Reviews, New Products, The Information Age in 2012
This is becoming the age of The Tablet and The Smartphone. Tons of retailing transactions are moving out of the realm of the physical and into the realm of the digital. From buying shoes and clothing online to grocery delivery subscriptions, the nature of sales and selling is being altered drastically.
This naturally is happening to the fields of Literature and Music. From downloads on web sites, to freebies and pay what you think it is worth options, to outright just Electronic Formats for books and magazines, the era of the hardcopy is narrowing moment by moment.
So how the heck do you know you will like what you are purchasing? That is the whole crux of this post. How do you know what you will like or wont like before clicking that Purchase Button? Reviews of course. Reviewers who already spent the money, or got a free copy, who tell you their opinions and hopefully help you in your selection process.
Of course a reviewer will not help you in ordering low boots. Well they could if they said that a style of boot was actually pretty narrow for the shoe size, instead of average or wide. Information like that will help in avoiding spending money on shipping and restocking to return a product.
For a book or a CD it is a different situation. Unless there are free previews, you really cannot thumb through a book/magazine or read the back cover blurb. For a CD there is no longer the option of listening to them in partial in such locations as FYI Music or in Barnes and Nobles Music Section on their headphones. So barring full disclosure on like Youtube or the performer's site, the options are now limited.
This is where reviews you like, you trust, come into importance. There are the ratings on various sites. Still words on paper or the screen will give you a great idea what to expect.
So there you are.
