In years gone by, folks were only able to cross border shop in cities, states, and countries that were within driving distance. It just didn’t make sense for somebody from Ohio to drive all the way to Delaware to save money on state taxes and it certainly didn’t make sense for somebody from Georgia to drive to Canada for a good deal. Of course, these days the Canadian dollar is much stronger than the greenback and we’re more likely to see Canadians in New York than we are to see New Yorkers in Canada.
Nevertheless, people that didn’t live close to more favorable shopping areas were just out of luck ten to twenty years ago.
These days however, things are quite different. Folks can essentially shop without any borders at all. They can do it from their computers in a wide variety of ways. For example, one might decide to visit a best fashion sale web sites in another country to get a great deal, or they might simply visit a flash sale site that resides in another state. If the flash sale site has a compelling enough deal, people might visit and buy from a great flash sale in their area. Its much easier to have a new pair of jeans delivered to your doorstep than it is to drive across town. Not only this, but most of the time shipping is free. With gas prices pushing their way towards four dollars a gallon, it is no wonder that individuals want to get items shipped to them over driving to pick them up.
Another amazing phenomena is that folks are able to get fashion advice from people that don’t even live in the same country as them. No doubt you’ve observed that there are many retail blog nowadays. However, have you ever thought to wonder where these individuals live?
In the past, people got fashion advice from their friends, their siblings, and maybe a magazine or two. These days, a person living in Hong Kong might be following a fashion blogger that lives in California and vice versa. Its amazing how even fashion advice has lost its borders.
This being said, the commercial aspect of cross border shopping is really what drives all of this. While the fashion bloggers usually have the best of intentions and do provide great information, they wouldn’t be doing it if you couldn’t buy from their affiliates. The fact that people can do business with each other, no matter where they live is what drives people to get together so often.
How far will cross border shopping take us?
The answer to this question will really depend on how far nations go to stop it. In case you haven’t noticed, many state governments are going out of their way to try to limit commerce between states online. They see that they are missing out on sales taxes and are trying to recapture this legislatively. In fact, in Pennsylvania, one has to record all of their out-of-state purchases and pay the sales tax they didn’t pay to the vendor to the state via their state income taxes.
