Ads Gone Viral - Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches'

Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' is a short video in which an FBI-trained sketch artist draws 'real' women based on their own descriptions of how they see themselves and how a stranger sees them. The stranger's descriptions were more often than not more stereotypically attractive and similar to what the women actually looked like. The sketches drawn according to the women's descriptions of themselves are less stereotypically attractive and are less similar to what the women actually look like. The video hammers home Dove's point that women are often overly critical of their appearances and don't see their true beauty. The video was a huge worldwide viral success—despite some criticisms—being uploaded in 25 languages to 33 of Dove's Youtube channels and viewed millions of times in more than 110 countries.

The ad embodies the 6 sticky principles:

1. Simplicity: Very simple concept as it features 'real women', strangers, an a FBI-trained sketch artist and the concept of 'real beauty'. The video ended with the simple but memorable tagline, "You are more beautiful than you think."
2. Unexpectedness: The viewer is not sure what is happening when the video starts, it rolls out like a story, and the viewer gets wrapped-up in the story. Why they are being sketched, what do the sketches look like and what will the reactions be to the sketches? 
3. Concreteness: Dove created this campaign based on the idea to celebrate women's natural beauty. This video's concrete images are 'real' women, strangers, an FBI-trained sketch artist, the sketches and the reactions of the 'real' women to the sketches. 
4. Credibility: The use of an FBI-trained sketch artist and 'real' women brought a lot of credibility to this video for viewers. These women looked just like women we knew—our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and even ourselves—and so we related to the women in the video and their self-criticism. This campaign was also built on the back of many years of 'real beauty' ad campaigns by Dove.
5. Emotions: The video is elicited strong responses from viewers. Most women, including myself, will agree that we are our own worst beauty critics, and so this ad spoke to many of women (and men) all around the world.The teary emotional reactions of the women looked heartfelt. 
6. Stories: The story that many women do not see their own true natural beauty, and should believe that they are in fact "more beautiful than they think", was a very powerful story that Dove developed. It was a story that millions of us around the world wanted to share with each other, by sharing this video.

Ads Gone Viral - #ALSIceBucketChallenge

Written by: Crystal Armstrong

Online & Mobile Marketing EXSM5513

Module 3 assignment.

How Does it Work? Simply put, If you do not want to take the Ice Bucket Challenge, you donate to the charity directly, if you do not want to donate, you dump a bucket of ice water over your head, post it on social media and issue a challenge to two people to do the same using the hashtag #AlsIceBucketChallenge and post it to social media platforms of your choice.

What is it?

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a social media campaign designed to raise awareness/funds for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or "Lou Gehrig's Disease".

Did it work?

The ALS campaign raised $100,000,000, increasing fundraising efforts by over 3500% vs 2013.

Why it worked:

'ALS Ice Bucket Challenge became a social media frenzy because it was essentially fun, easy and for a good cause' Plenty Consulting. 36 celebrities completed the Ice bucket challenge including Oprah Winfrey, Justin Beaver and Taylor Swift to name but a few.

What Principles Were Applicable to this campaign - All 6!

• Simplicity - Required water, ice, a bucket and a phone to post the event
• Unexpectedness - Everyone is curious to watch a fun video of a friend embarrassing themselves - the social cause just make it better.
• Credibility - Excellent cause with a charity with a solid background
• Emotions - The challenge had it all! Peer to Peer, Fun, aaccessible good cause and interactive wi!h the final call to action being 'friend to friend' to donate and complete. Peer pressure can be a good thing!
• Stories - Every challenge was the same but unique and each person who shared and commented couldn't wait to see who was next and if they completed the challenge.

Module 6 Assignment - Wordle

For this assignment I created a tag cloud the the article, Surviving the Dark Side of Affiliate Marketing. The keywords that Wordle highlighted align very closely with my interpretation of the article. I did think that revenue concepts (e.g. pay per click, commission, etc.) would be larger in the tag cloud; however, as I reflect, the article was about how businesses can use affiliate marketing to increase/drive sales and the term revenue was an implied concept. As well, the keyword 'Mr' was pretty large and unexpected--I didn't realize that it was used that much in the article! 

Module 3 assignment: Online shopping

Rickis.com

Ricki’s sells women’s clothing and accessories. They have a great website for online shopping or research before heading to the store. The layout and feel of the website is clean, yet has all the key information you need such as detailed photos, customer ratings, and links to social media. Even with all the information, the site never feels disorganized or cluttered but is very easy to navigate. A new great feature is “drop a hint”, which lets you email a photo of the product you like (to your spouse for example), including your size and colour. There is nothing I dislike on this website. 

The search function is easy, although simplistic. For example you cannot search for a “black sweater”, but only “sweater”, and then narrow down your results. However, narrowing down the search results is very easy with categories such as colour, size and price.

