How Online Shopping Made Me a Better Writer
Here’s how it can help you better your craft, too.
From Flipkart to Amazon, Instagram Shops to Play Store and now SaaS tools — my shopping patterns have changed over the years.
But, doing this over and over again made me a better writer.
For a writer, writing is about doing research and writing your first draft, and editing it.
Shopping online helps me do the former and improve my craft. Here’s how:
1. It introduces different brands to filter out accurate examples (in lesser time!)
I explore multiple products online — from a new software tool to a home decor product. This helps me get well-versed with different brands.
For instance, when I was looking to add a new furniture piece in my home, I explored different brands like Wakefit, My Sleepy Head, Pepperfry and Urban Ladder and looked for the variety of sofas they offered.
How did it help me: When writing a blog post on social media marketing, I could use the brands and showcase them examples (without having to invest much time in scouring a list of examples online).
2. It provides a narrative
When you shop online from a specific brand, end-to-end — you get first-hand experience on different aspects of the brands, their products and customer experience.
For example, I became a beta user for xTiles, a productivity tool. I used their product, became part of their Slack community and watched their product evolve.
How did it help me: I could add a better, realistic storyline to the blog post, and provide detailed narrative to the examples included in the blog post.
3. It improves your observation skills
Primary key skill I believe every writer must possess: observation.
When you shop online, you go through the brand’s billing process.
When you sign up for a freemium plan or for a software’s free trial, you go through the brand’s user onboarding process. What are the different screens you see? What are the different questions the brand asks you?
These minute elements can be helpful when you’re writing a blog post on user onboarding like I did here. Similarly, there are many more instances where you can include information relevant to the niche you’re writing for.
How did it help me: I went through the entire process from start to finish, which helped me gather and showcase real-life examples and images. The minute details I observed during the buying process helped me come up with better, intentional examples.
4. It helps you create your swipe file faster
Most of the examples and screenshots I curate come from my buying and purchase experience. For example, when I signed up for Mailmodo’s free trial, I saw the brand ask some unique questions and use a mix of different user onboarding elements in their onboarding process.
I simply screenshotted the screen and saved it on Pinterest (that’s where I’m currently organizing my swipe file).
How did it help me: I expanded my swipe file and added versatile examples, which cut down my research to half.
If you are a writer and an ardent online shopper, don’t sit on it. Be aware.
Observe the brands, your shopping patterns and the customer experience the brand provides.
P.S. Need a B2B SaaS writer who can I dive deep research and stories altogether for your marketing blog? Check out my portfolio.
