Sunday, December 23, 2007
Misc Christmas Thoughts
Well, only a few hours to go until Christmas day. Hope the Christmas period gave your figures a decent lift. I'd say my numbers were good but not sensational, but there's always next year!
As I struggled around the shops yesterday, in search of an affordable digital photo frame, I realised that was a niche I should have paid more attention too. I assumed they were quite popular, but they seem to have been one of the smash hits of the season with many large shops simply selling out. In fact, one donut really got on my nerves in Currys.Digital when he told me with such relish "All sold out" - with his stupid smirk somehow adding the thought "you left it too late, you fool". I did manage to find quite a few in PC World though.
One of the things that also occurred when I was in a packed John Lewis Oxford Street was that there were some very nice laptop and computer displays with a large number of people looking at them. Never one to miss out on the chance of some extra "eyeballs" for my websites, I couldn't fight the urge to open up internet explorer and leave them on some of my websites. Personally I think it enhanced the display...
John Lewis stocked one of the must have toys this Christmas, Butterscotch the Pony from Fur Real. In store the price was £299.99. But goto the website and the price is £250. Similarly, I just reserved and collected a kettle from Currys for £29.99 which involved me calling upon two members of staff (one to take payment, one to fetch the item). Going into the shop and buying the item off the shelf myself, and only requiring one member of staff to take payment, would have got £39.99. I don't understand the logic of that at all. From a consumer point of view, I hope eventually that retailers will stop the disparity between web prices and shop prices and find a better strategy.
Having used a few internet shops before Christmas, my gold star goes to Play.com for taking an order on Thu night for some excellently priced electronic items and getting them to me Saturday morning. Ordering from Currys online wasn't quite as good - it took 3 days to get an email with order confirmation and then the packaging was falling apart when it got here.
Thanks to everyone that stopped by the blog this year. Hope you all have a great Christmas and brilliant 2008.
As I struggled around the shops yesterday, in search of an affordable digital photo frame, I realised that was a niche I should have paid more attention too. I assumed they were quite popular, but they seem to have been one of the smash hits of the season with many large shops simply selling out. In fact, one donut really got on my nerves in Currys.Digital when he told me with such relish "All sold out" - with his stupid smirk somehow adding the thought "you left it too late, you fool". I did manage to find quite a few in PC World though.
One of the things that also occurred when I was in a packed John Lewis Oxford Street was that there were some very nice laptop and computer displays with a large number of people looking at them. Never one to miss out on the chance of some extra "eyeballs" for my websites, I couldn't fight the urge to open up internet explorer and leave them on some of my websites. Personally I think it enhanced the display...
John Lewis stocked one of the must have toys this Christmas, Butterscotch the Pony from Fur Real. In store the price was £299.99. But goto the website and the price is £250. Similarly, I just reserved and collected a kettle from Currys for £29.99 which involved me calling upon two members of staff (one to take payment, one to fetch the item). Going into the shop and buying the item off the shelf myself, and only requiring one member of staff to take payment, would have got £39.99. I don't understand the logic of that at all. From a consumer point of view, I hope eventually that retailers will stop the disparity between web prices and shop prices and find a better strategy.
Having used a few internet shops before Christmas, my gold star goes to Play.com for taking an order on Thu night for some excellently priced electronic items and getting them to me Saturday morning. Ordering from Currys online wasn't quite as good - it took 3 days to get an email with order confirmation and then the packaging was falling apart when it got here.
Thanks to everyone that stopped by the blog this year. Hope you all have a great Christmas and brilliant 2008.
Labels: christmas
Permalink // posted by Rob @ 10:45 PM 
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Interesting post, as usual.
As regards Christmas shopping, the front page article on the Daily Mail today is about many people buying from websites and not getting their deliveries on time. The fault, they say, is with the online stories and Royal Mail. And the thing that worried me is that they said there would be a backlash against online shopping because so many people have been let down.
I've been saying for many years that the level of support and service on many online stores is not up to scratch. I've had so many problems with online purchases.
P.S. Have a fabulous Xmas mate.
As regards Christmas shopping, the front page article on the Daily Mail today is about many people buying from websites and not getting their deliveries on time. The fault, they say, is with the online stories and Royal Mail. And the thing that worried me is that they said there would be a backlash against online shopping because so many people have been let down.
I've been saying for many years that the level of support and service on many online stores is not up to scratch. I've had so many problems with online purchases.
P.S. Have a fabulous Xmas mate.
Hi Nadeem
Let's hope there's not a backlash against online shopping. People are now well past the novelty of ordering online and expect top quality service - rightly so. Some merchants have a way to go to achieve that, and the delivery companies need to play their part too.
Thanks for the comment, hope you've had or are having a great Christmas too.
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Let's hope there's not a backlash against online shopping. People are now well past the novelty of ordering online and expect top quality service - rightly so. Some merchants have a way to go to achieve that, and the delivery companies need to play their part too.
Thanks for the comment, hope you've had or are having a great Christmas too.
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