Shopping redefined

It was another weekend of studying, working and trying to figure out what to write about for my blog this week. Then as I was on one of my infamous “study breaks,” aka what I spend the majority of my time doing, it dawned on me. Shopping.

I think it’s become obvious that malls are a remnant of the '90s and early '00s. Online retail has exceeded the mall in convenience, variety, and cost; shopping online, rather than the mall, has become more rational. This is not big news.

Since online retail has become the most rational choice for shoppers, one of the ‘problems’ of shopping, for consumers, can now be said to be one of finding the most convenient way to shop online. One of the first successful attempts at streamlining online shopping experiences was PayPal (a personal favourite). Another was the online ‘superstore’ Amazon. eBay, among other game-changers, reinvented thrifting, and iTunes turned our music-spending behavior upside-down.

As online shopping continues to cement its position as the shopping paradigm, a greater amount of resources will go to innovating better online shopping experiences. This will mean, among other things, more places to shop online, new ways of purchasing products.

Enter Visa’s new thing: V.me. V.me is a new “digital wallet” service from Visa that can be used across a range of online retail sites to make purchases with one quick click. They don’t have many competitors. Amazon does allow streamlined purchasing when you have an account with them, but it’s only convenient when buying products on Amazon (and if you have an account on Amazon, obviously). There are few major services that allow one-click buying across the web. In other words, when you use V.me, you don’t have to enter personal info, shipping info, and your credit card number — ever again.

I bought a few things this weekend using V.me and it was faster, and definitely a lot easier. Aside from actually deciding what I wanted all I had to do was click a button.

I was done. And back to my life offline. It was just that easy. And why I’m never going to the mall again.

And Lastly,  nothing beats shopping with no pants… Nothing.