Buy a sewing machine online and have it delivered within 24 hours? Done! Such convenience! But would you? Should you?
Under the right conditions I absolutely, without a doubt, would (and have!) but not everyone feels the same.
Some of you will say “no way”, “nada”, “never”, and “not on your life”. But, for certain people, buying online is a way of life. Those with hectic schedules, or who live in locations inconveniently far from major shopping, or who get a thrill from leveraging online deals to save money go to the internet first.
This information can help you understand why it might make sense to purchase online and how to protect yourself if you do.
Of course, when it comes right down to it, the one you want might not be available to you locally. To get what you want you might HAVE to purchase online!
That leads to one of the benefits of online shopping and that is a much better product selection. The other, significant benefit is, of course, deeper discounts.
Do you remember when you could first buy something online? I do. It was risky. Would the item show up? Who were these internet retailers? They weren’t names we recognized. What would they do with our debit card information? How long would it take for us to receive our purchase? It was new and interesting to some; scary and fad-like to others.
Internet retailers immediately saw the advantages, though. They could escape the costly expense of running brick and mortar stores. They could enhance their existing store with a web presence. They could reach a broader audience. They could offer a richer range of products by arranging for drop-shipments directly from manufacturers or suppliers. They could offer more deals to more customers.
Consumers thought this was pretty interesting, too. To anyone who had ever tried to go to the store with a couple of small kids in tow, shopping online sounded like heaven on earth.
First, though, online retailers had to establish trust and encourage customers to take a risk. We wouldn’t think twice about walking into a store in our neighborhood and plunking down a wad of cash or a chunk of our savings for something that cost several hundred dollars. The sheer closeness and familiarity of a local store established some level of trust even if we’d never shopped there before. To hand over our hard earned money on this new internet thing, however, seemed an open invitation for trouble. Seriously, fast food restaurants couldn’t (still can’t) get our order right when we were using the drive through just a few feet from their kitchen. How was this online shopping thing going to work?
But work it did – and still does – and now the largest internet sites have attained the level of trust and familiarity that used to be reserved only for local businesses.
It’s what happened between then and now that made all the difference and those factors still exist today.
Here’s how online stores established trust and online buying comfort:
- Detailed, descriptive requirements and lots of photos
- Star rating systems with independent consumer reviews
- Discount pricing strategies
- Easy payment options
- Flexible return policies
These rich descriptions and photos, ratings, and consumer review platforms brought the consumer as close to the product as possible in a virtual environment. These steps differentiated the internet from the brick and mortar stores.
If you walk into a Walmart store, you don’t get a star rating on each product, pictures from multiple angles, and pages of independent reviews for you to read before you buy. You don’t get to save on gas by shopping from home (and isn’t that getting worse these days???!!). You don’t get an offer for free shipping. You don’t get reminders about the other products you should buy (important sewing notions).
The effort put into building the internet as an option for shopping also helped establish the internet as the number one source of consumer pre-purchase information.
This is true of sewing machines, too. When you buy, the appearance and list of features only tell you so much. You want to know what others thought about a machine.
It was just a short leap of faith from researching a product online to actually buying the product online.
That doesn’t mean that the process is without its flaws.
If you’re going to buy through an internet retailer, here’s what you should do to protect yourself:
- Compare prices online before buying. Use Amazon.com
, Walmart.com
and Overstock.com
as your base and compare all other options to those as they’re usually the lowest price around.
- Buy from a source you trust. That doesn’t have to be the largest online retailer, either. Your local sewing store might have an internet presence with special internet deals, too.
- Make sure the listing has at least one picture.
- Read the description thoroughly.
- Make sure the listing confirms the product is, in fact, IN STOCK.
- Read the return policy.
The biggest issue with buying online is returning an item and there are 3 big reasons returns take place. Damage, wrong item, or someone changed their mind. Most online stores have excellent return policies but if you have to repackage anything or cart it to the post office, it’s inconvenient. Check the online store’s return policy and make sure it’s one you can live with. Some will come get the item from your home, some come with a return packing slip prepared just in case, and others require you call in advance to get instructions.