Adding items to a shopping cart is as easy as it can be, and any discounts are calculated immediately, so I know right away how much I am paying. The online store is also connected to actual stores, as I can check availability, and pick up or exchange my online orders at a store. 

Ann Taylor.com

Ann Taylor also sells women’s clothing and accessories. Overall this website is excellent with easy navigation and great photos of each product. The search function is easy and is more advanced than on the Ricki’s website: I can search for blue pants or short skirts, for example. It is also easy to narrow down the search results by categories such as size and colour. It is very easy to add items to the cart; all you have to do is select your size.

This site is great for online shopping, and integrates the physical aspect by including a “find in store” function. Other helpful features include suggestions for other items I might like.

A huge drawback to this site is that you have to check-out before you know the shipping costs, which can be substantial to Canada, and has made me to abandon my cart a couple of times.

Toys R Us

Toys R Us sells toys, games, bikes, baby accessories etc. This is an example of a website I would not use if there was another toy store with these prices and selection. The search function is cumbersome as there is too much detail. This may work well if you know exactly what you are looking for, but not if you are browsing for options. For example, to narrow the search by price, I have to choose from categories such as “$10 - $14” or “$15 - $19” (and I cannot choose both at once). Additionally, items that are sold out are still prominent in search results, which can make adding items to cart a bit annoying, as you notice on the product detail page that it is not even available. 

Toys R Us is a great example of how a company has not integrated the online and store shopping. I tried to order a doll house for a store pick-up, but could not as that store did not have the item in stock (shouldn’t this item be shipped from a warehouse to the store?) Overall, this website is too cluttered and browsing is very difficult. 

Hotels.ca

I use hotels.ca to book my hotel accommodations. The search function is quite easy with categories such as amenities and neighbourhood, but I do not like how I have to pick exact dates for my stay and cannot browse for best deals by dates. I like how I can pick the price range from any values I want, and not specific ranges like on the Toys R Us website. Seeing all the hotels on a map is a very helpful feature, as is easily accessing all the guest ratings for the hotel.

Adding to a cart/reserving a room is not difficult, but could be even more straightforward by eliminating a few clicks to confirm the booking. I do not like how I have to have an account specifically for this website, but at least I get every tenth night free. 

Amazon.ca

Amazon sells anything from books and DVDs to toys and appliances. Considering Amazon’s roots, this website is surprisingly bad. I find myself on this site quite often as their selection is so wide, but do not end up buying a lot, as the experience is horrible.

Searching for products is not that easy, and I find the search brings up irrelevant items. I cannot narrow down the search for example by price, and the multiple product departments are just confusing. For example candles are listed under 28 different departments. 

The shopping cart is very user friendly and provides all the necessary information such as discounts before the check-out. 

There are some excellent features on this site, however, including knowing right away when you could receive the product. Overall, this website is just too cluttered for me to browse and stay for longer periods of time.

Module 6 activity: What is Affiliate Marketing?

What_is_Affiliate_Marketing

The keywords highlighted by my wordle tag cloud for the Module 6 reading, "What is Affiliate Marketing," Pro Blogger, by Darren Rouse, are:

• Affiliate
• Marketing
• Products
• Readers
• Blogs
• Promote
• Publisher

I agree that the words "affiliate" and "marketing" should be the top two words highlighted by the tag cloud, as they do indeed reflect the main content of the article that investigates "What is Affiliate Marketing?" For me the differences between the tag cloud and how I interpreted the article, is that I would have thought that the word "money" would have appeared as a much larger word in the tag cloud, as money is a very important elements to successful affiliate marketing. As the author says "affiliate marketing is a way of making money online whereby you as a publisher are rewarded for helping a business by promoting their product, service or site." The insights that I gained from the article and the tag cloud, is that using affiliate marketing on your blog is not a quick and easy way to make money, it takes a lot of hard work, time, research and building of trust with your readers. According to the article, to be a success at affiliate marketing and drive profit and conversions for a small business, you have to rely on fostering relationships, focusing on your niche, focusing on a few key affiliates, and creating a system that generates performance for both the advertiser and the affiliate.

My Introductory Blog Post - Crystal Armstrong

A Mother, A Wife, A Marketer, A Sales Person and a Damn Good Cook.

This is my last course in a dual citation for social media and I wanted to say a quick hello before tomorrow. I have 20+ years in the sales and marketing industry and have recently started a small company to assist businesses to demystify marketing and social media.

You can follow me at @getsocialmkt1 and I look forward to seeing you soon.

PS: You all engage very well, learning a lot already!

5 Top Shopping Sites - 'Charge It!'

by Crystal Armstrong

Online & Mobile Marketing, #EXSM5513

ECommerce, For Most of Us, It's Just Called 'Shopping Online'

I am an online 'Power Shopper' meaning, that I like to access a website, search, find and get out quick. Search-ability, visual impact, continuity, a clean layout and no wait times mean a lot to a consumer profile such as mine and this criteria is rarely met in a 'Bricks and Mortar' store - hence my preference for e-commerce as a rule.

