I live in Austria and I absolutely hate going to the shops so the vast majority of my purchases are online.
I have to drive half an hour to nearest town which doesn't have that many shops anyway or nearly an hour to a bigger city. Then parking is an issue. High cost of parking, few parking spots free, very expensive P&R near the city and poor public transport.
The next problem is that the shops have a very limited range of products and particularly sizes of clothes.
You also get very pushy sales assistants (they are trained like that). They won't leave you alone and it's irritating when you just want to browse. They constantly try to upsell too. With many of them there is a very haughty tone too - it's a bit hard to describe - they are always banging on about the quality of the products trying to persuade you to buy something which is often overpriced compared to online stores.
I often need specialist trekking clothing and equipment. The range of items available in the shops is limited (even though it's an outdoorsy country) and mainly aimed towards cyclists or mountain runners rather than people who are going on multiday treks.
I used to try to find items in the shops but I swore never again after I went to an outdoor shop in Germany and I'd seen a couple of pairs of trousers in my size (14-16). The assistant came over, looked me up and down, and said in such a snooty tone "Oh dear, you won't be able to find anything big enough for you". I held up the trousers I had in my hand and said "Well both of these are my size but I won't be buying them now. I've got a budget of €300 for shopping today and I'm going to go home and buy online". She started berating me for shopping online and how her shop would go out of business. So I said well don't be so rude about people's size in future and I walked out. I was cool about it at the time but I was upset later and I haven't set foot in a shop like that since. I can order hiking clothes online, if they don't fit they can be sent back and I don't have someone looking my body up and down and judging.
I find online really practical anyway. I've just tracked down a particular tent I wanted to buy which is an old model and has been replaced by a new model (which has a couple of absolutely ridiculous features). I was able to find it online in a small online camping store, send them a message to check it really was the old model, get an answer back and order the thing within 6 hours.
I know people say we should be supporting shops and so on but I really feel like the world has completely changed and business models have changed so shops either need to adapt or they will go out of business.
Anyway there's always been distance selling. When I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s we used to order all of the music I needed from Banks in York. We didn't live anywhere near York. My teachers gave my Mum a list, she phoned up Banks, they sent the music. I don't know how payment worked - possibly she had to send a cheque.