It is official — Alice.com is the real deal and they can definitely deliver on all the high expectations set by the amazing front end ordering experience that I reviewed in Part One. They came through on schedule with a very prompt, very free, and very well packed delivery to successfully close out my purchase experience.
If you are just picking up this storyline now, this is Part Two of a two part review of Alice.com is a new online grocery startup that is shaking things up with a very smart business model, a system that automatically locates & applies coupons, and offers FREE SHIPPING as an alluring acquisition play. If you have not yet read Part One of this review, it focused on a closer description of how Alice.com works as well as the online ordering experience so I suggest you read it first and then read this post so it all makes sense.
In Part One I left things off at the point where I had completed my account setup and online ordering experience. So, let’s take it from there shall we?
Confirmations
I received the typical email confirmation immediately following my order, and the following day I received another email that notified me that my order had been shipped and provided the tracking number. Neither of these emails are groundbreaking eCommerce tactics, but they are both crucial post-purchase touchpoints to ensuring the customer feels confident about his/her order accuracy and about the status of shipping. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s face it, going to the grocery store is a total beating! You want to know what else is a beating, realizing at the moment of need that you have run out of certain household products like toilet paper, razors, or soap (insert your own personal list of profanity inducing depleted product discoveries here).
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a service that would track these household consumables and let you know in advance when you were about to run out? Even better, what if the service would allow you to order these items online and have them delivered right to your door? Hell, let’s run with this gag for a little while longer …how about if the service had equal-or-lower prices than in-store and would automatically locate available coupons for the items and apply them to your checkout?
These are some of the same questions that the founders of Alice.com asked. They answered by launching a new startup that does all these things and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a real shocker for you — people prefer to spend their time socializing, sharing, and learning with their peers MUCH more than they do buying things.
That sounds like a fairly simple observation of normal human behavior, but when you consider that these are actually the findings of an ongoing study by Ruder Finn on what motivates people to go online it makes for some very interesting extensions to that finding.
The ongoing research project I am referring to is the Ruder Finn Intent Index, and the results were recently published online in the form of an interactive tool. The tool is both aesthetically pleasing and user friendly. With the exception of research analysts who love their spreadsheets, this approach of showing the data and insights gained is excellent.
Online Imitates Life …sort of
The findings suggest that more than twice as many people go online to socialize (82%) than to engage in business (39%) or to shop (31%). The tool allows you to view the data for Men, Women, Youth, and Seniors but regardless of the segment variance they all show a significant preference for socializing, connecting, and learning over doing business or shopping online. This large disparity is definitely newsworthy given that a large percentage of the value of the Internet is typically tied to online ordering/commerce in some form or another. Read the rest of this entry »
