Experts warn of the dangers of the great discounts announced by certain electronic stores on these dates

Martha Peiro

With the start of the New Year comes one of the favorite times for consumers: sales. While many have become accustomed to buying with just one click and many others prefer to consume online in the face of the evolution of the pandemic, other users are regulars of physical stores and choose them to find the greatest discounts.

However, where do the best sales hide? Are e-commerce winning the battle for low prices or are offers still offline?

Sales 2021: without influx of consumers and with insignificant discounts

Nuria Messeguer

Online and offline sales

“Right now, the best sales are online. In fact, many offers that exist in e-commerce do not exist in physical stores”, says Juan Merodio. The founder of the Tekdi Institute considers that this year most of the Christmas gifts will be bought online, where he, he assures, the discounts are "brutal", that is, 40% or 50%.

However, Raúl García Serapio, director of Neuromobile, is more in favor of purchases in physical stores. "Although it's not something black or white, sales as such are physical," he says. In addition, he indicates that the consumer "is in continuous reduction" and that we have become "couponers and bargain seekers."

Online sales doubled in the 2021 sales

Are all offers real?

Other experts invite us to doubt the veracity of some offers. "The first problem is the reality of the sales: are they really or are they a lie?" Javier Echaleku, founder of Sales Funnel Canvas, asks in relation to those products that brands apparently discount but that are later discovered to have the same price.

From his point of view, this problem occurs in both online and offline stores, but it is more difficult to detect in the latter. "On the internet you have tools like archive.org, which allow you to see previous versions of a page and learn these tricks," he suggests.

More than 80% of sales in Spain are in physical stores

Although Echaleku highlights the possibility of finding products at the best price online, he also refers to the advantages of physical stores. “In local commerce you find closeness and there is the component of proximity if you have a problem: in an e-commerce you can compare, but if there is an incident you solve it quickly in the physical store”, he points out.

García Serapio recalls that "more than 80% of sales in Spain are in physical stores", where experience is decisive. The difference, he points out, is how to use both channels. “When a user goes to a store, he goes shopping; in online commerce he goes directly to acquire something, being clear about what he wants”, he maintains. Although he recommends buying online if it is cheaper than a face-to-face store, he acknowledges that "an offline discount is safer."

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Super discounts and scams

Merodio admits that "the physical point of sale is the place where the discount is real, while on the internet you never know if the price in 10 minutes is the same or different from that of half an hour ago". In this sense, Echaleku explains why the biggest discounts are found in these establishments. “A physical store with its own warehouse has to pay for the storage of these products, and has no choice but to make good discounts to get them out of the way. But in the network it is usual for the products to be stored by a supplier, who is asked when the user buys them, so it is not interesting to make so much discount, ”he explains.

Despite this, the marketing and sales specialist recommends that the consumer not be guided so much by prices. If he does, "it is very likely that he will suffer more deception or fraud", which, moreover, is easier on the web. "You have to be very careful with super discounts and with the brands that offer them, if they don't give a real guarantee," he concludes.