Bob Williams

Customer focused eCommerce: Return Policy

December 5th, 2008 | One comment | Tags: , , ,

I recently made a return to Costco for a misbehaving GPS unit.  My experience was made easy in large part because of Costco’s friendly return policy.  The store clerk didn’t give me a hard time or ask me any detailed questions.  I didn’t even need to fill out a form.

But the real find in the transaction was a feature of the Costco web site.  It was worthy of putting into the Customer focused eCommerce best practices archive on the Merchant Stand blog.

Provide return/warranty information on the customer receipt and status lookup pages

I had purchased the GPS three months ago on the Costco web site.  I knew I …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

When rebates go from bad to worse

November 20th, 2008 | Leave a comment | Tags: , , , ,

Product rebates are one of those things in our society that receive mixed reviews. On one side, you have the marketer who can use rebates as a tool to entice customers and potential customers to buy their product. On the other side is the consumer who must walk carefully through the rebate requirements to claim their prize.

Rebates provide marketers with several distinct advantages:

Creates a discount for the product so that it can be advertised at a lower price Draws interest from price sensitive shoppers Provides a competitive distinguisher from the same product sold at another retailer Requires the customer to go through an additional process …Continue reading >>