Of the people who responded to my last poll (the question: What is the source of your pen purchases?), 66 percent said they purchased their pens online. The remaining number was equally distributed among “pens shops,” “mass market stores” and “other collectors.” Powerful sales medium, this Internet is. It makes me wonder about the fate of brick-and-mortar stores, particularly since I am of the generation that remembers what personal service is all about. These days, most people think good service is getting an item on time and as described, and of course this is important. But I also like being wooed by the touch of a prospective purchase or the ambience of a store and its personnel. It’s retail foreplay.
As an employee of Goldspot Pens, an online pen retail company, I can confess that I love to "woo" my customers with personable service. True, nothing can replace the tactile senses, but the internet does provide hundreds of people's opinions about specific models of pens along with detailed, hi-res pictures. Most reputable stores, like ours, will allow our customers to try the pen out and have the option to return it back for refund or exchange. All without having to make the trip out to the pen shop, which for most people, is a trek since they are few and far between.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that a lot of votes for Internet shopping is because of a lack of nearby retailers. The closest fountain pen store to me is over 500 miles away.
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