Shopping can be interpreted in several ways: as any kind of purchase, or as a pastime in its own right. Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scholars which identifies one group of shoppers as recreational shoppers, that is, those who enjoy shopping and view it as a leisure activity.
Shoppers’ shopping experiences may vary, based on a variety of factors including how the customer is treated, convenience, the type of goods being purchased, and mood.
Shopping is associated with travel. Travellers might be able to buy items unavailable at home, or items cheaper, or of better quality, than at other places, not to mention souvenirs to remember your trip. Shopping can also be extended to the purchase of travel supplies, before or during travel. Some travellers plan trips around shopping opportunities; for example a trip to Singapore or Hong Kong for clothes or duty-free cameras and electronics.
Good and bad places to shop
There are plenty of exceptions — even an awful vendor may have some good deals or be the only place selling what you want, and even an excellent one may have some overpriced rubbish — but there are also some general rules for finding good places and avoiding bad ones.
Good places
There are some good deals in tourist areas. They will often have a better selection of tourist-oriented goods than you might find elsewhere and facilities may be better as well; for example they may have more English-speaking staff or be set up to accept foreign credit cards which other shops will not take. However, prices are often somewhat or much higher than elsewhere, especially in so called tourist traps, so buyers should be wary. In particular, if you plan to buy high-priced goods it will often be worthwhile to look for better deals elsewhere.
Border towns often have good bargains, aimed at people who take shopping trips across the border to get whatever is cheaper or higher quality in the other country. But exercise judgement, as some shops take advantage of their transient customers by selling low-quality items.
Often you can do better if you discover where the locals shop and go there. In particular, it is often worth wandering through a local department store, especially if you are more comfortable with fixed prices rather than having to bargain. In many places, the local markets, bazaars or souks are very colorful, well worth visiting even if you are not planning to buy anything.
There are a few types of specialist stores worth looking for.
Many museums have shops selling high-grade replicas of items in their collections or even those of other museums. Major institutions like the British Museum or the Smithsonian have very fine shops, and even small museums often have good ones.
Some archaeological sites have good shops as well.
Many art galleries sell good books or prints. Local artists or photographers may sell elsewhere as well.
There are also many government-run shops such as India’s Central Cottage Industries, set up to promote local arts and crafts.
None of these specialist places are remarkably cheap and most will not bargain, though some galleries may. However, quality is generally quite high, some of the goods offered are unique, and you are much less likely to be severely overcharged than in either a tourist area or a general local market.
Bad places
As a general rule any vendor with a captive market will be tempted to take advantage of the situation and overcharge; they may also have reason for high prices because they are paying very high rent. Examples include shops in airports and some hotels and, fairly often, a shop that is the only one available to people whose tour bus delivers them to some attraction.
The larger the place the less problematic this is likely to be. In a huge airport, a mall next to a hotel, or a whole district of tourist shops there is enough competition to keep prices mostly reasonable. Hong Kong International Airport even has signs advertising “guaranteed downtown prices”.
The derogatory term tourist trap is used for an overpriced venue purposely built for distant visitors, usually loudly marketed, and with expensive attractions, gift shops and dining. They can be built near well-known natural and cultural attractions. If you go to a well-visited destination, compare prices of different venues to decide where to go.
In many places — across much of Asia and sometimes elsewhere — a system of guide’s commission is widespread. When a tour guide, a cab driver, a rickshaw peddler or even a random “friendly” stranger takes you to such a shop, he or she gets a commission on everything you buy. More-or-less all such places are overpriced, and the ones that are most attractive to unscrupulous guides because they pay the best commissions are the worst of the lot from the traveller’s point of view.
Walking into many market buildings, or just along the street in some areas, you will be approached (in some places, swarmed) by touts who offer to lead you to shops. These people are usually on commission and should generally be avoided.
See Common scams for some of the really bad deals.
Tips for shopping
Travel light. You can cut down on baggage when travelling out, by buying clothes and toiletries for your trip on arrival, especially if you travel to a low-cost destination with good shopping opportunities. You can save weight on your way home by giving used clothes to a local charity.
Research/observe price levels before shopping. With any possibility of a major purchase, before you begin your trip learn what prices might apply at home, in stores and by Internet based sellers. At first arrival in a foreign country, you can only guess whether an offer is cheap or expensive by local standards. In tourist areas, such as airports, hotel shops and cultural attractions, prices tend to be inflated. As you pass by several stores elsewhere, you might learn the commonly accepted price for regular items. Remember the selection and prices at the airport or hotel, so you know what purchases can wait until you return there.