The following stores are ones I frequent regularly for purchases and are popular in my social network. How do you feel about them - do you agree with my synopsis?

The products available:

Beyond the Rack is an online discount store whose main purpose is to provide access to designer goods at up to 80% Off retail pricing. It offers everything from clothes (Men/Women/Children), shoes, accessories, costume jewelry and limited home decor/goods.

How easy/difficult it is to search 

This site is very easy to search, providing fantastic visual displays of products, multiple views in some case and search options including category, gender, size, price and type. 

How easy/difficult it is to add things to cart

Adding to the cart is quite easy - at the touch of a button and you have the option to 'edit cart' at any time but, items are only ' cashed or held' for a limited time in members carts and will time out if you do not process you sale at the end of the countdown.

Any features you liked and the ones that you felt detracted from the experience.

 I enjoy the ease of shopping, sorting/searching and cash out that this site provides. Even the timed cash-out feature is a bit of thrill but, should the item time-out and not be redeemed by another consumer, you are sent a reminder email on items you are interested in to re-ignite your cash-out (great after sale follow up)

Things I don't like:

This site absolutely required membership to view and shop before you buy! This annoys me as a consumer as I like the option to decide if I like the club before I commit to membership. Shipping times can also be an issue in addition to some quality concerns by online users (yes, I have had this occasionally myself but the return process is quite good)

Overall rating: Although it is a winner in my world, ratings site Reseller ratings show a consumer rating of 2.1/10 with over 21,058 consumers weighing in. Looks like there is some room for improvement on this ecommerce site across the board.

The products available:

Joss & Main is a member only online shopping site for designer home, furniture, decor accents and lifestyle accessories. The brand categories are curated, themed, highly visual and limited-time offerings with a finite supply, creating a feeling of urgency in buyers. In other words, Chintz & Company quality but with ease of shopping, no attitude and great prices'

How easy/difficult it is to search 

You don't really 'search' per say on this site. You visually feast on attractive images, click the 'Shop Now' and see what takes your fancy by clicking on single items by category/price and availability.

How easy/difficult it is to add things to cart

Adding to the cart is quite easy - at the touch of a button and you have the option to 'edit cart' at any time but, items are only ' cashed or held' for a limited time in members carts and will time out if you do not process you sale at the end of the countdown.

Any features you liked and the ones that you felt detracted from the experience.

 I enjoy the ease of shopping, sorting/searching and cash out that this site provides. Even the timed cash-out feature is a bit of thrill but, should the item time-out and not be redeemed by another consumer, you are sent a reminder email on items you are interested in to re-ignite your cash-out (great after sale follow up)

Things I don't like:

This site absolutely required membership to view and shop before you even view the site! A true Fail in my world but, the items are so good, I committed anyway! Membership pays seems to be their mantra and it seems to be working!

Overall rating: This is a highly rated ecommerce site who is obviously doing it right with luxe item service. Ratings site Reseller ratings rate it 8.44/10 with over 8,312 reviews.

The products available:

This American e-commerce company, the largest of it's kind in this country, originally started as an online bookstore, but has since diversified to include electronics, clothing, household items and has separate websites for countries spanning the globe.

How easy/difficult it is to search 

If you can think of a way to search, this site has it! Category, name, author, item and a built in ratings system complete with intuitive suggestions of 'add on' items like ' other shoppers who purchased this item also viewed' and finally, upon signing in, it recalls search histories.

How easy/difficult it is to add things to cart

Very easy shopping options with 'Add to cart' options and allows you to continue shopping or cash out with ease. Editing cart is also simple and if you do not cash out at this time, it saves you purchases allowing you to come back and commit later.

Any features you liked and the ones that you felt detracted from the experience.

Shipping is often free which is a plus but, the site has grown so large that it is getting ugly and confusing to look at and there are so many search tabs that it is also detracting from the experience to a degree. 

I do like the intuitive suggestions and often buy them - Success to them. The reviews however are a little irregular at times so, I take those with a grain of salt but, do read them.

Overall rating: I do trust and rely on this site for all sorts of purchases but.  the customer experience has deteriorated as they have grown bigger. Ratings site Reseller ratings rate it 5.45/10 with over 27.021 reviews with most consumers agreeing that consumer access to assistance post purchase has decreased.

The products available:

Toys for children and adults.

How easy/difficult it is to search 

Great search options: search bar, name, make, gender, age, category, learning, theme - this site also allows segregation by price, gift and top selections by popularity.

How easy/difficult it is to add things to cart

Very easy shopping options with 'Add to cart' options and allows you to continue shopping or cash out with ease. Editing cart is also simple and if you do not cash out at this time, it saves you purchases allowing you to come back and commit later.

Any features you liked and the ones that you felt detracted from the experience.

