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More options, better deals, in less time.
Post a needDescribe the product or service you are looking for.
Let minggy do the searchminggy.com will find people in your area to bid for your business.
Pick your solutionSimply choose the deal that suits you best.
onLinE HoLiDaY sHoppinG GUiDE
Avoid the mall crawl and get the goods for the best value—all from the comfort of your own home
YOUR EASIEST HOLIDAY SHOPPING
SEASON EVER
AN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt FrOM MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOSt
protect your pinKeep your card safe with these tips
phoning it inGrab gifts with a touch of a fi nger
December 2011
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AN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOSt2 · deceMber 2011
CHaLLEnGEs
The holidays are meant to promote good cheer—so why do so many consumers put themselves through the stress of a packed shopping mall? This year, reclaim the joy with your purchasing options.
“A customer’s interactions with technology are quickly expanding beyond the traditional desktop experience.”
A brand new Wishbookthe traditional Sears holiday fi xture is plugging into social media.
we reCommeNd
pAGe 4
Holiday buzz p.6the hottest wish list gadgets of 2011.
Phoning it in p. 7How smartphones can be a shopper’s best friend.
ONLiNe HOLidAy SHOppiNG GUide1St editiON, deceMber 2011
responsible for this issue:Publishers: stephanie [email protected] [email protected]: Penelope [email protected]: John Caines, lisa Caldwell, matthew Cheng, Klaus hartmann, Ceri marsh, John meloche, brenda moretto, alicia richler
Photo Credit: all images are from istock.com unless otherwise accredited.
Managing Director: Gustav [email protected] Developer: Chris [email protected]
Distributed within:National Post, december 2011this section was created by mediaplanet and did not involve the National Post or its editorial departments.
Mediaplanet’s business is to create new customers for our advertisers by providing readers with high quality editorial contentthat motivates them to act.
Tis’ the season for joy but oc-casionally, stress can filter through the fun. Online shop-ping can be a great way to al-leviate the stress of navigating crowded malls but for some people online personal infor-mation security carries its own stress.
While cyber threats exist, payment networks, financial institutions, merchants and consumers all play a role in helping to make the online environment the safe place it is to carry out business.
Security at the coreThe team and organization behind INTERAC® branded products under-stand consumer concerns and have incorporated features in their online off erings to help mitigate them and encourage more people to transact online.
“We know that Canadians demand reliable and secure payment options, particularly when online,” says Caro-line Hubberstey, director of Public and Government Aff airs. “With INTERAC
Online and INTERAC e-Transfer, we’ve created unique online products that meet this demand.”
Holiday shopping safely at home INTERAC Online is an online debit payment product that is growing in popularity, with nearly 800 mer-chants now off ering it to their cli-ents. In fact, last year in December, INTERAC Online had 85 percent more transaction dollar volume than the previous year.
The product is secure and easy-to-use because it’s integrated with your online bank account. This means the transaction is authenticated within your financial institution’s online banking website, not the merchant websites, so your personal fi nancial information, such as your card num-ber, is never disclosed to the merchant. You are also protected by INTERAC’s Zero Liability policy.
The gift card of the information ageINTERAC e-Transfer is a quick, secure and simple service that takes the
hassle straight out of those holiday situations we’re all familiar with, like sending money to your relative on the other side of the country, splitting on that perfect gift for your parents, or paying your portion of the annual Christmas dinner bill with friends.
With INTERAC e-Transfer you can send and receive money in near real time across the country, from one bank account to another through online banking. Importantly, money never travels by email or text mes-sage; these are used only to notify the recipient and to provide them with
instructions on how to deposit the money. Personal or fi nancial informa-tion, such as address, phone number and bank account information, is not shared and remains private.
Whatever the route you take, INTERAC Online and INTERAC e-Transfer off er you secure and easy ways to reduce stress over the holi-days so you can spend more time having fun.
take caution with your cards: pay safely
KlAUS hARTMANN
Shipping tips
To ensure mail and parcels are delivered on time, Can-adians should…
■ Ensure that mailing and return addresses are clearly written
■ Use sturdy boxes for packages and seal them with packaging tape
■ Boxes being mailed should not be wrapped in colourful paper or string
■ If recycling a box, remove old addresses or UPC codes
■ Wrap items inside a box in bub-ble wrap or newspaper so that they don’t move
doN’t miss!
