It’s Cyber Monday so let the online holiday shopping frenzy begin!

Actually this is my kind of frenzy. No waiting in line for stores to open their doors. No pushing and shoving. No pepper spray.

Just me, in my bare feet, in my quiet apartment, sipping a cup of green tea and knocking out all my holiday shopping in an hour or so.

Now as someone who studied adult learning for a good part of my career, I believe that just as there are kinesthetic or tactile learners, there are also kinesthetic or tactile shoppers.

These gals need to touch and feel the goods they’re purchasing. They actually enjoy the shopping experience more when they can chat with a sales clerk, try on clothes, move hangers down a rack or press the buttons on an appliance before making a purchase.

And they probably battled the crowds to do their holiday shopping on Black Friday.

But for gals like me, there’s Cyber Monday, which offers great online deals and other distinct advantages:

1. You can buy local even though you’re far away.

These days most small businesses have a presence on the Web.

This means that someone like me, who shops for family and friends on the other side of the country, can forgo gift certificates from big box retailers and instead send treats from local florists and favorite hometown restaurants. I can support local independent movie theaters and bookstores. Or even purchase cooking classes, music lessons, or artwork from local experts.

And those large, bulky gifts that would cost an arm and a leg to ship? Well, with a little bit of cyber research, you can often find a local small business willing to deliver the same item for a fraction of the cost.

2. It’s good for the environment.

This is particularly true if you do all your shopping from one online retailer.

Instead of traipsing across town to a sporting goods store, book store, electronics store and kitchen store, you can just visit a large online retailer like Amazon and get all that shopping wrapped up (literally!) in one fell swoop.

And by using one online retailer rather than four, all those gifts will be shipped together and reduce the impact on the environment in terms of both carbon emissions and packaging waste.

3. It’s good for your pocketbook.

There’s no doubt that it’s much easier to comparison shop online and there’s also plenty of customer reviews online to help separate reality from hype.

Plus it’s a whole lot easier to resist impulsive buys when you’re pushing a mouse around instead of a shopping cart. After all, when you click “Go to Checkout” online you don’t have to walk by a bunch of tempting sales racks.

And there aren’t little extra expenses like parking or pit stops at Starbucks to take bites out of your wallet.

But one word of caution.

Work hard to stick to a cyber shopping plan or like me,  you’ll start your morning shopping for TVs and somehow find yourself drooling over a beauty like today’s VPOD a few short hours later.

And this vintage 1970s beaded jersey dress by Stephen Burrows truly stopped me in my tracks.

I mean, if you’re wearing a treasure like this, it won’t matter how many LED screens or pixels are in a room. All eyes will be fixed on you.

It’s a real showstopper for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Dorothea’s Closet Vintage.

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