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 |
