Tipster David notes Sears.com appears to have added some adult items to their online catalogue, resulting in some unusual search results. Is this “the softer side of Sears?” [More]
online shopping
Distracted Shoppers Buy More When There's Some Negative Info
By 6.30.11
Established wisdom is that you should only talk about how awesome your product is. But a new study finds that shoppers in distracted settings tend to buy more when products are marketed with a touch of negative info, what is known as “the blemishing effect.” [More]
Study: At 88 Hours, CrateAndBarrel.com Takes Longest To Respond To Emails
By 6.13.11
Going electronic is supposed to be faster and more efficient for retailers and customers, but in some cases you’d be better off just walking into the store to get your questions answered. [More]
Shipping Rates And Info For Over 50 Online Retailers
By 4.15.11
Here’s a handy to the shipping rates and free shipping info for over 50 top online retailers. From Amazon to Zappos, they’ve got it all so you don’t have to go digging through the site or go through the entire checkout process just to see what you’ll get charged. Consider it a candidate for your bookmarks list. [More]
California May Go After Online Shoppers For Unpaid Taxes
By 3.22.11
While most of the country don’t pay sales tax to online retailers like Amazon, most customers are still supposed to pay those taxes to the state. No one does, of course, which is why the California State Board of Equalization is looking into the prospect of going after residents who have made more than $5,000 in online purchases in the hope of getting paid. [More]
JCPenney Opens Up The First Facebook Store
By 12.14.10
JCPenney just snagged the “anchor store” spot on Facebook, becoming the first retailer to let shoppers purchase crap directly from their Facebook page application through a fully integrated e-commerce platform. [More]
Is JCPenney Giving Your Personal Info To Strangers?
By 12.3.10
Consumerist reader John is more than a little upset with JCPenney. He claims that the department store’s website is in such a state of disarray that shoppers’ sensitive, personal information is showing up in other shoppers’ accounts. [More]
Put A Lid On Shipping & Handling Charges
By 11.16.10
The price of a clock radio we found at Target.com: $9.99. The cost of shipping and handling said clock: $6.13. That’s reasonable, based on what UPS or the post office would have charged, but who wants to pay two-thirds of a product’s price to have it sent? Especially at holiday time, you’ll want to avoid S&H gotchas. Here’s how: [More]
Lane Bryant Website Error Deprives Reader Of Entire Grad School Wardrobe
By 10.22.10
It’s hard not to take it just a little bit personally when a store doesn’t want to sell you something. That’s what happened to Hel when she got a great coupon code from Lane Bryant that gave her 50% off a large purchase. She tells Consumerist that she assembled a $1,400 order ($700 with the coupon) — an entire wardrobe for the next few years, really. [More]
Gymboree And UPS Worked Together To Make My Life Incredibly Awkward
By 9.17.10
Caitlin has a bit of advice: if you plan to order from Gymboree and have some items shipped to you and other items shipped to a friend as a gift, don’t order all of the items in the same transaction. Maybe not on the same day. She writes that the company messed up her order in every way short of losing it or sending the wrong items, and has put her in the awkward position of having to ask her friend to send what appeared to be a gift, but was actually Caitlin’s order, to Caitlin. Gymboree, for its part, blames UPS. [More]
When Online Stores Get All Email Smothery
By 9.10.10
Some places you buy stuff from online are so super duper excited about your new business that they can’t stop emailing you about every little thing. The Brads webcomic does a cute little skewering of the overly communicative online store that even gets clingy when you try to unsubscribe. Relationship tip for companies trying to hook up with customers: desperation is a turnoff. Hit the link to get the full monty. [More]
Amazon Coupon Codes For August 2010
By 8.4.10
Amazon has released a fresh steaming batch of grocery coupon codes for August. Some of the bigger discounts include: [More]
A Look Back At Online Shopping As Amazon Turns 15
By 7.18.10
It seems like only yesterday Amazon.com was a cute little online baby, shipping out books from a garage and saying the darndest things, and now it’s a 15-year-old teenager that sometimes sasses back and gets sent to its room. Time takes a look back at the online retail giant as it turned 15 on Friday, and the history of shopping the interwebs. [More]
Internet Sales Tax Bill Introduced Again
By 7.6.10
Last week, Massachusetts Rep. Bill Delahunt introduced a bill called the “Main Street Fairness Act,” which is a stupid name for a bill. The text of the bill hasn’t been released yet, but if passed, it would presumably set up a process where sales tax could be collected on purchases made over the Internet. As anyone who has shopped online over the past decade is probably aware, this has been an ongoing and thorny issue, since billions in online sales tax would provide a welcome revenue stream for struggling states. [More]
Amazon Coupon Codes For July 2010
By 7.1.10
Amazon.com has uncaged their new July coupon codes. Here’s some of the deeper discounts: [More]
MasterCard Opens Online Store, Uses Predictive Software To Guess What You'll Buy
By 4.12.10
MasterCard has decided to expand into online retailing, so it’s opened a store that’s sort of Amazon lite. Well, Amazon several design iterations ago. Actually the site looks like one of those themed mini-stores eBay keeps promoting these days, but the merchandise is all new and tailored to your shopping patterns. And by “tailored,” I mean that the card issuer is using special customer behavior software to predict the things you’re most likely to buy, which it then shows to you. [More]
Hey Online Shoppers, Please Don't Agree To Withdraw Negative Reviews
By 3.9.10
Jessica Palmer at the blog Bioephemera recently had a bad run-in with a bookseller on Amazon, which she talks about at great length in a post. The mistake she made, she says, was that she didn’t exercise due diligence in researching the seller for complaints, and she didn’t read through all the many reviews on Amazon to see if the negative ones demonstrated a pattern. But her bigger issue is that there’s still no way to shame a bad retailer the way local news stations do with local brick and mortar stores, which is why it’s so important to stick by your complaints once you make them. [More]
Victoria Doesn't Seem To Be Keeping My Secrets So Well
By 2.10.10
A woman who asked us to withhold her name says she was shopping online at Victoria’s Secret and somehow got a follow-up email about an item she placed in her cart but held off on ordering. The woman is mystified because she’s certain she didn’t sign on to the site. [More]
