When it comes to looking for home electronics, the Irish are not as keen to search for bargains online as you would have thought, and are subsequently missing out on savings, according to a survey from Komplett.ie.
While 36pc of Irish people shopped on the internet in 2008, according to Eurostat a mere 3pc went shopping for household and electronic goods, compared to the EU average of 11pc.
In comparison, 57pc consumers in the UK and an impressive 59pc of Danish consumers shopped online in 2008.
What are we missing out on? A lot, according to Komplett – on average, digital cameras are €103.81 more expensive in a high-street electronics store than online, making for a price difference of over 26pc.
The survey, carried out from 1-8 June 2009, found that as much as €175 in savings can be made on cameras, with up to €174 in savings on LCD TVs, if consumers search for their electronics online.
This Komplett survey looked at all your typical home electronics categories, including TVs, home cinema systems, cameras, GPS systems, Blu-ray and MP3 players, and notebook PCs.
It claims to have found that across all of these categories, traditional electronics retailers were, on average, 15.69pc more expensive than their e-commerce counterparts – that is an average saving of €81.42 per online purchase.
“A few months back, Komplett was selling a Samsung 32inch LCD-TV for €699 and a major electronics store in Dublin had the same TV for €1,199, €500 more expensive,” said Komplett country manager for Ireland, Aaron McKenna.
“This prompted us to do some work to highlight the savings Irish shoppers can make, simply by checking out their online options.”
So, if it saves so much money, why don’t we simply shop online for our electronics goods?
McKenna thinks that delivery charges and set delivery times, combined with the ‘must have now’ feeling we get when choosing new gadgets in the face of 3-5 day delivery periods can work against online bargains, but added that e-tailers with pick-up point services like Komplett’s can solve such problems.
By Marie Boran
