There are a lot more web stores and people shopping online, but the actual internet shopping experience has not changed in the last 5 years.
Digg.com post, “While online shopping revenues continue to climb, 64 percent of consumers say they prefer bricks-and-mortar stores.”
Your shopping experience in different web stores is about the same, but in your local community stores do provide you different shopping experiences. Shopping for a book in Wal-Mart is a lot different than shopping for a book in Barnes & Noble. Shopping for a computer at Best Buy is a lot different than shopping for a computer at your local computer repair store.
On web sites the shopping experience at most web sites is the same. If you just swapped the pictures out at a clothing store web site with the pictures at a computer site, and you probably could not tell the difference in the web stores.
With the new advances in Web 2.0 technology and broadband internet, web stores will be changing significantly. For the first time online web sites will really provide people unique shopping experiences. No one can predict how our shopping experience will change, but I expect that web stores will soon be beating out local brick and mortar stores in terms of overall shopping experience.
Where before we may have shopped online for general research, discount prices, large selection of products, and convenience, now with Web 2.0 technologies the overall shopping experience will be superior. Web stores will be able to cater more and more to niche shoppers, integrate social networking into shopping, provide buzz and excitement, and provide more services to enhance the overall shopping experience.