A month or so ago, I was at a hotel with a friend and we wanted to order a pizza at about midnight. We had noticed a pizza place across the street – not even across the street but just across the parking lot – but ordering from them would require going outside, and it was a cold and rainy night. Neither of us wanted to go outside. Furthermore, neither of us wanted to call to place an order. Online ordering is so much easier and this restaurant didn't have a nice easy website to let you place an order. Therefore we took our business to Papa John's, which was a few miles away, and paid the delivery fee. It's not that we cared about the quality from one place over the other – they're pretty much equivalent.
Yes, I choose where I spend my money based on the website. If a company has no website, they will get none of my business. If a company has online ordering while a competitor does not, the one with online ordering (or online bill pay) will almost always get my business. I have yet to find a doctor that lets you schedule appointments online, but if there is one, I will transfer there because calling is such a nuisance. I'd prefer the flexibility of using an app on my phone, hardly even functions as a phone anymore.
What reminded me of this was the post on the Dilbert blog today about the hassles of online shopping. On one hand, I wholeheartedly agree with him – the promo codes and various discounts and popup ads and websites that weren't designed by someone as smart as me, and various browser features that try to remember your information but don't do it well are getting to take too much time and be too complicated even for me. On the other hand, I generally have time and patience to deal with computer stuff and all the hoopla does make things cheaper if you know what you're doing (and I do).
online > in store > telephone
I am the opposite. I always go pick up my pizza. You dont know how old the food has been in the car when you order.
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