Nowadays, more and more people are choosing to buy goods online. This is not only because online shopping can deliver goods to your doorstep, but also because they are cheaper. Over the course of the year, this way of shopping can help people save a lot of money.
Milk is no exception, some netizens found that the price of a carton of milk in a physical store is 70 yuan, while it only costs more than 50 yuan online, and there is almost no difference between it and the milk purchased in the physical store after being sent.
As for the question of why there is such a big difference between the price of the same product online and offline, after consulting an online store owner, I finally got the answer, so let's find out together.
The first reason is that brick-and-mortar stores have higher operating costs. Whether it is a large supermarket or a small store, you need to pay for store rent, façade decoration, employee salaries, utility bills, and other inputs. In order to provide delivery services to customers, brick-and-mortar stores also need to bear the cost of shipping. All of these costs are factored into the price of the item, resulting in higher prices for milk in physical stores.
Online sales do not need to consider these additional costs, merchants only need to rent a warehouse to carry out the goods, no façade decoration, and the number of employees does not have to be too large. In addition, the transportation cost is also greatly reduced, and only the delivery person needs to pick up the goods. This model of operation greatly reduces costs and allows customers to purchase cheaper milk.
The second reason is that the online and physical stores have different delivery channels, resulting in price differences. Brick-and-mortar sellers may need to go through multiple dealers to get their goods, and each dealer will make a certain profit, after all, no one will do it in vain.
When the goods finally reach the end merchants, in order to make profits, the price will also be increased accordingly. Online sales are completely different, many dealers take the goods directly from the manufacturer, eliminating the middleman to earn the difference, so they can sell at a lower price.
The third reason is that there is a clear difference between the packaging in online and physical stores, which also affects the price of milk. Manufacturers usually provide two types of packaging when producing, one is a beautiful package designed for physical store sales, and the other is a simple package prepared for e-commerce.
Milk sold in physical stores is often given as a gift by consumers, so the packaging is more delicate. Whereas, the milk purchased online is mainly for one's own consumption, and there are no special requirements for packaging, so the packaging is relatively simple. Different packaging cost differences also lead to more competitive online milk prices.
In short, when it comes to buying milk, we just need to make a reasonable choice based on our needs.