Shopping Blog

Nowadays that the Internet has conquered the whole world, many offline habits turned to the virtual world. Thus, more and more people are making their daily purchases via the web because it is much more convenient and many times a lot cheaper. This is what happens in the furniture field as well. People want to re-decorate their homes, but they often lack the time to go through furniture shops, compare prices and qualities. Only after a few days spent like this they will be able to make an informed decision. Shopping for furniture online has also been made popular by the development of the real estate business as people invest in this kind of properties abroad and they are not willing to spend weeks there in order to see the apartment they are going to rent filled with furniture items.

Online shopping for furniture has its series of advantages and disadvantages over the traditional brick and mortar shops. Taking on the positive side, there are many discounts customers can benefit from because this is a good cost cutting strategy for furniture shops. They build a website and upload images and clear specifications on the items instead of showcasing them in furniture showrooms within commercial centers for which the rental price is rather high. Thus, an online customer visits the website, sees the model from different perspectives, is given the exact measures and he/she can go through a few virtual shops in a few minutes. Once the decision taken, he/she uses the credit card and orders the furniture items which will arrive right on their doorstep.

However, there are also drawbacks when shopping for furniture online. It often happens that the color you see in a catalogue is not exactly the one of the sofa you will get. When purchasing furniture online, you cannot check certain features such as how hard or soft is the sponge, the mattress or how comfortable is an armchair.

While the vast majority of coupons are still paper-cut tickets from the newspapers, the use of electronic coupons is growing rapidly. A normal question arises: will the e-coupons overcome the traditional one? This is what Google seemed to think when they offered almost 6 billion dollars for Groupon – the Chicagobased deal-a-day e-commerce site used by 13 million consumers worldwide. The reasons for which the deal did not go through have been the topic of many controversies, but this does not say anything about the increasing popularity that electronic coupons have gained during the last years.

While in 2009 we could speak about a world wide penetration of this innovative marketing technique of only 6.9%, it is nowadays estimated that half of the internet users have purchased at least once an electronic coupon. The greatest consumer of e-coupons seems to beNorth Americawith 88.2 million users in 2011, a penetration rate of 47% and a linear increase over the last 5 years. However, European market does not remain insensitive to this trend as during the last two years, important changes in consumer behavior have favored the electronic coupons purchase and the number of internet users to buy e-coupons on a regular basis have doubled and tripled over the last two years.

The dominance of the Internet and the increased acceptance of mobile coupons provide a real future for paperless coupons. According to eMarketer business analysts, several factors have contributed to this breakthrough of electronic coupon. Among the most important, they mention the economic crisis, online research and shopping and, of course, the immense popularity of sharing sites like Groupon deals, kdgdeals or LivingSocial. These major players of e-coupons business have greatly contributed to the emergence of a new form of hunting for good deals.

As the main attraction for these deal-a-day websites are the consistent discounts customers benefit from, loyalty does not seem to be easily developed. Thus, the major player on this market segment, Groupon seems to experience serious competition from Living Social. Despite its high rate of popularity in the United States, the largest market for Groupon seems to remain Poland where the site reached 12.4% of unique visitors aged over 15.

According to reports, theMountain Viewgiant aims to launch its own home delivery service that would come along on top of the already existing price comparison engine. With the introduction of Panda, Google is already the top price comparator on the European market and this new addition would do nothing but reinforce its dominant position.

Although it did not interfere in the online shopping business for a long time, Google has always shown some initiative within this field and made some attempts by introducing Google Product Search, Froogle and Google Checkout. However its interest in the e-commerce business segment has increased since 2011 when Stephanie Tilinius was hired. A former eBay employee, Tilinus was a valuable addition that seems to help Google concentrate efforts and conquer this Internet business area as well.

According to business analysts, Google is currently trying to hit Amazon and their fast delivery service Amazon Prime which allows a fast reception of online purchases for a fee of 79 dollars a year. The reason lies in the high percentage (40%) of internet retail business share detained by Amazon at the moment which the web-search giant cannot stand losing. According to Wall Street Journal, Google is already negotiating with the American major distribution players such as Gap and Macy’s in order to establish this innovative delivery system that would cost a lot less then Amazon and would take between 24 and 48 hours to reach destination.

Therefore, no matter what legal actions the internet giant might face, online shoppers should be reassured as such competitiveness brings more options and better services at lower prices for the general public. However, if Google succeeds in this new venture, it will be difficult for any online customers to avoid it and its supremacy will gain another confirmation.

Hublot is a popular Swiss luxury watch company founded in 1980. The company is well known for sponsoring sports events like UEFA Euro 2008, 2010 FIFA World Cup and FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 in Oslo. They will also sponsor future events like 2014 FIFA World Cup, so it seems that they are getting more and more popularity. Since the company is so interested in being implicated in so many sports events, most of their collection are related to certain events or partnerships. The Hublot Chukker Bang watch has been designed to mark the occasion of the Polo Gold Cup Gstaad; the tournament starts every 18^th of august.

The Chukker Bang is a beautiful 44 millimeter watch made from titanium and sapphire crystals. The solid titanium, reinforced spring, rhodium plated components, nickel and ceramic pieces make this watch resistant to approximately 100 meters under water. It is available in two beautiful versions, a limited titanium version and an exclusive version made with diamonds. The mechanism is automatic and it is composed of 280 parts and 59 jewels with an energy reserve of approximately 42 hours. To create this amazing watch Hublot collaborated with Facundo Pieres one of the best international polo players and also an ambassador of the brand.

You don’t need to be an international super star to wear this watch. It is also available in replica watches stores for a fraction of the original price. Everything looks the same, the stones are similar to the ones used in the original brand and you will get quality and a nice feeling for just a few hundred dollars. You can buy it as a gift for somebody you care about or you can buy it for yourself and accessorize yourself elegantly with the help of this amazing timepiece. Everybody deserves a nice looking watch and a replica watch is affordable and looks as amazing as the original piece.