There was a time when all that mattered in the online world was generating traffic. Somewhere along the way everyone figured out that a busted street light would do the same thing. The online holiday shopping season is now before us. The names have changed but the incompetence remains the same. The time for e-commerce to get it right is ticking -- like a time bomb.
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Along the way, bricks-and-mortar chains who stumbled their first time out have relaunched their sites. The storefront names are bigger. The stakes are higher. But if my experiences so far this week are anywhere near the norm, the standards of operating excellence have only fallen lower.
Yesterday, as the Lions were pounding the Patriots, I decided to head on over to Kmart's (NYSE: KM) new bluelight.com store. Why not? Through the bluelight.com/home link, the e-store promised $15 off any $75 purchase. Sweet. With two toy-hungry boys to feed and a ton of nephews and nieces, I was psyched to see some of the lowest prices for wishlist items like Let's Pretend Elmo and Disney's Magic Kingdom Playset. So I stocked my virtual shopping cart just over the $75 limit and went to check out. One problem. Through every passing step of the registration and order confirmation process, the $15 discount never showed up. Just one click away from closing the deal, I cut the cord.
Maybe I was cheap. Maybe I was concerned over the fulfillment of an order in which the very interface was flawed. I'll definitely give the store another shot soon, but that was not e-tail's finest hour.
Wednesday night I drove over to my neighborhood Toys "R" Us store. It's become a bit of a tradition. I'm able to pick out toys and games while the crowds are sparse. Because the chain has a 30-day window to match competitor ads, I was able to waltz in this morning and avoid the aisle madness by simply being credited where I overspent.
But I also had an online coupon that expired on Wednesday. So I logged on the minute I got home that night. Whether it was by accident or a bone to the online shoppers, the huge Friday-only 6-11 a.m. "doorbuster" deals were already there for the taking. Half-price Emiglio robots, Easy Bake Ovens, and Lite Brites? Click. Click. Click. With free shipping at the $100 mark through all of the Amazon stores, it was simply a matter of which of the barreled fish I wanted to aim for.
A few bucks shy of the $100 mark, I settled on a pair of half-off Magna Doodles to complete the transaction. In a world of unexpected kid parties and last-minute gift exchanges, you can never have too many Magna Doodles. That's my motto anyway. Wonderful. No complaints. Easy checkout. Amazon and Toys "R" Us rock!
This is where the story takes a turn for the incredible. Last night, as I'm readying myself for Thanksgiving dinner, I get an email from Amazon. One of my Magna Doodles has been shipped. UPS (NYSE: UPS) open on Thanksgiving? What prompt service either way! Then I began to feel sorry for Amazon and Toys "R" Us. One of them -- if not both -- was eating the $3.29 UPS shipping just so I can get a $7.99 Magna Doodle in time for, what, the end of November?
Three minutes later, another email. You got it: My second Magna Doodle had shipped. You're assuming they lumped them together, right? The order is easy enough to read and it's just a lag in the email confirmations, right? These Magna Doodles, they get to hang out at the warehouse with the other Magna Doodles, right? Wrong. Each order shipment confirmation came with a unique UPS tracking code. Yowza!
My mind can only fathom the art of the process, but if I'm about to see a company overspend in packing materials and shipping to the tune of a half-dozen individual packages over the next week and a half, do I laugh at the human experience or ponder shorting both companies?
I'd prefer to laugh it off, but 'tis the season to be seasoned. There's a fine line between customer service and shareholder disservice. Yes, because Toys "R" Us played The Grinch with Jim Carrey panache last year, the public is now well aware that the online shopping season is much shorter than the mall-based one. Punctuality matters.
But speed is one thing, good timing another. I'm still wondering why Amazon decided to roll out a Half.com-like service so close to the holiday shopping season. eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) has shown us that the market for secondhand goods is not as seasonal as retail -- why confuse shoppers or muddle the brand at this critical juncture?
I'd complain about Amazon going "old economy" by sending out a catalog earlier this month, too, but those aren't ugly words anymore. Not the way the market is bashing new-economy companies. Not the way online execution is fit to be executed. Not the way we're bound to lose some more dot-com retailers by this time next year.
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