EightBlack.

I purchased a gift for one of our “suppliers” this morning. I didn’t really want to write this post because the person who the gift is for might actually read this and it won’t be a surprise anymore.

Anyway, I buy the bottle of grog, buy the card, write the message and then get to THE MOST important page of any online shopping cart - the shipping or delivery page.

The site gave me 3 options - regular post, express post or sort of name the date you want it there and then go mortgage your house, because that’s what it will cost.

I chose the middle option (most people do). Now, from my understanding, express post in this country should be no more than 3 days. I mean, it’s between the 2 largest cities in the freakin’ country for gods sake!

The shopping cart advises me that my gift will be delivered on or before January 2, 2007.

You’re kidding right? January 2007!

I am in Sydney virtually every week. I could buy the bottle, pack it in my bag, arrive in Sydney and then deliver it myself. But that’s not the goddam point.

I fail to see how it takes a company that specialises in gifts online could take 5 weeks to deliver a standard gift. Now if I had requested a 20 foot by 20 foot jumping castle, or a dirt bike for my son, or a live pony for my daughter, I might buy the whole 5 week thing.

When we buy online, we want “instant gratification”. None of this 5 week crap.

It won’t be a Xmas gift in January - it will be a New years gift and this particular guy will think I thought of him at the last minute.

I then tried to call the service number, but they obviously dont staff their phones at 6am. Fair enough.

The thing is this. I actually want to buy something else for another person. But the whole “experience” has put me off.

The lesson is simple. If you sell anything online, and especially if your product or business is seasonal, then give people a reason to come back. Make the whole end to end process simple. And efficient.

Shipping and Delivery is critical - in fact, it’s probably the most important. And remember, the online experience needs to be more convenient, less hassle and ultimately faster than the “get your arse into gear, go to a physical store, then a post office to send a gift”.

I don’t get it. And now, more worringly for Wishlist.com.au is that I’m about to tell a whole lot of people about the poor experience.

The reason I reckon it’s called Wishlist is because you’ve got to bloody well “wish” it will get there.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 7:26 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.