Rule of thumb for small purchases, calculator for big ones. Use a rough rule of thumb to compare prices. Let’s say you live in the United States and visit Japan, while the yen is 88 to a dollar. Since 88 is nearly 100, the rule of thumb would be deleting two zeros from the price (those used to maths could additionally adjust with 7/8 when needed). This is a good method for quickly finding out whether you would pay ¥290 for a take-away pastry. However, if buying a camera for ¥35,000, you should know that it costs about $310 at home and use a calculator.
Beware of incompatible electrical systems, region-coded media, and incompatible video formats when importing electronics; likewise, if you intend to bring a vehicle back, be sure it can be registered for use in your home country. The beautiful thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose.
Also be aware of warranty issues. For example, a manufacturer’s warranty on a camera or electronic goods generally applies only to equipment sold by an authorized dealer in that country. A buyer from a western country may save quite a bit by buying in a duty-free port such as Hong Kong, or by buying “grey market” equipment (imported by someone other than the authorized distributor) at home, but if the equipment goes wrong, he won’t get free warranty service locally. Indeed, some manufacturers refuse to repair items they make that are sold on the “grey market”…even to the point that they will not sell necessary parts to independent repair facilities.
Shopping comes last. There are several reasons to save shopping until the end of your stay:
You know how much money you can spare
You are more familiar with price levels, availability and quality (see above)
You minimize luggage during your journey, and the risk of losing items.
Customs duty can be part of your costs.
Shop knowing what the duty-free limits are for your home country, and what they will charge if you exceed them. Regulations can vary surprisingly, e.g., the U.S. or Canada do not charge duty on unmounted gems but do on jewellery, so bringing in the same stones mounted may exceed your duty-free allowance. Certain items must be declared and totaled toward your duty allowance(s) regardless of price or value, e.g. tobacco or alcohol.
If you plan to take anything expensive with you (camera equipment and jewellery are most common), see Proof of what you already own for information on avoiding duty when you re-import it to your home country.
In addition to collecting duties, border officials often enforce other regulations. See below for discussion of legal and other restrictions on various imports.
In some areas, you must be prepared to bargain since that is the only way to get a reasonable price.
What to buy
Duty-free shopping may save money, especially for goods such as alcohol and tobacco and for travellers from high-tax regions such as the Nordic countries. But note the cautions in the linked article.
Arts and crafts are popular souvenirs. The cost of handicraft tends to follow local income level; making them cheap in regions such as tropical Africa, but costly in western Europe.
Clothing is needed at least when travelling light. Also supply for the local climate is usually better locally. Beware of different clothing size standards; for example, a person who takes L in a Western country may need XXXL in China. Travelling to lower-income countries, consider using a local tailor; this may be quite affordable because of the low labor cost, especially if appropriate fabric is cheap as well. In some areas handmade boots are also a good buy.
Food can be popular to shop for abroad, to get ahold of some treat that’s not available at home, or as a souvenir from agritourism. These goods can however be perishable, and import might be restricted.
Alcoholic beverages vary a lot in cost and availability, and can be a bargain in duty-free shopping. Bottles are however fragile and heavy, and import might be restricted.
Items like glasses may also be considerably cheaper overseas; one comparison shopper found $135 for the cheapest glasses for his prescription in Canada, but $35 in the Philippines; he ended up paying $125 for a very good pair in the Philippines. Some travellers get things like dental work or surgery done abroad; see medical tourism.
Expensive items like electronics may be cheaper in another country if your home country has high tariffs. Rumor has it that some travelers from South America manage to pay for a flight to and from Miami just from the savings on buying a couple of iPhones there instead of at home.
Textiles including cotton, wool, and silk are popular materials for high-quality souvenirs, especially carpets and clothing.
Equipment
Equipment or travel supplies need to be bought during the journey, such as clothes, baggage or hygiene and body care equipment.
Buying equipment on site is more economic when you travel to a low-income country, or when your home currency is strong.
Bargaining
Bargaining practices vary widely by country, so you should do your research before your trip even if all you plan to buy is souvenirs. It’s most commonly practiced with street vendors and other informal retailers. Where bargaining is expected, it is more important than ever to get an impression about typical price levels at the destination.
You should usually bargain only if the nominal price would be a burden to your travel budget, or is ridiculous by local standards.
