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

consumption

In addition to the time I spend objecting to and about companies and the various levels of service I experience; and besides the endless hours I while away jumping from link to link on the internet I am currently spending a great deal of time considering with what my next job should be.  Of late, and after what seems to be the world’s longest mid(ish)-life crisis, I feel like there needs to be a distinct and planned approach to the next stage of my life.  And barring the idiosyncrasies of my own internal thought process, it does, at times, feel as if this task consumes me.

There was also a joke I was trying to work in about having spent the last several weeks being sick with cold and chest infection, thereby having ‘consumption’ but I just couldn’t get the tempo of it worked out.

So as I think on and about how and where I want to take my next venture; I also seem to be thinking about my new encounters in the Twitterverse and my unintentional discovery of how some marketers are using this, and other social platforms, to extend their customer service outreach. And I’m fascinated.

@TTCHelps – the online persona of TTC customer liaison is prompt in replying to people in a forthright manner.  In fact, I tripped over them very early in my app adoption kibitzing about the on train ‘are-they-aren’t-they’ announcements on the subway one morning.  To my flippant tweet that I couldn’t decide if the TTC announcements were informative or infuriating, they replied ‘hopefully more informative than annoying’ and with that simple exchange I started to get it.

Next was @CampbellCares – the soup company that noted my tweet complaining, while suffering my cold, that I could no longer find my preferred Turkey Chunky soup and that the Chicken flavor just didn’t cut it.  Not only did they respond; they tracked down stores nearby that I might be able to find my favoured flavor at.  Then @FURminator_Inc. favourited my tweet about my, somewhat, bizarre affinity for their pet brush.

Ricki’s, who is not on Twitter but does use Facebook, after announcing a sale and then having their website crash, did take the time to answer each person who commented on the issue on the FB feed.  In a world where using the comment feature to acknowledge the issue globally is available it was a decided personal touch to reply to each of, even if they did recycle their response.

The IKEA follow up, via a real live person, discussed in this blog, also fell into this sweep of service responses.  But I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed that after I lauded the employee who assisted me so well to @IKEACanada five days ago and they have yet to acknowledge my approval.  And in my estimation a bit of an error on their part.

The friend who strongly encouraged my adoption of Twitter and its little unique universe and I have discussed my interest in both this new (to me) medium and how it could move customer experience and service into the most interesting places - which in turn gets me thinking, again, and more, about where I should take my next career venture.  

The next steps are not entirely, yet, apparent to me but I do believe that service is the next great venture of business and somehow I’d like to be involved.

to e or not to e?

Believe it or not I’m not entirely sold on internet shopping, which when you know that I consider shopping my ‘cardio’ seems a bit off.  Mostly I wonder if the items for sale are as good as they appear online.  In past experiences I’ve been nailed for random import fees, seriously it was a different rate based on the day I ordered.  We’ve all heard the stories of excess shipping across the border, among the many things.  

I’ve had success ordering books, CD’s, DVD’s and even the occasional kitchen appliance online, but you pretty much know what you are getting, no big surprises.  Now if my favourite grocery store would get themselves on line, along with my favourite drug store I’d order from them in a heartbeat and save myself a load of time and aggravation and yet those particular needs go unfulfilled.  And yes I know we have an online grocery store in Ontario but I’ve never quite been able to switch to their ‘brand’. 

Of course the other downside to going online is that I have a particular friend who I like to go shopping with.  We get our girl time in, I get my cardio trying things on and I have a trusted companion who will tell me I look like a deranged school teacher in that.  She’ll also push me to try something out of my comfort zone so I’m reluctant to give up that.

In the name of curiosity I gave it a whirl, trying, specifically, online clothing and shoe shopping to see if I was missing anything.  First go was an impulse purchase, a dress from Sears, I guessed the size, zoomed in on the very blurry ‘fabric swatch’ and expected the worst.  And it turned out I got myself a pretty cute $30 dress that fit.  I had to pay a nonrefundable $4 for the privilege of picking it up at the local store, but otherwise it would have been twice that for delivery.  So while I’m stoked at my find I’m wondering why I have to pay for the processing.  I don’t have to do so when I shop at the store and I didn’t get delivery.  I suppose it’s based on the old catalogue model and if I was in rural Ontario I might not mind, but considering the 2 way TTC travel to go to the store I’m not sold on the nonrefundable ‘delivery’ fee.

Next item was a pair of shoes from the The Shoe Company, the discount face of Town Shoes.  I felt confident because I already owned the same pair in another colour.  This time I could get free delivery to the store or pay for delivery when my order was under $80.  I chose to pick up as there was a location easily accessible to me.  In spite of the fact that it took about 5 days to take delivery the transaction was pretty smooth.  And now I have a new pair of spiffy blue Converse.

