Shopping Early For Christmas - Good or Bad - Business - ECommerce

Shopping Early For Christmas - Good or Bad?   by Jennhow

in Business / ECommerce    (submitted 2008-08-08)

Planning to do your last minute shopping to grab the last of last bargains?

Be careful! It could put you on unnecessary stress.

Not to mention you may just simply grab the gift for that someone because of lack of time and the pressure to buy.

Last minute Christmas shopping often relates to looming credit card debt for the start of the following year..

...because you did the bulk of your Christmas shopping in December of the previous year. (confuse?)

For all of the crazy reasons, it makes a great deal of sense to go for your Christmas shopping early.

Why? Look at these advantages:

1) You do not have to deal with crowded shopping areas as hordes of other shoppers are also trying to complete their last minute Christmas shopping.

2) More time to relax and focus on other activities such as decorating, wrapping presents, baking cookies or just spending some quite time with family.

3) Saving benefits - you can take advantage of sales which occur year round if you spread out your shopping plus you do not have to worry about paying for all of your purchases at one time.

Think it is impossible to achieve this goal?

Now do this... think of Christmas shopping as a year long event.

1) Sit down shortly after the Christmas season to make a list of each person you plan to purchase gifts for in the following Christmas season. (I know that's a bit too long to plan, and I'm sure you would have lost the list by the time next Christmas comes).

2) Jot down a few gift ideas for each of these people as well. Creating a list at this time gives you a whole year to spend time searching for gifts for each member on your list.

For example you may wish to purchase a particular CD for your sister.

If it is a difficult CD to find, you have plenty of time to begin tracking down this time.

If it is a CD that is easy to find, you can plan on waiting until it goes on sale and may find you are able to save quite a bit of money by doing this.

If you plan on getting your Christmas shopping done early by shopping all year round, keep your shopping list handy.

3) Your wallet is the best place to keep it so it is always available when you are out shopping.

Remember to keep it up to date.

4) As you purchase a gift for each person on your list, cross off their name and write down the actual gift you selected if it was different from the gift idea you had written down originally.

5) This important because it will help to prevent you from purchasing multiple gifts for those on your list, you forgetful squid!

Arguments: Who spend more?

1) Those who do their shopping throughout the year often spend more because they lost track how much are spent on Christmas gifts - the bills blend in with regular monthly expenses. T/F

2) Those who shop at the last minute often spend more because of pressure to buy, limited stocks and limited time. T/F

What do you think?