Places for particular goods
We have some articles on specific types of shopping: Bead shopping, Diamond rings in Antwerp and Purchasing a kimono.
Some destinations are famous for particular types of goods:
Carpets are made all along the Silk Road and, if you bargain moderately well, they are considerably cheaper there than in other places. There is a phenomenal range available, with each region and sometimes each village producing its own designs.
The most finely-woven rugs are produced in the great weaving centers of Iran and Turkey, but areas such as the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan are also famous for rugs. There is some carpet production almost everywhere from China in the east to Romania and North Africa in the west, and carpet-making is an important industry in both India and Pakistan.
Cameras and electronics in duty-free ports such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Saint Thomas, USVI or Saint Martin in the Caribbean. A few decades ago these were by far the cheapest places to buy such goods; today their prices on many items are no better than major vendors in western countries, but there are still some good deals to be had. See also travel photography and video recording.
Gems are found all over the world, but particular places are known for certain types:
Diamonds are mined mainly in South Africa and nearby countries, but it may be better to buy in places where they are cut; see Diamond rings in Antwerp. Processed diamonds are one of Israel’s main exports despite Israel having little to no diamond mining.
Emeralds are mined in Colombia.
There are still some good Chinese sources for jade, notably Khotan, but today most of the best jade in China is imported from Myanmar. The border town Ruili has much jade, but for the best deals, go to Myanmar.
Australia produces most of the world’s opals; the largest mine is in Coober Pedy but opals are available in any of the main cities. Mexico is another source.
Many of the finest moonstones are from Sri Lanka. India also has some fine stones but also many lower-grade stones, often in larger sizes or at lower prices.
Almost every tropical seacoast area has some pearls, with Japan also being famous as the birthplace of the cultured pearl.
Rubies and sapphires are the same mineral; different impurities give different colors. Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India are major sources. The top-grade stones are very clear and can be cut with facets; other stones are cut cabuchon (curved, not faceted) to give star rubies or star sapphires. Off-color stones, such as grayish star sapphires in Sri Lanka or the “plum stars” common in Agra, are much cheaper than bright red or blue stones and may still be lovely.
Some fine jewellery is available in any of the regions known for gems or in major shopping areas anywhere. Some of the best deals, though, are in shops at museums or archaeological sites selling replicas of ancient pieces.
Shopping seasons
Shopping frenzies are periods of time where a burst of spending occurs, typically near holidays in the United States, with Christmas shopping being the biggest shopping spending season, starting as early as October and continuing until after Christmas.
Some religions regard such spending seasons as being against their faith and dismiss the practice. Many contest the over-commercialization and the response by stores that downplay the shopping season often cited in the War on Christmas.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) also highlights the importance of back-to-school shopping for retailers which comes second behind holiday shopping, when buyers often buy clothing and school supplies for their children. In 2017, Americans spent over $83 bllion on back-to-school and back-to-college shopping, according to the NRF annual survey.
Seasonal shopping consists of buying the appropriate clothing for the particular season. In winter people bundle up in warm layers and coats to keep warm, while in summer people wear less clothing to stay cooler in the heat. Seasonal shopping now revolves a lot around holiday sales and buying more for less. Stores need to get rid of all of their previous seasonal clothing to make room for the new trends of the upcoming season. The end-of-season sales usually last a few weeks with prices lowering further towards the closing of the sale. During sales items can be discounted from 10% up to as much as 50%, with the biggest reduction sales occurring at the end of the season. Holiday shopping periods are extending their sales further and further with holidays such as Black Friday becoming a month-long event stretching promotions across November . These days shopping doesn’t stop once the mall closes, as people have more access to stores and their sales than ever before with the help of the internet and apps. Today many people research their purchases online to find the cheapest and best deal with one third of all shopping searches on Google happen between 10:00 pm and 4:00 am. Shoppers are now spending more time consulting different sources before making a final purchasing decision. Shoppers once used an average of five sources for information before making a purchase, but numbers have risen to as high as 12 sources in 2014.
Pricing and negotiation
Historically, prices were established through a system of barter or negotiation. The first retailer to adopt fixed prices is thought to be the retailers operating out of the Palais-Royal complex in the 18th-century. These retailers adopted a system of high price maintenance in order to cultivate images of luxury. For their upper class clientele, fixed prices spared them from hassle of bartering.
The pricing technique used by most retailers is cost-plus pricing. This involves adding a markup amount (or percentage) to the retailers’ cost. Another common technique is manufacturers suggested list pricing. This simply involves charging the amount suggested by the manufacturer and usually printed on the product by the manufacturer.