This is one of the best sites I use - 'Child's play' on all fronts: cash out, shipping, shopping searching and returns/tracking. 

With the Christmas season upon us, the 'up sell' banners are distracting and overwhelming in my opinion but, every consumer is different.

Overall rating: I do trust and rely on this site completely and have had nothing but good experiences.

The products available:

A travel site offering discounting flights, hotels, vacation packages/experiences and car rentals.

How easy/difficult it is to search 

Very easy to search by need, category, deals, location and dates and searches across multiple hotel/costs airline and travel sites to get you the best deals available for travel quickly and efficiently. It also has a search bar to allow search by ratings or specific name of hotels/airlines or by rating.

How easy/difficult it is to add things to cart

Very easy to add things to cart but, careful attention must be paid to ensure you are fully aware of constraints, cancellations and times.

Any features you liked and the ones that you felt detracted from the experience.

I love that it is a 'one shop stop'. my experiences are always good and the customer service is awesome! 

I always verify ratings with Trip Advisor to see the consensus of real photos/ratings of properties/resorts before I go as there are many sponsors on this site. Other than that, I have no issues.

Overall rating: I have had a great experience with them and always book my travel through this site.  After service is also wonderful and changes can be made online or with one call. Great service and highly recomended.


What are your favorite or 'most hated' ecommerce sites and why do they rate in your mind? Send us a note in the comment section of this blog and follow us for more exciting ecommerce updates here or on twitter: @getsocialmkt1

Keep Shopping!

Where do I shop

I am a huge fan of online shopping.  Living on a farm in Ryley and working in another city means I cannot just run to the mall.  I have become reliant on online shopping for purchasing clothing, household items, children's clothing and even teas and food.

Banana Republic

Products available

Business and business casual clothing
Jewellery
Lounge wear

Easy/ Difficult to search

Categories are easy to search and the website gives great recommendations on how to pair and choose pieces. Items are easily added to the cart and stored till the cache is cleared.

Advantages

- Sign up for their email list and you get 30-40% off one regular priced item weekly.
- Fast shipping.  I have chosen the free shipping and had my order faster than guaranteed.
- Great outfits and professional website
- Banana Republic is part of Gap Canada and Old Navy.  I can shop all three and they are put int he same shopping bag.
- Never confused between a Canadian Website and a American Website.

Disadvantages

- I rarely ever order pants from the website.  The sizing is and fit varies.

Lush Cosmetics

Products Offered

Soaps

Shower Gel

Makeup

Gift Baskets

Easy/Difficult to Search

The website is easy relatively easy to search and find your preferred products. I find that there are times I have purchased products and the next time I want to buy again the product has been moved.  The best example of this is Freeze.  It was in the Retro category but is now moved to Fond Farewell. 

Advantages of the website

-products arrive freshly made with a date of manufacture on them

- products are great smelling

- I find the products to be very good quality and used for purposes other than intended.

Disadvantages 

- Products are inconsistent in availability

- Gift baskets do not always have the best explanation when it comes to it's contents

Victoria Secret

Products offered

-Lingerie

-clothing

-makeup and perfume

-shoes

Easy/Difficult to search

Easy to search.  Clothing types are listed in a order that is easy to understand and find.  What can be difficult is the categories can be so huge that narrowing down your choices can be overwhelming. 

Advantages

-HUGE selection

- Unique products

Disadvantages

-American website that offers no Canadian version 

-Shipping, duty and dollar exchange can add up in a hurry

-Shipping can be slow

-We do not qualify for lots of the email list and "free" gift offers.

I still value it's quality but find myself using this website and opting to wait it out till I get to the store. 

David's Tea

Products

- Tea 

-Tea Accessories

Easy/ Difficult to search

I find this website a little difficult to search.  You search by tea types and I am not in the "know" of what type each tea is so I find myself searching for my favourite varieties which takes some time.

Advantages

-Tea and any type of tea your heart desires delivered to your door.  

- Tea arrives fresh and quickly

Disadvantages

-Not the easiest to find what your looking for have to surf through the websites.  I bet they do this on purpose I always buy to much.

Children's Place

I have a love hate relationship with this website.  I have a son and he grows quick and I find their clothes to be good quality.

Easy/ Difficult to Search

The heading on this website are clearly stated.  Although I found over the last year there is no clear distinction between some of the age groups.  For my son I find myself trying to decide between Baby Boy and Boy.  The biggest difficulty I have noticed is that this store seems to work one season ahead.  

Advantages

- On trend clothing

- Good selection of dress clothing for those special events

- Good sizing selection during on season

- Good quality.  These clothes last.

Disadvantages

-If I go to the website looking for shorts in the summer then I have to search the clearance because the back to school clothing is out in July and swim shorts are already in clearance section with limited sizing.

- Shipping can be slow.

- Sometimes parcels will be delivered to PO boxes other times they are delivered to pick-up point.