Follow us oN FaCebooK aNd twitter!www.facebook.com/MediaplanetCAwww.twitter.com/MediaplanetCA
putting the cheer back into holiday shopping
people warn you about all the things that will change in your life when you have kids. Less sex, more laundry, for instance. Or, fewer nights out, more Cail-
lou. But no one ever told me about the shopping. The impossibility of shop-ping, that is. Everyone likes to com-plain about how horrible malls are, but as a singleton I rather liked poking around shops looking for just the right this or that for everyone on my Christ-mas list. Now? If I can coordinate with my equally time-pressed spouse to have some time for shopping it’s got to be more of a wind sprint than a lei-surely stroll and if I’ve drawn the long straw and have the kids? Well, forget it. My fi ve-year-old will insist that her Granny would so like a Barbie and my two-year-old is an unrepentant shop-lifter.
Put your feet up and get surfingSo this year I’m taking an entirely diff erent route and it involves paja-mas and a glass of red wine. Oh, and don’t forget the wifi . After tucking the kiddos in for the night, I can settle myself on the couch with my laptop and take a spin through my favourite
e-commerce sites, get it all done and not have to schlep home a single bag. Just as with all monetary exchanges, there are good and bad experiences to be had online. I may be in my slippers but I still want my time to be pleasant, effi cient and trustworthy. Here are a few particulars I look for.
■ Walk on by: Sites that don’t have the clean design, good quality pho-tography of products, or the easy to use list-making tools that I’m looking for get skipped over the same way I’d keep walking by a boutique with ugly display windows and horrible music blaring.
■ Make a list: Child-related sleep deprivation means I have little to no short term memory. So I require shop-ping sites that allow me to keep lists (and please let me keep them for as long as I’d like not just per visit!).
■ Get real: I also appreciate it when sites add some extras that suggest humans are behind the scenes, like thoughtful suggestions for gift combin-ations based on what I’m looking at.
■ Share and share alike: I fi nd sites that allow for easy sharing on
Twitter and Facebook to be helpful, so I can show off my shopping prowess or just drop some hints to my family and friends, I like sites that allow for easy sharing on Twitter and Facebook.
■ Santa, cutie: Given how competi-tive the holiday season is for retailers, I think it’s fair to be looking for the price on gift wrapping and shipping to be, um, well, free! But honestly, there are a lot of great deals out there to be had online.
One of the sites I think hits all the right notes for parents is www.indigo.ca. Their newly re-designed site is easy to use, the selection of books, toys, and home wares is gorgeous and they’re the fi rst Canadian website to earn the Parent Tested Parent Approved seal from North America’s largest parent tester community. So, why get stressed by having more errands on your to-do list? Take some of the sting out of the season by getting your shopping done without walking out the front door. And maybe pour yourself another glass. Check out Ceri’s blog at www.sweetpotato-chronicles.com/wordpress/.
Ceri Marshblogger, editor
ceRi MARSh
“After tucking the kiddos in for the night, i can settle myself on the couch with my laptop and take a spin through my favourite e-commerce sites...”
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The Sears Wishbook, a long-beloved Canadian holiday shopping tradition, moves from the mailbox to a more modern approach with tablet and social media features.
Grant wishes with the click of a mouseThe Holiday season is about time with family and friends, spreading good cheer and cre-ating a festive atmosphere all around. It is also the busi-est shopping season for Can-adians.
Many people like to soak up the season at the mall, making shopping a tactile experience. Stores are dressed up in all their holiday best, with sounds and lights of the season all around.
Other people prefer to curl up on the couch on a cold night at home, doing their Holiday shopping online.
“Not only is online shopping con-venient but it has also transformed into a social experience that is about discovery, inspiration and a way to connect with friends and family,” said Sarah Trimble, director of Interactive Marketing and Community at Sears Canada.
Take the pain out of present hunting“To further enhance the customer’s
experience, this holiday season, Sears.ca is offering free shipping, and cus-tomers in most regions can make purchases until December 20th and receive their goods on time for Christ-mas. Our goal at Sears.ca is to make shopping convenient and stress free.”