Having recently tried on most of the store at Ricki’s, on one of those ventures with the good friend who tells me like it is, I had decided I didn’t want to pay full price for a couple of things.  So when they went on sale for 40% off I jumped online and made my discounted purchases.  They offered a special flat rate of $4 for ground shipping from the Prairies, although with my bill over $100 I would have thought it was free, but I was wrong.  However the package showed up within 2 days which satisfied some of the instant that I prefer in my gratification.  What did through me off was that the products were still in their ‘shipped from far away’ plastic, which was very off-putting.

With my credit card getting full, I tried one more place on the advice of a friend who had tipped me off about Montreal retailer Simon’s.  Their online selection seemed decent, prices where good and they offer free shipping over $50.  I bought a few things, and only had to return one for a size exchange.  Their site offered something interesting, the composition of each item so you could determine if items had stretch or not.  The website didn’t offer exchanges per say but within minutes of asking for assistance via their online chat feature I had an e-mail in my inbox with the return label, no questions asked.  My return was prompt, and I was e-mailed upon the receipt of my return.  Their products were compactly but nicely packaged, with the clothing folded neatly, wrapped in tissue to keep it apart from the shoes.  On the replacement order I asked for my purchased to be in a free gift box, just to see what that comes like.  All in all for a retailer I have not had personal experience with, I was impressed.

So where does this all go?  I’ll still always want to wander the mall with my friend if only for the camaraderie and free fashion advice.  And nothing will ever replace the act of feeling the quality of fabric and the look of the colour in person.  But I will admit I’ll take a second look at online.  So far as the budget will allow.

why size matters

Anyone who has ever purchased clothes knows that size isn’t consistent.  In fact there is no such thing as a size ‘standard’.  Each manufacturer sets their own sizing and, usually, tend to stick with them.  As a woman, you’ve undoubtedly learned who ‘fits small’ and who doesn’t.  

And if you haven’t been living in a cave you’ll also be aware that over the last ten years of so, you know that sizes have been increasing, but while staying the same – which is to say that the size 10 you bought a few years ago is the size 6 you bought recently. 

If you’re like me you don’t weigh yourself very often but instead use your clothes as a gauge of your weight gain or loss and mostly was a decent way to judge.  When things start to feel a little tight it’s time to lighten up a bit.  And this is why I’m currently in a bit of a conundrum about the role the clothing manufacturing industry has in the management of my waist line.

Now realistically, nothing, but somehow that doesn’t sit so well with me.

For some reason I am pretty good at maintaining my weight.  Over the course of my adulthood I’ve pretty much been the same size.  As I’ve mentioned before, my office moved away from the more populated area of the city and in so my habit of running a few errands over the lunch break wasn’t possible anymore.  The reason I mention these facts is that I seem to have added a few pounds over the last year, unwanted ones   However, I have also seemed to have reduced my clothing by a size.

I’m no math wizard, but that does not add up.

Weight is a ‘massive’ issue in North America, one that I’m not going to go into beyond my own experience. And this is where I start to question if it is reprehensible that clothing sizes continue to grow in girth but stay the same in name – giving us all a false sense of the facts.

Recently I tried on pants at a store where I shop in a regular basis.  They manufacture their own brand so the sizing is relatively standard year to year.  But this time, some of the garments I tried on where two sizes smaller.  I had not lost the estimated 20 lbs required for that much of a size difference.  And I was stunned.  So stunned I mentioned it to the store manager.  Fortunately this seemed to be an isolated incident but it still makes me wonder how much the recalibration of sizing affects the weight of North Americans.

In the end there’s probably nothing to be done except maybe uses the scales instead of the waist band to gauge my size. 

it is you

I’m on the verge of breaking up with another retailer. Things were going swimmingly and then, slowly, they weren’t. That intrinsic ‘something’ just wasn’t anymore. The days of retail satiety were over. It’s hard to describe exactly but it was no longer doing it for me. And now I’m humming a pop song wondering if ‘do you want to break up?’

Let me back up and perhaps explain. It is a tendency of mine, in mixed spaces, to dig right into a discussion without any sort of introduction.

I am one of those people of expects a certain amount of service in my consumer experience. I want you, the retailer, to take the time to appreciate my patronage. And when I feel I’m being shortchanged I am bothered. I am loyal. I do actually say something well of places I’ve had positive experiences, but I do also kiss and tell when it’s bad. I’ve done my time, standing 8 ½ hours – exactly – in heels no less, dishing out my so called advice, bagging your goods and taking your cash. And I did it for years; and for a pittance. I have walked your walk. That makes me both an ideal and idealistic consumer.

A member of Generation X I already feel underserved by the world at large, so when I spend my hard earned dollars, I want there to be an exchange of goods. I am insulted by poorly planned loyalty programs, oddly construed interpretations of consumer analytics and policies that do not allow for a little common sense from time to time. I am aware of many of the issues that plague you as an industry but, as a consumer, that’s not my problem.

I appreciate the simplest of things, coupons for items I do indeed buy, special offers for loyal customers, and packed bags. I prefer a limited set of options but I’d like them all convenient to me. See what I mean about ideal and idealist at the same time. My pet peeves will become apparent quickly.

And yes, like most, I’m in a bit of a Mexican standoff with Rogers. Why do you ask?!