I would say about 75% of my shopping is done from my computer at home on the couch.  The biggest advantage I find is ease of use.  I need a website shopping experience to be easy and effortless.  I do not appreciate all the emails I tend to get from companies even if I have only shopped there once.  I often wonder where did I check the "Offer and Email" box.  

My introduction

My name is Christa Winsnes.  This course will be my fourth course in the Social Media Startegic Marketing Citation.  I have just accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Alberta Lamb producers.  This position has me splitting my time between a Calgary and Farm residence.

Why do ads go viral?

Viral advertising. It's what every marketer hopes to achieve, but so very few actually do.



The Volvo Trucks video featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD), 'Epic Splits' has racked up more than 76 million views in just over a year, with good reason. The video is awe-inspiring and adheres to the sticky principles as described in the Heath & Heath book, Made to Stick.

Why did the video go viral?

• Simplicity. There are two trucks, JCVD, and a single camera. The narration provided by JCVD is easily forgotten, but the video concept is so simple--yet amazing--that it remains with you long after the video ends. How amazing are Volvo Trucks if JCVD can do the splits while the trucks are driving backwards? Pretty damn amazing! 
• The entire video was unexpected. The danger, the awe at both the drivers and JCVD, and the respect for Volvo Trucks 
• The concept is concrete and attention getting. The concept: Volvo Trucks have stability and precision. Let's have a guy do the splits between the trucks while they're moving. The video clearly and successfully demonstrates that concept. 
• Volvo was founded in 1927. The company is credible; however, showing consumers just how stable and precise your product is by risking the life of a washed-up action star really drives the point home. 
• The video they made created an emotional connection with the audience. You watch on incredulously. The beauty of such a simple idea, but complex execution, with someone risking their life is crazy. You can't not watch the video, it's just that compelling. 
• JCVD put his life in the hands of Volvo and based on that video, I'm willing to as well. The story shared is for Volvo Trucks, but if I ever need to trust a vehicle with my life, you can bet your sweet bippity that I'm going to consider Volvo for my needs. At the heart of the video are the concepts of dependability, reliability and safety. For me, those concepts transcend Volvo Trucks and blanket apply to all Volvo vehicles.

Module 2 Assignment - Website Design

I do a lot of online shopping. I'd much rather shop from the convenience of my home (with a cat on my lap) than deal with crowds, driving, parking, picking the slowest checkout lane known to humankind, and all of those delightful experiences.

Without further ado, here are my reviews of five sites that I use for shopping:

ThinkGeek
This is a really fun website that has a ton unique products. This zombie head cookie jar currently adorns my kitchen counter and it's super rad. Fun products aside, they have a pretty nifty website set up.

• There are a wide range of products available which can be searched via search bar OR browsed via categories (products are also listed in multiple categories, if appropriate). It is very easy to search by keyword (e.g. 'zombie') and the search bar has an auto-complete function. As soon as you type in 'zo', all of the products that contain 'zo' in their name appear.
• It is very easy to add an item to your cart, however I dislike that after adding an item, I am taken directly to my shopping cart. If I want to shop more, let me! Don't make it harder for me to give you my sweet, sweet money. Also, at the bottom of each product page are a few suggestions for other products that you might enjoy.
• For a checkout, it's pretty painless and I really like the control that you have when you checkout. You can decide on the shipping company that you want to use (or avoid...DHL, I'm looking at you). Also, it's very easy to enter a coupon or discount code.
• I really like that with each purchase you can accrue ThinkGeek points and redeem them on a future transaction for swag. Other greats features include: on each product page they feature 'customer action shots'; there are multiple photos of the product; the details of the item are very clear; and, at the bottom of each product page is a 'Wanna Chat about it?' option, which gives you multiple avenues to connect with ThinkGeek.

Anthropologie

I love pretty, pretty dresses, and Anthro pretty much takes the cake for selling the prettiest dresses. If dresses were cocaine, Anthro would be my dealer. 

Anthro has recently undergone a website redevelopment, which was very much needed. I'll be basing my feedback on the current site.

• The overarching categories used are appropriate, as are the sub-categories. You can browse the categories and find what you're looking for quite easily, or you can use their search bar. The location of the search bar is at the top left of the page, which is an irritant. Even a seasoned Anthro shopper like myself has trouble finding it when I need to use it, because it's in the header and there's no differentiating colour to draw the eye there. On the upside, once you find the damn thing, you can type in something like 'red dress' and BOOM, there they are. You can also shop by designer, or what's new.
• To look at an item you can either do a 'Quick View' (a pop up appears) and you can view the product (there are usually a minimum of three photos) and add to your cart, or you can go to the product page to view the details, reviews, etc. and add to your cart. The product page includes suggested accessories that you may want to also add to your purchase, as well as a size guide. Some products are 'online exclusives', however I've seen them in store. Don't lie and make me order it online, if it's not actually going to be available in store.
• A couple of things make me cranky about shopping on the Anthro website: 

1. The checkout process is quick, although if an item isn't in stock, I don't find out until I've already hit the 'submit payment' button. Why did you let me get excited about buying something so pretty and then telling me after I've tried to give you my money that you don't have it?!? Bad Anthro! Then, just when I thought that I was finished shopping, I'm not. I have to go back and see if there's something else that I want. If not, I'm probably not going to make my purchase as shipping to Canada is pricey and I want to make it worth my while.
2. It's sometimes hard to find the 'contact us' information. It's in the footer of the website, but if I have a question, I'd like your information to be more visible.
3. The company is based in the US, so more visible information/FAQ for international shoppers would be great. 

