekly or monthly instead of upfront in one go. Some of these credit catalogues even give you two to five years to pay off a purchase. This gives you a chance to purchase expensive items such as a fridge, cooker, laptop or TV in smaller manageable amounts rather than paying a hefty sum upfront.
You will often find greater discounts available from online catalogues compared to a high street store. This is mainly due to the lower overheads involved with running a website compared to a bricks and mortar business and companies often pass the savings onto you the customer. You might also find some of these companies offer big incentives in the form of discounts to bring in new customers. They also offer special sales and discounts to keep old customers ordering again and again.
A lot of catalogue shopping companies tend to offer superior return and exchange policies compared to the traditional high street store too. Don’t like what you ordered? It’s easy to return the items and get an item exchanged for something else or even refunded. Some catalogues such as Fashion World, Jacamo, and Marisota all have a 14 day ‘try before you buy’ period, so if you’re not 100% satisfied with your purchase, you can simply return it and you won’t be charged a penny.
Right from the moment we wake up, we are typically faced with a hectic schedule. From the time we wake up, to the time we come home from work and with all the travelling in between, there is hardly any time left for entertainment. This puts shopping somewhere down the list of priorities, but it’s something which needs to be done. Shopping from online catalogues provides a solution to this problem and helps people save not only precious time but money too.
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