I’ve bought a sewing machine online and not had any issues. I like the convenience of shopping online and I hate crowds. The one thing I hate about buying online, though? The wait. Explains why I’m all over those “expedited shipping” options.
This is exactly what I am debating. I called a nearby dealer to ask if they had a particular machine in stock (Brother pc420 prw) and got a very long-winded reply explaining that manufacturers make two sets of machines- one set for dealers and one set to sell online. The dealer went on to tell me that these two sets of machines are vastly different- different insides, etc. and that no dealer would even think of touching one of the ‘online’ machines because they’re so inferior.
??What??
She quoted me a price on a comparable machine (Brother innov-is 80) which is nearly $200 more than the pc420, even with a trade-in. I’m not at all interested in the free classes that come along with dealer-bought machines, so that’s not a big deal. My new concern is — is this lady being honest? Or just trying to get me to spend my money in her store rather than at Amazon?
Do you know anything about this whole ‘two sets of machines’ idea? Any input would be awesome! Thank you.
I know this won’t quite answer your question, but at one of my dealer trips in the last few weeks, the PRW-420 was one I was interested in and it was around $450 on Amazon ($420 now.) When I asked if they had the machine, I was told they could not stock it because their cost is only $10 less than it’s being offered on Amazon for, so they obviously can’t make money on it, but said nothing about it being different than the Amazon models (they were a very honest and knowledgeable dealer, but it’s possible he omitted that part.) They happened to find one in the back of the store, though, but quoted me MSRP on it, which is $649.
Two they offered me, more in my price range, were the Brother Innov-is 40 and its identical twin brother, the BabyLock Grace (I say brother because he’s blue and the 40 is pink. :P) Those are both around $400 (both made by Brother,) but don’t offer near the features the PRW-420 does, but both were fantastic machines, in my novice opinion anyway, and I was considering the BabyLock (again, for the blue LOL. I refuse to have a pink machine. ;-)) I particularly liked the selection dial on them, almost IPod-ish.
From what I understand, the dealers are offered entirely different models to sell, not different versions of the same model, or at least given a different name for the dealer-only ones, like the Janome TB30 versus the DC4030, identical except for decorations, but the 4030 is dealer only, but I bet Erin has better and more concise info on that, just thought I’d share my 2 cents since I was just in the dealer looking for the PRW-420.
Erin (nice name 😉 ) – Your comment led to a whole, lengthy conversation with my mother this morning and I’ve sprinkled various comments on this issue throughout this site in the past couple of months as several of us have heard something similar.
Here’s my take…there’s just no way Brother said “I know…let’s make machines with INFERIOR parts and sell them for less to capture consumers who only want to spend $x amount of money.” I can believe they said “Let’s make machines with PARTS THAT COST LESS so we can sell machines for less” but that doesn’t have to mean the machine is inferior. If it were, we’d see lots of bad ratings on these machines but that’s not what happens. Sure, a few models might not live up to consumer expectations but most of the Brother online-only models have absolutely outstanding reviews. Which always leaves me with the impression the salesperson in the retail store is simply trying to land a sale and I certainly can’t blame them even if I don’t agree with their approach. Truly, there has to be some other selling point they could find to get someone to consider the machine in front of them instead of bashing the manufacturer’s other model?
So, I do think there is some truth to the comment that there’s something different between the machines Brother makes to sell in retail stores vs. their online-only models and I do think it has something to do with the interior parts but I don’t believe it makes the machine inferior. I think it makes the machine less expensive to manufacturer and therefore less expensive to sell. There is the risk that those different interior parts may not last as long but I haven’t seen that come up in online reviews or discussions for those models, either, so that’s just an unfounded worst case scenario on my part.
(Oooh! I’m all wound up on this one and I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee for the day!) 😉
Hope that helps a bit?
Sincerely,
Erin
It does help, Erin, and that makes sense — different parts, but not inferior. Brother advertises all models on their own website; I can’t believe they’d put their good name on a shoddy product.
Interesting….and helpful. Thanks! I was so startled by this whole idea because I haven’t come across it anywhere else, and I’ve been researching machines pretty thoroughly. It’s reassuring to hear that the dealer you saw didn’t mention it either. If it were true, it seems as if he probably would have, not only to protect his own sale but to stop people from buying poor machines!