Sephora

The Sephora website has a very clean design--the categories and sub-categories are appropriate and the layout is very intuitive. Even though the search bar is in the top left of the screen, it's very noticeable. The search function is interactive. As soon as you start typing, suggestions of what you might be looking for pop up. 

• You're able to do a 'Quick Look' and add the product to your cart or wishlist with the click of a button and then continue browsing products.
• If you visit the product page, they suggest other items that you might like. One thing that I've never liked is that to view a larger picture I can only use a magnifying glass to zoom in on small areas of the photo. Grumble, grumble.
• What Sephora does right: Lets me enter my postal code on the product page and I can find out if it's in stock at my nearest Sephora store; three free samples with each purchase; multiple different bonus samples that you can add to your cart if you spend at least $35.
• Shipping is free if you spend $75 and although it's shipped from the US, the cost of the item is displayed in CDN and all duties and additional taxes are included in the cost. No surprise fees--hooray!
• The only main issue that I really have is the lack of details on the product pages. As someone with skin sensitivities, it's important to know the ingredients of the product. Sure, it's good to know the size and other various things, but if I can't confirm that the product doesn't contain eye of newt or unicorn tears, I'm less likely to buy it.

MBNA eMall

If you're looking for an irksome website, look no more, you've found one of the best! It has it all--multiple web pages to navigate through, many hoops to jump through, and so many unnecessary clicks! What's that, you've been browsing for a while? Oops, better log in again!

• To access this site, I need to log into MBNA. To do this, I click 'Log In' three times (on three separate pages) before my MBNA page shows up. It's a crap shoot as whether MBNA will let me log in, or will just decide that its dealing with technical issues. In human terms, the MBNA website is an emo teenager, full of so much angst and hate. 
• If I manage to log in, I then click on 'My Account'. Then 'Rewards'. Then you have to click about five more buttons to get to eMall. I'd be able to tell you the exact number of click, but ha, I can't log in right now due to 'technical issues'. I tried to click 'Contact Us' to trouble shoot the issue, but double ha, I got a 404 error. Sigh.
• Once you're able to access this magical eMall the search function is good and lets you search for retailers that participate, however it's not intuitive and doesn't offer other suggestions. The categories are well chosen though, and retailers are cross-categorized if they sell multiple items.

If the MBNA/MBNA eMall website wasn't such a Charlie Foxtrot (NSFW definition) right this VERY second, I would perhaps be more positive in my review. However, overall feedback would be if you want me to use your website, make it easy. If I need to log in, let me do so on a consistent basis. If I need to contact you, let me. Don't give me a 404 error and make me angry. If I need to have your website open while I shop to get the benefits of using your site (i.e. cash back), let me know when I've been inactive before you log me out automatically and make me go through the whole process again. *Pops Tums to quell the rage induced stomachache*

!ndigo
I love books. Browsing for them, picking up the ones that catch my eye and reading what they're about. But for buying books, online is the cat's meow. In the last year, !ndigo has revamped their website and it's really streamlined the shopping experience.

• The categories are broad, albeit there are many, many smaller sub-categories. You can also browse specialty categories, like 'Award Winners', 'Bestsellers', 'New This Week', etc.
• I find it really hard to browse for books online. There are millions and millions of books that I might love, but how do I find them? The search bar (which is HUGE) is great for pulling up the item that I'm looking for (and also other similarly spelled titles or authors) and once I find a book that I love, I'll check out the 'Other books you might enjoy' or 'People who shopped for this also bought this:' and get lost for hours.
• It's easy to add items to my cart and to view my cart without leaving the product page that I'm on. Yay for that! Although it would be nice to be able to add an item to my cart directly from the search page. Currently you have to visit the product page and then add it to your cart. If I know I want it, let me add it without having to make an extra click. I swear, you won't regret it, !ndigo.
• Also nice is that I can check to see if an item is in store locally. Sometimes I just can't wait a few extra days to get my paws on a new book and want it immediately! With the website, I can enter my postal code and find out which stores in the city have what I want on hand.
• Checking out is easy. You can chose to do a guest check out if you don't want to commit to an account. Right there on the checkout page is their phone number. Need help with your order? Give us a call, we'll help you give us your money!
• The only thing that I don't like is that !ndigo automatically adds premium shipping to your cart, even if you qualify for free shipping. Just like Gretchen trying to make 'Fetch' happen in Mean Girls, stop trying to make premium shipping happen, !ndigo. Sometimes it passes by my cursory glance at the shopping cart and then I have to go back (irritated, of course) and select the free shipping.

