When we arrived in Spain, I was inspired to evaluate the ecommerce market, at least from a personal shopping perspective. Well ladies and gentlemen, I simply don't have the money for that. Very early on in the U.S., much of the appeal of shopping online, was the lure of low prices. Not so in Spain.
For my first experience, I ordered printer cartridges from Pixmania. Let's see, they cost 10 euros each and took about 10 days to arrive. After purchasing from Pixmania, I must have received an email every day. Luckily, I eventually opted out, and it worked to my surprise, so the emails have ceased. I have found however that I can buy the same printer cartridges down the street from our apartment so there is really no price or time advantage to buy those online.
Next, I needed a digital camera. Mitch's Canon Powershot Elph, which I inherited, was fantastic but one day it simply stopped working. Since this was our third, yes third, replacement of this camera, we decided that we needed to opt for a new model. I found the Kodak dual lens 570 and decided it was just what I needed. I wanted to buy it in Spain. For one thing, I couldn't find a single U.S. retailer that would ship the camera here. Plus, I wanted it fast. I love to have a camera in my pocket and my old Canon A20 - tried and true from 2002 - felt like one of those old cell phones in my pocket.
Pixmania had the camera for 232 euros. El Corte Ingles for 399 euros. (yes, that's a difference of 167 euros or $233) Clearly, you need to shop around. In the end, I purchased it from one of my favorite online retailers - Buydig.com had it for $210 including shipping. (Yes - 142 euros) It shipped to my brother's house in just a few days, in time for them to bring it along for their visit. If they weren't coming to Spain, I would have needed to ship it to a U.S. address - and that friend or family member would have needed to ship it to me. I'm not sure of the legality of that transaction in terms of duties and taxes however. (Note - Buydig currently has the same camera for $196)
I have purchased from Buydig on three occasions and have been delighted with every purchase. I should also mention that it's a delight to have a dual lens camera like the Kodak V570. I can't remember how many times I felt frustrated because I couldn't fit my intended picture into the frame of my camera. The wide angle lens on the V570 allows me to take all of those pictures. Fun!
Last week, when I was looking to buy vitamins and fish oil for my son (that's another story) I went to evitamins. Although the shipping was $18, which seemed painful to me, given the euro/dollar exchange rate along with the price of things like children's' vitamins here, I figured I would come out ahead. The vitamins arrived in less than a week. Another successful transatlantic ecommerce transaction. |