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Every year, The Cybercritic vows not to set foot in a store from the day before Thanksgiving through the day after Christmas. I've never been able to keep that vow, but this year I came closer than ever.
First stop: Godiva. Each holiday season, the upscale chocolatier offers an ornament-size stuffed animal clutching a box of four bonbons. It's become a tradition in The Cybercritic's family for me to buy it every year for a certain relative. Now that I no longer work near a Godiva shop, I figured I'd order it online.
The Godiva Website is beautiful, in its design and its simplicity. I couldn't remember if this year's stuffed toy was a reindeer or a teddy bear, so I typed “holiday” in the search engine, and a page of results appeared. Below photos of six featured items was a comprehensive list of seasonal items, including the Holiday Santa Bear. I called up the product page, then clicked to enlarge the photo. I was quite impressed by the quality of the picture in the pop-up window. Then I clicked the link for shipping info — and was not impressed by the S&H charges. The bear cost $20, and shipping was another $6.95. Add on the sales tax, and we're talking nearly $30! There's one Cybercritic tradition that has come to a crashing halt. (I did, however, appreciate the irony that the chocolates included with the Santa bear are kosher.)
Another beautiful Website belongs to Sephora. Since a certain high-maintenance relative had requested makeup brushes as a gift, I went to the Website, typed “makeup brush” in the search engine, and received 416 matches in response. Back to the search engine; this time I entered “makeup brush set” and received only 66 matches, a number of which (a pressed powder compact, blusher) weren't makeup brush sets at all.
Thumbnail photos of the products appeared on the pages of matches, but the site gave me the option of hiding the images. By deleting the images I could view more matches per page. If I'd had to scroll through seven pages of products with pictures instead of three pages without photos, I would most likely have ditched Sephora and headed to another site.
I found a set of five brushes in a pouch. S&H wasn't outrageous, and gift wrapping was free. Checkout was simple. My print catalog had a promo code good for a sample of eye cream, so I input that. But I did run into a problem entering the catalog source code. Yes, a 10-digit number appeared on the back of the catalog, but there was no indication that it was the source code. And the space on the site allotted for the code didn't accommodate 10 digits.
My package arrived in time, and not only did I receive the free eye cream, but another product sample was tucked into the pouch with the brushes. No need for a makeover here.
Dealing with Daedalus Books was another story. The cataloger sells books and music at cut-rate prices, so I wasn't expecting state-of-the-art features on its site. I was, however, expecting to be able to process my order without having my computer crash. Alas, my expectation was unmet — on three separate days. To make sure the problem wasn't with my computer, I tried a co-worker's machine. The site crashed her computer too.
So much for Daedalus. On to SmarterKids. This online-only purveyor of toys does a lot of things right. The selection is vast, the prices are great, and the site enables you to shop by age group, brand, character, or theme. It even offers a section of products for youngsters with physical, learning, or mental disabilities. Stock status appears beside the product description, so you don't have to drill down and down only to find that the item won't be available until the next holiday season.
And to encourage repeat visits, SmarterKids lets doting parents build a “personalized store” for their progeny. You answer questionnaires to calculate the child's linguistic ability, motor skills, and whatnot in comparison to his age. Then the site makes suggestions based on his skill level and learning style. You can update your responses as frequently as you like. What a brilliant way to lure parents back every month or so to check the relative maturity of their tots — and to buy their darlings the necessary accoutrements for continued intellectual and emotional growth.
My one beef is with SmarterKids' package tracking function. A week after I received an e-mail notification that the gifts I'd ordered had been sent, I logged on to see if I could determine when they'd arrive. All that the tracking page could tell me was that yes, the package had been shipped. Gee, thanks.
What struck The Cybercritic the most about holiday shopping online was how unmemorable it was — and I mean this in a good way. I bought from numerous other sites as well and have no horror stories. E-commerce is no longer a novelty, with all the suspicions and allowances that go with being new and untried. It is now just another shopping option.
It's still not an alternative, however, as my experiences with Godiva and Daedalus show. Then, too, some of the gifts were for Hanukkah, which came so early this year that I found myself racing to the stores just to be sure I had gifts in time. Online shopping may be becoming increasingly efficient; The Cybercritic's time-management skills are not.
