Online Purchases Increase

If you find yourself purchasing more new audio gear online each year, you are not alone. A recent study from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reveals that online shopping for consumer electronics products is gaining in popularity. The CEA study finds that an average of 5% of all consumer electronics purchases are made online, with portable audio devices in particular selling more than 10% of product through online channels.

However, common wisdom holds that high-end audio products are best purchased from a reputable specialist brick-and-mortar dealer, who can demonstrate and properly counsel the buyer in making the right choice. Above all, being able to listen to the products first has always been a key factor in an audiophile purchase. But recent Stereophile polling results confirm that 68% of our readers have already bought an audio product without hearing it first. Only 14% said they would never buy anything without an audition.

"Virtually all the audio dealers in my area do not carry the full line of products they are supposedly the dealer for," writes reader Brankin in the Stereophile poll. "Imagine my local Chevy dealer doing that! Some of the dealers do not allow home trial, so that's a crap shoot on what it will be like in my home system. Why shouldn't I buy from a Web company with 30-day return policy?"

The CEA survey also found that consumers who buy at least some of their CE products online spend 67% more each year than those who do not make any CE purchases online. But perhaps most surprising is that, according to the more than 1000 US adults surveyed by CEA about all of their consumer electronics purchases (not just audio), online shoppers report higher satisfaction with the purchase process than those who visited traditional brick-and-mortar stores, citing convenience, order accuracy, product variety, product availability, and product information among the top reasons.

Product variety and availability appear to be a growing problem for audiophiles in particular. Another of Stereophile's polls notes that high-end audio dealers seem to be getting scarcer. Reader Shawn Wiley commented, "In Orlando, a city of over one million people, there is no high-end audio dealer." In the same poll, readers often complained about limited product and competitive dealer choices within a convenient driving distance from their homes.

Finally, the CEA study finds that the online shoppers surveyed also reported better customer loyalty than those who make purchases in person, with 52% claiming store brand loyalty. By comparison, only 37% of brick-and-mortar shoppers were deemed loyal in their CE purchasing behavior.

While specialty audio has traditionally been a face-to-face business, the CEA survey and Stereophile's polling results indicate that a fundamental change is taking place. As CEA research director Joe Bates has discovered, "Consumers will naturally gravitate towards a convenient means of purchase that makes them feel as though they have made a fair, well-informed decision in a setting that is easy to reach and work with."

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