On-line purchasing is also an outgrowth of instant gratification, and touch screen access.
It seems that going to a store and bringing something home would be more ‘instant’, but I would argue that on-line ordering - - Search, add to cart, Paypal - - is perceived as a conquest and a completed process. Waiting for delivery is ignored, and immediate dealing with the product is avoided. When the object arrives it is a surprise, a second conquest. The wait is not a problem when one has ordered multiple items frequently; there is always something in the pipeline. The delivery man has a never ending supply. As a bonus, my neighbor always has a stack of empty Amazon boxes if I need one.
Purchasing via credit card also kicks the ‘payment’ can down the road. This whole process is kind of like Socialism even.
This is my purchasing pattern but it has nothing to do with instant gratification. I use Amazon because I will purchase something when I remember to. “Oh yeah, I need dog food, but it’s 10 p.m.”. Then an hour later I remember “I need socks.” Seriously, what store is going to carry dog food and socks? Amazon fixes this problem without me having to spend an hour driving to two different stores, finding parking, finding the article in the store the next day IF I happen to remember. I order it inside of 3 minutes and I can safely forget about it. I postulate that many folks are discovering this convenience as well. You make it sound like people who go to the store are morally more virtuous based on a lot of speculation. I would point out that going to the store and seeing and touching things you have no intention of buying are nothing but exercising the lust of the eyes for material things. So maybe buying online is more morally virtuous.
I also buy from Amazon because when you go to a brick-n-mortar store, unless you have done a great deal of research (online?) or you have personal knowledge about what you’re buying, you have zero basis for comparing products. You have no idea which ones are quality and which ones are garbage. With everything on Amazon there are customer reviews which help you assess the quality and in many cases suggest a superior alternative. It’s not perfect, but it’s considerably better than standing in the store in front of 10 different brands and not knowing anything. So that is another set of reasons why I (and likely others) use Amazon.
Finally, Amazon takes a number of payment options. I pay with a Debit Card (i.e. digital cash) and I’m sure many others do as well. So your hypothesis, I think, fails in a number of ways.
Your post rankled me because it paints people who have completely rational reasons for shopping online as opposed to going to a store as agents of moral decay. This is, I believe, shallow logic.
The trouble with credit cards of course is that if you do not pay the monthly balance in full, interest rates kick in for the carryover balance. But if you are in the habit of paying down your balance monthly, it's not an issue and I certainly wouldn't call it "kicking the payment can down the road".