A fist advantage of buying a violin on the Internet, as opposed to buying it from a regular store, is definitely convenience. You can comfortably sit on your sofa, with your laptop in front of you, searching for online violin stores, and listening to your favorite music in the background. No driving, no traffic, no noise, no pushy sales people, no formal attire, no need to leave your house.

A second advantage is unlimited and immediate access to information.  You can easily validate all the information listed on a particular website about a particular violin. You don’t need to be convinced about a sales person about anything; with only a few mouse clicks you can find out where, when, and who made a particular violin, what the reputation of that violin maker is, how well that violin was received by musicians, how good the customer service was in a particular store, how many people enjoyed a positive buying experience with a particular online violin store, how many people reported a bad experience while buying a violin online, etc. The Internet made all this possible for us for us, and everything is free.

Another advantage of buying a violin from the Internet is that the next online violin store is just a click away. You can easily go from a store to another in a matter of seconds, without wasting time and money on driving around and trying to find parking. You can easily compare, side by side, the features of the violins from two or more different makers, you can easily find unbiased feedback about the violins you compare on online forums and blogs, you can ask for instant live help from the online stores in case you have questions, and you can definitely make a very informed buying decision.

Another advantage of buying a violin online is lower pricing. We all know that there is a very close connection between competition and pricing. In monopoly, the monopolistic corporation has total control not only over its products or services, but also over the selling price. This single-seller status gives monopoly extensive market control and becomes a price maker. Well, monopolies are very rare, and it’s not at all the case with the violin stores, especially with those that operate on the Internet. In the violin world there is o such thing as a “single-seller” status, which means that no violin store will ever have any market control, and they will never be price makers. The market control belongs to those who buy a violin on the Internet. The fierce competition between the online violin stores engaged them in a price war, which forced them keep the prices very low. The winners of this war are, obviously, the buyers.

So, in short, the advantages of buying a violin online are as follows: convenience, immediate access to information, large selection to choose from, fast violin comparison possibilities, and lower pricing.

Everything looks and sounds good, but there is always a catch. Let’s see now what the disadvantages of buying a violin online would be.

First and foremost, I would say that the incapacity of actually hearing a violin before buying it is a great disadvantage. A violin is not a piece of furniture or a statue that is going to be placed in the corner of a house and used from time to time. A violin’s main purpose is to produce beautiful sounds when the strings are touched by the bow. The visual appearance of the instrument is really not at all that important. Since the main function of the violin is to play well, and not to be a beautiful decoration item, a violin is usually bought for its sound performance and not for its physical attributes. The Internet does not really make that possible, and the buyers must rely 100% on the seller’s description of the sound. Most online violin stores acknowledged this weakness of the Internet, and try to motivate buyers to buy online by offering extended trial periods and sometimes free shipping, which transforms the online violin shopping experience a risk free one.

Visiting an online violin shop is a convenient task that can be performed from the comfort of our own house, in a friendly and familiar environment, and without the pressure of the persuasion power that a skilful sales person, who tries to sell us the most expensive violin in the store, lays on us. The violin comparison process has also become much easier, as the next violin shop is only one click away. We do not only get to see other violins, but also learn about the reputation of a certain violin maker, read the reviews that other online shoppers left for a particular violin store, compare the features of several violins that come from varied sources, and get an idea about which instrument would best fit our personal style and budget. The Internet helps us make a more informed buying decision and it can lead to either buying a violin online or, if we need to have a personal confrontation with the instrument before making a final decision, visiting a certain violin shop.

In many cases, the Internet is used for information purposes only, and the buyers prefer to visit the various violin shops in their area to validate the information that was made available to them online. In this case, the violin comparison process will involve a physical examination of the instruments and a real evaluation of their sound performance. This is probably the best way to approach when buying a violin, but it is not always possible. In some cases, there are time and distance constraints that might keep us from following this path. Our busy schedules might prevent us from spending hours and hours of driving to and from the nearest violin store in our area and in this case the Internet seems like the only way to go.

The financial benefits of buying a violin online constitute a factor that is worth being taken in consideration when deciding where to buy a violin. The concept of “competition” in the online violin shops market has a different dimension compared with the same concept applied to the conditions of a traditional market; the competition in the virtual market works very positively in the buyers’ favor. The Internet is a buyers’ market, where the success or failure of a violin store can easily be influenced by the level of satisfaction, or respectively dissatisfaction, that the buyers experience. “Word of mouth” has become something that can very easily be transmitted to a very broad audience through the Internet. The speed at which the information circulates online is much faster than in any other advertising media and the target audience is theoretically unlimited.

The fact that a competitor’s violin store is available to the buyers at the touch of a mouse click makes things not at all easy for the online sellers; the fierce competition forces the sellers to refine all the facets of their business, which includes the pricing. People are no longer willing to make a price compromise and accept to pay more just because they are tired of driving to the next store that might offer a better price. The violin comparison from a pricing perspective has become a very easy task and allows us to make very good, financially advantageous choices.