“E” for easyBut making holiday purchases off a website is only the beginning. E-shop-ping this year is about utilizing num-erous technology tools to make shop-ping easy, and hopefully, fun as well!
“A customer’s interactions with technology are quickly expanding beyond the traditional desktop experience,” adds Trimble. “The trend of device proliferation means that some customers own up to six devices that are used to access content that is pulled from the internet and delivered on a device of their choosing.”
A smart approachNearly half (48 percent) of Canadians aged 18 to 34 own a smartphone (study by the Quros Consulting Group), and while only 15 percent of Canadians are open to making purchases on their
mobile devices this year (source: The Neilsen Company), that number is expected to rise significantly in the next few years.
But it is not just about websites and mobile devices. Canadians are increasingly using tablet devices to make purchases.
Tablets have become a popular gift for the 2011 Holiday shopping season, and Canadians are increasingly using this new technology to make pur-chases.
Trimble is most excited about Sears recent eCommerce tool. “This fall Sears Canada launched the Wish Book app for iPad, and now our customers can browse and make purchases with the Wish Book cata-logue in a whole new way.
“Our customers have been very enthusiastic about the Wish Book app for iPad. It gives them the opportunity to easily browse the wide selection of gifts that Sears has to offer, lets them make a Wish list, share what they like with family and friends using email and social media, and of course make a pur-chase with the app.”
The consumer connectionWhat is threaded through all the tech-nologies that Canadians are using while shopping in 2011 is social media.
Social media has revolutionized the way people shop. Facebook users can “like” a particular retailer and be privy to a variety of coupons, in-store pro-motions and contests for that store. Sears Canada has almost 200,000 Facebook “likes,” over 7,000 Twitter followers, and many more people who subscribe to an email list.
Social media have provided a great way for retailers to speak to customers using the tools in which the custom-ers want to communicate.
One person sitting on the couch with an iPad finds a great cashmere sweater in the Sears Wish Book and she links it to her Facebook wall for all her friends and family to see. Her hus-band, on the bus home from work, gets a notice of the post on his Smartphone and emails the information to his mother-in-law, who is sitting at home drinking a coffee in front of her com-puter. A few minutes later the sweater has been purchased from Sears.ca.
It is that simple, and it is the future
of how Canadians shop. The mixed bag of technology available has an option for every shopper during the 2011 Holiday shopping season.
how we made it
inspiration
AliciA RichleR
facebook.com/canadapostpromo @canadapostpromo
It’s a gift she’ll cherish all year round. No wonder you’re her favourite.
Send something special in the mail. Discover a world of shipping speeds, services and other options at your local Post Offi ce or canadapost.ca/holiday.
Publisher review
The Wishbook App“The Sears Wishbook app is really easy to use and fun to navi-gate. my favourite part about using it was that i got to surf the catalogue when i was offline (especially dur-ing my commute from work). it was much more convenient to be able to pull up the wishbook on my ipad than it would be to carry around the heavy printed catalogue. i passed my iPad around to the family and had them each create wish lists which simplified my holiday shop-ping immensely. i didn’t have to worry about finding doggie eared catalogue pages and circled items – it was very neat, tidy and efficient!” —stephanie barbosa
AN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOStAN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOSt deceMber 2011 · 5
FAMILY FRIENDLYThe new Sears apps have been designed for ease of use for all ages.
Comparison shopping online takes time and patience—but ultimately it’ll saves you money.
It’s similar to trying to fi nd the same items across multiple fl yers, but with a lot more choices. The fi rst step is to narrow down the range of a product you’re interested in buy-ing. Check the availability of that product at your favorite stores. You can do this by visiting each store’s website directly in a separate web browser tab or window and typing in the product’s name or model number. Alternatively, you can also try typing in the product’s name or model number into a search engine and seeing which stores are off er-ing it for sale.
Extending your reachWith cross border shopping, you need to take into consideration the current exchange rate, international currency fees, taxes, duties, and extra shipping costs. Some U.S. retail-ers will calculate all of these fees at checkout and for others, you’ll have to pay upon delivery. The third step is to get to the checkout page to see the close to fi nal price. The fourth step is to research if there are any coupons available for either an instant off sav-ings and/or free shipping. Websites like eCoupons.ca, eCoupons.com and BoxingDay.ca provide a directory of online coupons for many retailers. