Ship to Store - One of the Many Advantages of Online Shopping

If you shop online regularly or have made a successful purchase or two, there is a good chance that you had the item shipped to your home, a friends/neighbors home or a P.O. Box. These options are all fine but there is another option that may be safer and sometimes cheaper. If you are shopping from a website that has an offline retail location near you, they may have a ship to store program.

Most of us may not think of ship to store programs as an advantage of online shopping because we may feel we don’t need it. We can have the item shipped to our home and avoid going out. This is very true but we all know that package delivery is unpredictable. We just don’t know when the package will arrive or if we will be around to accept it. Even if we have a house full of people, there still may not be anyone at home during the day and this is when most packages are delivered.

And we all know, if we are not home to receive a package that is delivered to us, one of three things may happen. It either gets left at our front or back door which leaves the package open to theft or damage, it will get sent back to the shipping station which is inconvenient or it will be left with a neighbor at our request, which is not private at all.

Speaking of privacy, there is one more issue that you would not have to deal with. I am sure many of you have received that box or envelope that has looked as if it was peeked into. This is one of the unspoken inconveniences of package delivery. There is a possibility that this may happen to you also.

Now if we choose to take advantage of a ship to store program, we can avoid all of these circumstances.  The item will be shipped straight to the store and it will be waiting for you until you get there. You can pick it up during the evening or  you can wait until the weekend. You will not feel any pressure and you will have peace of mind because you will know the item is in the safest place it can be.

Now some of you have P.O. boxes. These are pretty safe also. If you have an item shipped to a P.O. box, you can pick it up at the Post Office and if the item is too big for your box, you can pick it up at the counter. The only problem is that ship to store programs usually offer free shipping. Having an item sent to a P.O. box may cost you money. And even if it doesn’t ask yourself this: If you bought a nice gold watch or a nice piece of jewelry, would you rather have it shipped to a P.O. Box or shipped to the store where you purchased it from?

So as you can see, ship to store programs are a great benefit of shopping online. Many of the major retail chains offer ship to store options. Walmart and Sears are two that come to mind. Some smaller retail stores may not offer this option but they may be willing to do it. It would not hurt you to ask them. Even if you have to pay for shipping, it may be better to ship the item to the store instead of to your home. This way, you can have your privacy, convenience and your peace of mind.