In retail settings, psychological pricing or odd-number pricing are both widely used. Psychological pricing which refers to a range of tactics, designed to have a positive psychological impact. For example, price tags using the terminal digit “9” (e.g., 9.99, 19.99, or 199.99) can be used to signal price points and bring an item in at just under the consumer’s reservation price. However, in Chinese societies, prices are generally either a round number or sometimes some lucky number. This creates price points.
In a fixed-price system, consumers may still use bargaining or haggling; a negotiation about the price. Economists see this as determining how the transaction’s total economic surplus will be divided between consumers and producers. Neither party has a clear advantage because the threat of no sale exists, in which case the surplus would vanish for both.
When shopping online, it can be more difficult to negotiate price given that you are not directly interacting with a sales person. Some consumers use price comparison services to locate the best price and/or to make a decision about who or where to buy from to save money.
“Window shopping”
“Window shopping” is a term referring to the browsing of goods by a consumer with or without the intent to purchase. Window shopping is often practised by a particular segment, known as the recreation-conscious or hedonistic shopper. Recreational shopping is characterised by the consumer’s engagement in the purchase process, and recreational shoppers are those consumers who see the act of shopping as a form of enjoyment. Other consumers use window shopping as part of their planning activity for a later purchase.
Showrooming, the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional retail store without purchasing it, but then shopping online to find a lower price for the same item, has become an increasingly prevalent problem for traditional retailers as a result of online competitors, so much so that some have begun to take measures to combat it.
Restrictions
There are legal or other restrictions on many types of goods and they vary considerably from country to country.
Anything that might carry disease is likely to be restricted; most countries restrict import of plants, animals, seeds (including unroasted coffee beans) and some food items. For example, the UK has no rabies and will not admit most animals without quarantine, and Australian customs will incinerate sheepskin products from some areas because of anthrax risk.
Many countries restrict export of antiques or relics; see the country articles for details (and assume there are at least some restrictions even if not mentioned). Tourist places or museum shops often have good replicas which are perfectly legal (get and keep documentation as good replicas can sometimes be mistaken for originals).
There is an international convention restricting export of ivory and other products from endangered species, and penalties are quite stiff. If you want to buy ivory products, the easiest course is to buy only fakes. Some antique items are exempt from the ban, but dealing with those is complicated; at a minimum you need to check the legal details and make certain the vendor provides good documentation showing the item is indeed antique. Then worry about restrictions on export of antiques.
There are restrictions on shipment of hunting trophies. After the apparently illegal and certainly controversial killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe in July 2015, many airlines banned shipment entirely. For details, see our hunting article.
Copyright or trademark law may also be an issue; dirt cheap copies of various items with high-end brand names are readily available in various places, but they may be confiscated at the border. You might even be arrested, especially if you have a large quantity of such goods. See China#Brand-name goods for discussion of one source of such goods.
Of course you should be exceedingly cautious about bringing in possibly illegal goods like drugs or weapons; even if you have a prescription or permit in one country, they may be illegal elsewhere. It would be remarkably unwise, for example, to buy cannabis products in a place where it is tolerated or legal, such as the Netherlands or some states in India, and try to bring some home to most countries. Carrying cannabis products may even be illegal if both ends of the trip have legalized it – in the US even carrying small amounts from Colorado to California (two states that have legalized the drug) is illegal under federal law. Guns that are perfectly legal in the USA may be highly problematic if you try to take them outside the country; for example, there are arrests at the Canadian border from time to time. Importing alcoholic beverages or pork products to Saudi Arabia is illegal. And so on.
Books or newspapers can also be problematic. Anything that might be deemed “propaganda” from the other Korea will get you in trouble in either Korea (though trouble may be way worse in the North). Religious items can earn you anything from closer scrutiny as a potential missionary in countries with indigenous populations that the government prefer remain unmolested by missionaries to rejected entry or even jail for even a single bible for personal use in more extreme Muslim countries. While works in your own language or a reasonably “obscure” language are often overlooked or ignored, bringing in potentially seditious literature in English, the local language or a widespread regional language can still get you in trouble at the more unfree countries.
Things like medicines, vehicles or electrical equipment can also be problematic since they may not be regarded certified for safety at the destination, even if they are elsewhere. Also, things like weapons and some medicines may not be unconditionally banned but you are required to obtain a special permission to import them to the destination and/or transit countries.