After reviewing these websites, my advice to any business wanting to improve their customers shopping experience would be:

1. Keep your site clean and clear. I want to find your products as easily as possible and I want to give you my money. Let me. Please make it easy for me to do so.
2. Let me find your shipping information, product details and contact information easily. If I have to hunt for it and use Google-Fu, I'm probably going to be lazy and go elsewhere.
3. Don't make me create an account if I don't want to. If I can't find out how much shipping is until I create an account, I'm going to bolt.
4. Make sure that I can use your website in different browsers. For the love of all that is holy, if I can't use your site efficiently on Chrome (I'm looking at you, FreePeople.com) or on my iPad (Facebook Messenger comes to mind), I'm not going to buy from you.
5. I appreciate seeing other items that are similar, or that other users have purchased. I also like seeing product reviews and product details. Don't make me guess, give me as much information as possible.
6. Lastly, if I need to log in to access your site or services, don't have a sh*tty website that's prone to working only some of the time. Don't have 404 error pages that are linked from your home page. FFS, you're a company--have someone review your site on a regular basis to circumvent missing pages. And don't make me jump through hoops unnecessarily. Do I really need to make three or four clicks to add something to my cart? To quote Grumpy Cat, 'No.'

Five Favourites

This is a travel site that deals in all-inclusive vacations, flights, hotel, and car rentals.  I have booked many family vacations through them.  I like the site because I can narrow down my search to specific dates but they always present me with alternative dates that may have a cheaper price.  As well they have an option that includes tax so that I am aware of the actual price.  With travel taxes can vary and it is frustrating to find your price go up.

One of the difficulties of the site is that it is difficult to book for a family of five and you need to call them directly to make a reservation. (they are always available and helpful)  I have tried other sites and experienced the same difficulty so I assume it is a problem with the industry.  The other problem for me is that the site has changed its looks twice in the last three years.  I like the predictability of plugging in my criteria and not having to reacquaint myself with a new search engine.  It is making me consider other sites.

Wow Costco online has everything from gift baskets to furniture to automotive to electronics to gift cards.  I love to shop in actual stores.  I love to touch, smell, and hear the sounds of the mall but as a working mom whose husband works away I sometime need products that present a challenge to get home.  I also have most of my family living outside the province which can be problematic when sending holiday gifts or just giving a hand to my elderly mother.  For example my mother was moving and I ordered her a new t.v. that was delivered to her new address in Ontario.  For my mother in law in a remote area in B.C. I ordered flowers.   For myself I was able to order garden furniture in the summer and I didn't have to worry about how to get it home.  I love the set up of Costco's site it has an easy drop down menu.  It allows you to narrow down your search and it has key word search that I like.  Also the on line Costco is partnered with Aeroplan which I use and can collect even more points.  I get frustrated at the checkout point when they ask for billing and shipping address however when I am sending it to another province it works.  Another frustration is that sometimes what they have in the store is not available online but on the whole I have really enjoyed the Costco site.



iTunes products include movies, music, television shows, and books.  My relationship with iTunes is probably my longest running online relationship.  I'm not sure I even realised that I was online shopping when I first started purchasing from them.   Probably the best thing about iTunes is the ability to purchase something and have everyone in the family have access to it.  Music and books will be added to everyone's iPhone or iPod,  movies and t.v. programs will be added to all the apple t.v.s and computers. They have set the site up so that I can easily manoeuvre it on any of the apple devices I may have as well as the computer.  I am also a big fan of being able to download audio books.  Many trips across Canada have been spent in our vehicle listening to a good book.  We opted out of the video players and spent many happy hours listening to Harry Potter.  When we finished a book it was easy to download another.  Perhaps my only frustration would be that not all my favourite shows are carried on iTunes.  I would like to see them expand that part of their available products.

I hadn't originally thought of the Royal Bank as online shopping but it really is for me.   The products include mortgages, line of credit, etransfers, bill payments, and insurance.   Again with family living in other provinces it is easy to transfer money for any number of reasons.  I have children who travel and I am always able to put money in their accounts.  Much like iTunes RBC allows me to use my computer or mobile device easily.  I have booked apartments in Toronto and been able to etransfer the money immediately.  It is the immediately that is the best part of banking online.  Recently we had a family trip booked and in the chaos of planning had forgotten to go to AMA and get travel insurance.  I had noticed the bank offered it and went online and was finished in five minutes with an email to print off the policy.  It saved me a trip to Edmonton.  The site is incredibly easy to use but it is overwhelming for me in all that it does which is the only detriment so far.  I do still prefer to go into the bank for some of the purchases that are available on their site.

