because canada

A friend tipped me off to Ipsy, which I’ve just joined, a fun service, that for $10 a month sends you a bag of goodies, make-up and skin care to try.  In spite of a bit of, in my opinion, misguided marketing efforts not the least of which is calling their customers ‘ipsters’ as a play on ‘hipsters’ and personally makes me go ‘ick’, I think it’s a great little service.  However, because ‘Canada’, that’s a $15 monthly fee instead.

Recently, IRL I had to send a customer a price list and as he was located in the US I had to explain that the prices would be higher as ours was a Canadian price list.  He was genuinely taken aback.  I told him to flip over a book sometime and see that generally, things just cost more in Canada - and really for no discernible reason.  Although the government is currently seeking price equality at a national level.

I’ve been grappling with how to write about the subject of online stores and their related service fees and today I realized that in all honesty the reason is probably because Canada.

I’ll preface this by saying I have not e-shopped in the US and have no personal experience with their shipping policies, but since many things ‘Canadian’ are still American, I can generally see that there are pretty liberal, at least in comparison, shipping and return policies with most US to US e-shopping.  Then again I could be totally wrong.

But here in Canada, I have some experience.  Generally most stores have a decent minimum order, or periods of no cost shipping in order to entice customers to order.  The good ones also provide amazing return policies.  So here’s the disconnect for me - if I’m not getting better prices on your web site, and I have to pay for my own shipping there and back, what’s the incentive for me to shop online?

I am a lot of years removed from my retail days but I doubt the goal of repeat business and multi-unit transactions has changed that much.  So it follows if I walk into your store, I am assuming that the cost of that store, staffing it and marketing it are part of the price of the items.  If you’re an e-tailer, you don’t incur all those costs, I should be getting a better deal to reflect that, or at the very least, have my shipping covered.  Or if a physical store who also e-tails, basically, I’m not only paying for your stores but also for you to pack that parcel; the one that I paid for?!  And that I find confusing.

Yes I know there are costs associated with running a web store.  But you can’t tell me they are near as high as a physical location.  And to that end, with your added reach to markets beyond your geography, you should have an uptick in sales to further compensate. 

Let’s take my favourite retailer of late, well e-tailer to me.  Located only in la belle provence, Simons (I’ll give them a little shout out), a suggestion for another friend, offers decent low cost knit times, which I personally pretty much live in.  Orders over $50 are shipped for free, and they seem to have frequent no limit shipping promotions.  Orders arrive nicely wrapped in a branded box, folded, not in plastic bags, and your invoice in an envelope.  But the kicker, no questions asked returns.  Just go back to your account, tick the items you want to return, print the return label and take the box to the post office and your money returned upon receipt, which they acknowledge via e-mail.  Easy.  Peasy.  So if I’m uncertain of a size, I just order two and away I go, returning the one that doesn’t fit.  I’ve never set foot in their store – although I probably will if I’m near one now, and I order from them frequently.  Bonus points for showing both the back and front of an item and including the garment composition.

Conversely one of my favourite stores at the mall, Ricki’s, which is also not so conveniently located near me, doesn’t do it quite so well.  Shipping offers of under $5 are common, usually either $2 or $4 regardless of the dollar value of the order, but the kicker is, you can return anything to the store, but via mail you have to cover the return fees.  And that bothers me.  And I can’t use my store issued gift card credit online.  They do a good job of images and views, but composition isn’t listed, so for someone like me who likes a bit of spandex in her tee’s, I have to guess a lot. 

I could go on, but I won’t.  I will say that there’s a perfect set of features out there for garment sites.  Unfortunately I’ve never run into it all on one site.  So if you’re a retailer, and you’re reading this here’s what we need.   Multiple views of the item; front and back.  And a shot of the item in each colour, not some crappy colour swatch.  On a dummy form is great, or if the manufacturer gives you a product shot that’s great too.  I clearly like to know the composition of the item.  A ‘runs large or small’ indicator is a nice to have but not a deal breaker.  But if there’s one thing I could insist every site has it would be a size filter.  A multi select size filter – so that when I’m looking at items I can filter for my sizes only and not get all excited about something that is only left in XS.  And if I could, and I know it’s in vain, a ship to Canada landed price.  Although to be honest, I’ve been burned enough by landing fees to avoid shopping in the US or outside my country anymore.

So we’re not changing the world here, just my little corner of it.  And while I have some reservations about this Ipsy thing – like do they amp up the first couple of bags to hook you, or does it last.  In the mean time; lookie what I got!

March 2014 Ipsy Bag