Online shopping, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
- Amazon (US) for Kindle books and occasional electronics.
- Audible (US) (Amazon subsidiary) for audio books.
- B&H PhotoVideo for electronics and printer ink.
- Ali Express for electronics.
- DHGate for electronics.
- Gearbest for electronics.
- Candy Time for… well… that occasional urge.
- Ebay for almost anything.
- Kogan (not lately) for various stuffs. (Does Kogan mean overseas?)
- Catch (of the Day) for various stuffs possibly including confectionery.
- Better World Books, Abebooks, Book Depository, Bookworld, Borders Books, Dymocks, Kennys, Fishpond and a few others for paper-based reading materials. (Booko.com.au for finding the cheapest!)
- Etsy for weird stuff you won’t find anywhere else.
- OfficeWorks for - er - office stuff? And confectionery.
- Berkshire Record Outlet for music (along with a whole bunch of other places).
- Starsonstuff.com for ties.
- Various online suppliers for PC games (most of which are supplied via digital ‘key’). As stated by @kaedhlin, there seems to be a huge Australia tax on these which is totally meaningless given their provenance.
- and lots, lots more.
So I buy books online from overseas and locally. I buy electronics online, from overseas and locally. I buy confectionery online, but that is exclusively (or almost exclusively) in Australia. Music, movies and other digital entertainment? (Not that! Get your mind out of the gutter!!!) International and local.
My wife orders groceries online - locally. She orders cosmetics, powders, perfumes, creams, lotions and other stuff online - almost but not entirely locally. She also buys books from various places.
We have also occasionally bought clothes online - mostly but not exclusively in Australia (I get work clothes made to measure by an overseas supplier).
Many of the things I buy overseas are available in Australia but cost more here - even after postage. What really annoys me is that I can buy a $1 widget off Ebay and have it delivered for free from China in six weeks - or I can pay $6 locally and have it delivered this week for another $5. International postage prices make no sense!
Precisely. If you look for small items on Ebay, buying overseas is simply logical - our local suppliers have too high a mark-up.
Yep.
The one thing I would be extremely loathe to buy online is medication. My wife and I use a lot of it, but I simply am not comfortable with the set of risks that come with its online supply. This includes not only the risk of getting the wrong thing or a tainted batch, but the risk of shipping medicines illegally - the laws around this stuff can be quite confusing.
I am interested in the number of people who have stated in this thread that they try to ‘buy local’. While I am aware of advertising campaigns that target this, I would be interested to see the real economic impact of buying locally vs. buying the cheaper product online - and how many people actually do buy locally when the alternative is to save 50%.