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Buying CBD Online Or In-Store?

Should you buy CBD online or in a physical store?

Cannabidiol (CBD) products have made a name for themselves in the wellness industry. Unsurprisingly, these products have been gaining greater use and acceptance as more people discover the benefits connected to the use of CBD. 

As with anything popular in the market, more brands and stores are selling CBD products to meet the demand. CBD is easily accessible through either online or a physical store in your local area. The list below can help you understand the differences between buying CBD online and shopping for CBD in a bricks and mortar store. We hope this article will help you to determine the option that is most suitable for you. 

Physical Store

Modern shoppers are not just looking for products on a website. Technology can never replace a positive shopping experience created by direct interactions between the customers, products, and employees. 

As the boom in the market continues, we’ll continue to see more CBD stores across the country building solid reputations through good old-fashioned customer service. Let’s look at the experiences you can get through in-store purchasing. 

  • No waiting on shipping

Buying online involves a lot of waiting. We must account for the time to receive our purchase. Even the leading and most efficient courier services and online retailers can have their bad days and not always meet the estimated deadlines. 

Shipping companies usually take at least a couple of days to get the item to your doorstep. Some take weeks to deliver your order. While this isn’t a common occurrence, it can be easier to go to the nearest physical store in the first place. 

Items get lost, detoured, damaged, or delivered to the wrong address more often than you can imagine. There’s no way to ensure that you’ll get your hands on your purchase in time unless you pick it up from a store.

Some consumers prefer to take their items home on the same day. Buying online can take a long time. You can skip through the whole shopping process and get your hands on the items immediately after purchase with offline shopping. 

  • Physical Inspection

For some people, shopping in-person is an essential aspect of making sure that the quality of a product is up to their standards. It allows them to inspect the products and make them less likely to worry about purchasing a bogus product. Any in-store shopper might be aware that the quality of the product is often not up to the mark by touching and feeling a product. 

  • Seamless returns

Customers are more likely to return a product when there are defects, or they’re not pleased with it. Returns are a frequent occurrence and central to customer experience. It creates a pleasant shopping experience for unsatisfied consumers, and in turn, brings positive word-of-mouth for the business. 

Unfortunately, it’s not always an easy process when dealing with an online retailer. While some companies might examine the claim and send a replacement for free, others will require consumers to ship back the items themselves for inspection before giving the replacement. This leads to additional expenses for return postage. 

The convenience of returning items bought at physical stores continues to be a primary driver for consumers to shop at a physical store. Offline shopping is a way to avoid all the hassle of running to the post office or waiting for the money to return to your money. 

  • Personal interaction

The human interaction aspect that comes with buying in a physical store can be a pro or a con, depending on your personality or your mood. Many people find value in face-to-face interaction as much as the digital experience. 

Since CBD products are new to the market, many individuals will have questions about CBD, the products available, how to use them, and their benefits. Consumers are more likely to receive recommendations, ask questions, and voice concerns with a salesperson in real-time to help them find the right CBD product. 

  • Choice

Unfortunately, the bricks and mortar portion of the CBD market has become more dominated by larger brands which have monopolised the larger retailers including supermarkets and Holland and Barrett. As a result, the products which are most common in the UK in physical stores, are generic and more focussed on branding and marketing.

There are still small independents health food stores that may provide more diversity, but sadly their market share has been diluted. Therefore to get a more diverse selection of CBD products, online stores are probably the place to look.

Buying CBD Online

The age of technology has evolved most of our day-to-day activities to match our fast-paced lifestyle. The business landscape has especially been subjected to this transformation with the rise of CBD online shopping. It’s become more frequent, and in fact, more people might buy products online rather than in-person. 

In the CBD industry, online stores have been more prevalent than physical establishments. Many CBD manufacturers have recognized the value their customers can receive through offering their products on the online marketplace. 

Let’s take a more in-depth look at how you can benefit from buying your CBD online. 

  • Research Capabilities

While you can interact with a salesperson in real-time about the CBD product you want to buy, their knowledge about the product or manufacturer may not be all that thorough.

The internet presents an opportunity to learn more about a product and the brand selling it before making a purchase. The amount of information available about CBD Oil is mind-boggling. Unfortunately, information on the internet is often deceptive, especially in an industry that lacks regulations. 

It’s up to the consumer to research to determine if a CBD product is legit, though discerning who is being honest and who’s trying to sell you something can be difficult. 

Reputable CBD companies always include information about their products on their websites. They provide customers with lab reports to prove that their products are both pure and potent. A lot of sites would even include a knowledgeable customer care representative who will give you advice on various strains in case you want a change.

  • Access to Wide Variety of Products

A local retailer will probably carry only one or two brands to choose from, making it more challenging to find the right CBD product. Online CBD stores cater to a broad customer base with different needs and preferences.

The internet contains hundreds of brands with a wide variety of products. All of these brands are offering a lot of different types of CBD products. You can choose the ones that will suit your needs, preferences, and budget entirely. 

However, the over-saturation of choices has also created a problem for consumers, as not all products are worthwhile. There are even more inferior products out there than high-quality ones. It can make shopping for the CBD oil more confusing, especially for first-time buyers. 

For this reason, you must do your research on CBD before buying any CBD products

  • Opportunity to Compare Prices

The ideal product for most shoppers has the best qualities at the lowest price. It is why comparison shopping has always been a common practice. It helps to find better deals for the same or similar products. By comparing product potency, strengths, and prices, you can be content that you’re making the right decision. 

Traveling to different stores and looking at numerous aisles can be a tiring and time-consuming procedure compared to doing it online. You might not even have many options if you live in an area that doesn’t sell a lot of CBD oil

Savvy online shoppers can navigate from one web page to the next comparing CBD oils and brands without wasting any time or money.  

  • Convenience 

Most CBD shops are in cities, so getting access to quality and standard CBD products can be a challenge for people living far away. It can mean a lot of long trips that are both expensive and tiresome. You also must deal with the hassle of finding parking spaces, annoying crowds, and line-ups. 

If you can’t stand these hassles, save yourself the trouble by shopping online. Online CBD stores allow you to enjoy the convenience of placing an order from the comfort of your home. Using your computer or mobile phone, you can sit on your couch or lie in bed to make your selection and wait for the delivery to arrive.

  • Always Available

Most stores are open only during the daytime. This is not enough for customers who can exclusively shop at nonstandard hours like parents with small children and anyone who works throughout the day.

CBD Online stores are always on and available to take orders 24 hours. They don’t have specific opening and closing hours, unlike physical stores, so customers can buy their CBD oil at their convenience. 

Physical stores and buying CBD online have apparent differences; finding the right store depends on your specific preferences, needs, time constraints, personal lifestyle. More often than not, it depends on whatever is convenient. You should never compromise the quality of your CBD product, no matter which type of store you use. 

Love CBD is a small family-run CBD shop that offers high-quality cannabis oil, establishing a leading brand for CBD capsules, cbd balm, and sprays in the UK. Visit lovecbd.org.

We hope you found the article discussing buying CBD online or in physical stores useful. For similar articles to our CBD online blog, please click the link

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