As an owner of an e-commerce business, It’s embarrassing for me to confess that I don’t really shop online much. I’ve only done it about a dozen times in all my years of living. I’m a bit old-fashioned when it comes to shopping, I love to touch the item I want to buy and I love the ‘going-out’ part of shopping. I think most Indonesians share the same behavior, especially older people.

Before buying anything, I would usually research for the price and nearest availability of the items that I want to buy. I hate paying for delivery cost even if it’s only Rp. 5000 and I hate waiting even for a day. I’d rather go to a physical store to get it so I can see it for myself and get it on the same day rather than buy it online, wait for it to arrive the next day or later, and maybe feel disappointed if it doesn’t match my expectations.

But I did buy some things online. I remembered buying the first Google Nexus phone, a 32″ TV, blu-ray player, Guitar Hero Band Set (guitar, drums and mic) for the Wii and Twelvesouth BookBook case for the iPhone among others. I bought them online because of these 2 reasons: they’re cheaper and not available anywhere else.

Kaskus comes to mind when I’m trying to find cheap products. I know I can buy a TV in any electronic store but the thought of doing the heavy lifting to bring it home (aside from price consideration) proves to be a bit of a hassle. I found the TV that I wanted for about Rp. 200,000 cheaper than the price I got at the nearest electronic store. To be honest I was a bit skeptical at first but I was glad it went exactly as promised. I bought my blu-ray player from the same seller as well for about Rp 1 million less than retail store price. I never did ask how the guy managed to sell it at that price, I’d rather not know.

So if it’s (significantly) cheaper, I’d rather buy online.

The next reason I would buy online is when I can’t find it anywhere else. I encountered this problem when I was eyeing the Twelvesouth BookBook case for the iPhone. I’m a sucker for unique cases and I just hate it when my phone looks exactly the same as someone else’s. I wanted the BookBook case so bad but there was not a single store in Jakarta that sold it which meant the obvious choice would be to just buy it online. Good thing a good friend of mine, Zeddy Iskandar, who lives in Dubai, has a US shipping address so I don’t need to pay for shipping. He was also kind enough to bring it back on his way to Jakarta. But I digress.

I bought it online because I just couldn’t find it anywhere else.

Aside from these 2 reasons, there’s actually one other reason that my friend Nico Alyus mentioned on Twitter. Though this is not my own experience, it does make sense.

Nico said that another reason people buy online is when they’re too embarrassed to buy it in person. This theory holds true for Victoria Secret (Yes! I just linked to Victoria Secret from DailySocial!).

Here’s a quote from the company’s Wikipedia page:

Victoria’s Secret was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Tufts University and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Roy Raymond, who felt embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in a department store environment. He opened the first store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, and quickly followed it with a mail-order catalog and three other stores.

Yes it is from an era before the internet but mail-order works pretty much the same way as e-commerce.

In conclusion, there are really only 3 reasons why people buy goods online: It’s cheaper, it’s not available anywhere else, or it’s just too embarrassing to buy in person.

Aria Rajasa is the CEO of gantibaju.com, a clothing startup not dissimilar to Threadless but with a touch of Indonesia and a very strong design community. His passion in entrepreneurship has gotten him to start a number of companies since leaving university.