I wanted to reconnect with the seasonal store shopping experience to understand first hand why stores are getting so hammered by online merchants at Christmastime. The stores I visited were nicely decorated and neatly stocked-and hauntingly empty. Parking was easy and checkout was a breeze. I got suitable gifts and prices were good.

In fact, the merchandise was often marked down, But here's why the experience was less than satisfying and why I think, online shopping grew 19% this Christmas while store sales were virtually flat. Even with fewer crowds, shopping at stores just wasn't much fun. I invested about 15 hours, driving 100 miles to visit a dozen stores in five locations, some a couple of times each. With few exceptions, I found sales personnel were efficient but not engaging. Often salespeople were just hard to find. Had a sales associate approached me during the 15 minutes I inspected a beautiful foosball table at one store, I might have been nudged into spending more money on a memorable gift instead of playing it safe fulfilling the list. And I certainly would have purchased that $150 leather coat if the store had the size I was looking for or if the store would guarantee shipment of the right size from the warehouse in less than 10 business days And whenever I failed to find what I was looking for and suggested to store associates that I might find it online instead, their attitude was plain: suit yourself. No one led me to a computer terminal to help me find that exact product I wanted on the store's web site. Now that would be a and idea. The only store that I know of that uses that technology is Home Depot Store. I feel that this would be a valuable service that would help us non shopper types. Associates, I judged, see the Internet as a threat.

I saw no Santa's. No store offered festive treats or pleasant surprises. No salesperson went out of the way to connect with me or did anything for that matter to get or keep me in a festive Christmas shopping mood. Christmas shopping at stores, I concluded, has become impersonal at best, irritating at worst.

I could have spent one-third the time finding everything I wanted online. There would have been no lugging of bags to the parking lot. Nor would there have been any frustration dealing with inexperienced sales staff who couldn't answer questions. No anger after being told that I had to drive my car from the back of the store to the front to load my purchase into my SUV even though there was a suitable loading dock in the back.

Stores were flat at Christmas partly because overall retail sales were anything but robust. Still, Christmas shopping is a chore which can he done with less hassle and time on the web. an ever increasing number of Americans will prefer Christmas shopping online-unless and until the stores revamp the shopping experience to offer something joy, excitement, connection-that web merchants can't.

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 [Online stores sales increase 19%]

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