Holidays showed us how to
shop glitch-free online
By Robbie Woliver • Bankrate.com

Give the e-coal back.

That's what a lot of people who bought (or received) online holiday gifts that they don't want are doing, or trying to do, right now.

Refund and return lessons are just some of the insights from the bittersweet '99 holiday season's e-shopping frenzy that will help make future online shopping better for millions of us.

A Christmas blitz of e-shopping has left online sellers poring over what happened so they can avoid the mistakes and identify buyer dissatisfaction. Etailers got more business than they expected in 1999. In fact, these holidays were the biggest online buying spree ever.

According to BizRate.com, the Web sites it tracks had a massive 460 percent increase in holiday sales, as Internet sales surged to $3.35 billion, up from last year's $730 million.

A great deal of money was spent and presents were shipped -- but a lot of folks came away disappointed and that, say analysts, means we will shop differently online in the future.

Industry watchers say that Christmas left customers far wiser when it comes to online shopping and shoppers will in the future prefer sites where they can interact with the etailer. They'll want to "talk" to customer service about products, have someone help them move around the site and not spend a lot of time sitting and waiting. In other words, from here on in an etail site better be a lot like a superior retail store if it's going to satisfy customers.

Changes are inevitable, says Pat Moorhead, director of store services for Alta Vista's Shopping.com.

Disappointment is a powerful teacher
A lot of consumers were left holding empty stockings or gifts that seemed perfect on the PC monitor but were more tarnish than tinsel in the clear light of Christmas day.

"Many online businesses just couldn't handle this season," says Will Ander, a partner at McMillan/Doolittle, a Chicago retail-consulting firm. "They just didn't know what to do, from not knowing how many operators to put on, to not knowing how many warehouses to open."

Ander says a lot of promises were made and many of them weren't kept. In the future, he says, customers will be sure of every detail of their purchase before they click through.

"Twenty-five to 30 percent (of customers) will be disappointed and a half to one-third of them will stay away from online purchasing. That's how it was with catalogs, and I don't know why anyone thinks it will be different on the 'Net."

Some people thought of online shopping as risky to begin with because of security concerns. Christmas changed that. Concerns about security and privacy have commonly been replaced with worry about fulfillment. Will they get what they want when they want it and can they send it back for a refund if they want to?

One way to alleviate the worry: Don't become an online-only shopper, continue to rely on retail stores for some items, says Ander.

"On the Internet, you can't touch. Can't look at colors or texture. There's much more room for problems, especially with clothes. Books, records, that's OK, but it's a difficult way to shop for many types of items. And exchanges can be impossible," says Ander.

Customer service keeps 'em coming
The good etailers are the ones who accommodate their customers, says Moorhead, and he should know. Shopping.com serves as a customer advocate, arbitrating between businesses they represent and their customers. Ander believes that companies will soon set up central, pickup points to handle returns.

In the future, say analysts, a very high level of customer service will be expected and if it isn't there, few people will shop.

Business born yesterday
Another '99 lesson: Make sure the company you are ordering from has what you want in stock and can deliver.

Ander says that big retailers just entering the Internet field "didn't have a clue," while small and medium companies didn't recognize the need. Andersen Consulting, a global management and technology-consulting firm, conducted a study which showed that many online purchases were not arriving on time. Some companies delivered merchandise by the promised date only 20 percent of the time.

Many of these Internet retailers are first-timers, just learning the basics of selling, but even the giant Toys 'R' Us had an enormously embarrassing public relations disaster when they couldn't keep up with their orders and missed many December 25 deliveries.

On the other hand, Moorhead said his Christmas shopping, which was all done on the Internet, "was a good experience."

Still, Moorhead does have an e-purchased gift he needs to exchange, "But I don't think I kept my paperwork," he says, laughing.

Robbie Woliver is a freelance writer based in New York
To comment on this story, please e-mail the Bankrate.com editors

-- Posted: Jan. 4, 2000