You may have noticed the interest in travelling and I use many sites for flights but I have booked predominately with FlightHub.  They have cheap airfares and hotel rates but I admit that I have never booked a hotel through them.  I find the site easy to use and like iTravel2000 it allows me to narrow my search while providing me with good alternatives.   The alternatives give me the option of lowest price, flexible dates, shortest route, and most popular route.  Two other great features are that they list the price with the tax included and they have a feature that allows you to sign up for alerts.  With this feature they send you an email every day to check on the price for the flight you're interested in so you can track whether prices are going up or down.  You can cancel the alert at anytime.  I love this site and use it often and my only frustration is that I can not use them on my iPhone.

Online Shipping Before Black Friday

It is so painful to do this activity without actually buying anything, especially around the time of the Black Friday Sale!
   -Gary

ThinkGeek.com

•  Product: pop culture inspired items, geek toys and gadgets, collectables, and T-shirts and Apparels
• Search: search bar is great and located at the upper-middle part of the site, self-populating result as user type in words, extremely accurate.
• Add to Cart: They have the BUY NOW button in a bright orange color, the only orange button on the website. Once the button is click, it brings the user to the shopping cart. Perhaps a “add to cart” without bring the user to the cart is a better choice, but I’m ok with it (for now!)
• Features that I like: The rotating banner is a good feature, shows me all the current deals on the site. The site separates the catalogues of items into both “Shop by Category” (Home & Office, Geek toys etc.) and “Shop by Interest” (Star Wars, The Big Bang Theory etc.). It makes it very easy to narrow down my choice. The site encourage user to send them picture using the item, and in turn they will post it on their website – Show Off All Your Geeky Glory. They also motivate user to post picture via social media platform with a chance to win a $100 certificate.

BestBuy.ca

• Product: Home and portable electronics, video games and consoles, Furniture and recreational toys
• Search: search bar is located at the top left corner, self-populating result as user type in words. Categories are organized in both product type and brands.
• Add to Cart: They do have an “Add to Cart” function, so user can continue on the same page clicking that button.
• Features that I like: The “We also recommend” is a good feature located under the description of the current product; sometimes I will end up purchase a few more things from there and I don’t have to look through the website for it/them. The categories are done very well, once the user mouse over a product type, it populate the screen with some examples (usually 5 items) of that particular category. BestBuy, being that they are also a retail store, has an online inventory system. It can inform me that I can also make the purchase in-store if needed. It also has an area of customer review with a 5 star system.

SuperdryStore.ca

• Product: wearable items such as jackets, tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories
• Search: search bar is located at the top right corner, self-populating result WITH PICTURES as user type in words, and it show examples of Men’s and Women’s items. Categories are organized in Men’s, Women and NEW IN (or new items).
• Add to Cart: They do have an “Add to Bag” function, so user can continue on the same page clicking that button. Once you click that button, the top right corner will flash with a window for a few second with the option to view bad and checkout before it disappears.
• Features that I like: As a clothing-focused e-store, I like how all the colors are displayed for each item. They also have multiple pictures (far shot, close up, front, back) available on each color, along with a enlarge picture function. They also have a video for most of their item; a model displaying “the look” in motion. They also have an area that suggests complimentary pieces that goes along with the current selected item near the bottom. A recently view function at the bottom is also a good feature; it allows me to go back and revisit something I previously selected.

EBgames.ca

• Product: Video games and related items
• Search: search bar is located at the top left corner, self-populating result with small images as user type in words. Categories are organized by game consoles and platforms.
• Add to Cart: There are two types of buttons, both of which are in Red color. First one is the “Buy Now” button, which is located under each game that got displayed on the main screen due to its popularity at the time. This particular button brings the use to the selected item page with more product description. This is also where the second Red button located, called the “Add to Cart”. This button fills the cart at the top right corner once it’s clicked without leaving this description page.
• Features that I like: This site has an area early on for their best sellers. And also, the item descriptions and additional information are extremely detailed, telling the user exactly what they expect to experience after the purchase. Video games are natural packaged in a very colorful case, so the website chooses to go with a simply White background to ease the contrast of each video game.

IKEA.com/ca

• Product: Furniture, Appliances and home accessories
• Search: search bar is located at the very top, self-populating result as user type in words. Categories are organized room type – Kitchen, living room, bathroom etc.
• Add to Cart: There is “Save to list” button, once clicked it will show a smaller window telling a user that the product is added to the shopping list. In that same window, it gives the user an option to register (or log on to) an account to save the list for later.
• Features that I like: Subcategories shows the number item available under that particular category. Items are shown in their respective titles and a large enough pictures. Product information is extremely detailed. Along with the downloadable Assembly instructions, users can plan ahead without the actual purchase.