Confessions Of An e shopaholic - The Power Of Reviews

The e shopaholic is back.

In the last one month, we have bought toys, books, candles, utensils, exotic teas, liquid soaps, apparels and a pen drive from the online market place. This was besides the several rounds of routine grocery, meats and vegetables, we have bought from the hyper local online portals.

I am amazed on the small things that trigger my almost maniac obsession to online shopping.  I am sharing one such instance.

I was recently reading an article on gifting ideas over an online news portal. It had some unique ideas, along with a short review. Below each idea, there was a link to buy the same from an online portal. One of the items which hit me was a Bluetooth speaker from Creative; a Singapore based acoustics/sound engineering company which sells products which compete with the likes of Bose and Harman Kardon. The company is known for its disruptive and innovative products and has a cult following among its fans.

Now, let me tell you that I am no audiophile. I don’t have an understanding of speakers and audio equipment and am heavily influenced by reviews, especially if it is on a news portal and written by a renowned expert in the field. So as soon as I read the review of the Creative Sound Blaster Roar, the wannabe audiophile in me woke up. I had another reason to stay awake late in the night, when I could go on various acoustic portals, compare features and prices on online market places and narrow down on a good, solid Bluetooth speaker.

Being an amateur with little knowledge of the subject, I have limited appreciation of what I need in a good Bluetooth speaker. The pricing starts from a few hundred to few hundred thousand rupees. I realized that certain brands stand for quality and hence charge a premium for that perception. There are others with so many features, that a naive wannabe would never use and understand.

The Creative speakers had too many features packed in its monocoque metal body. The solid aluminum speakers have a high bass (Terra bass feature) and a room filling sound. It plays through Bluetooth as well as through an auxiliary cable, micro SD card or through a pen drive.  It is priced almost 45% lower than its Bose counterpart (Sound link Mini III) which only plays through Bluetooth or Wifi. But Bose does have enough badge value to attract more research, and here I was in a Bose store, to satiate the pangs of the wannabe audiophile.

The specialist at the shop quickly read my nativity by asking a few questions, and I could not hide it. I decided to bare it all and she became my friend, philosopher and guide for the moment. She asked me questions which were philosophical, I assume music is all about philosophy of life. She patiently demonstrated how each speaker or player sounded, with a range of different genres of music, and I could not read much except that the expensive ones looked premium, sounded better and louder.

Finally, I decided to buy a Bose Sound Touch 20, something which was priced almost 2.2 X the price of the Creative Speakers which triggered the wannabe audiophile. I had made myself ready to pay a premium for a Bose, and this looked and sounded way better than the others. The immediate trigger, they had an offer for New Year, which had reduced its price by 20%. As I committed myself to the purchase and asked her for a fresh piece, here came the surprise. The store only had one single piece of that equipment, and that too in a white color where as I wanted a black one. I decided to check out the online market place in the store itself and realized that the online prices were almost 15% below what the store was offering. “The one available online is an older version without Bluetooth” was the prompt reply from my guide in the store. Further research online while I stood in there, lead to more confusion as there were several Doubting Thomases questioning the value the model offered.

The non-availability of the color I wanted, and the online pricing/reviews spanner were enough to drive me out of the store. The next two nights even went into some more research and more confusion. Now I am tilting backs towards my original choice.

When will I finally buy it and where will I buy it from; I am not sure. Amazon on its part is doing its bit by pushing me details of comparable products.

Confessions & Learning

1. The e shopping experience is liberating and private. You don’t have a sales person standing over your head with tons of expectations. A few more nights of research, a few more nights of You-tube comparisons; I am probably loving this purchase process way more than the joy which the Bluetooth speakers will give me. It feels like a child in a toy shop with no body watching around.
2. In this world where knowledge is on your fingertips, reviews can be a huge positive or negative reinforce. They certainly have a huge influence during the shopper’s path to purchase, especially for things you aspire off, but don’t know much about.
3. The other confession is the fact that even e shopaholics like me, sometimes prefer to buy such stuff from a brick and mortar store, probably because they are not sure of what they want. Let’s see what happens next.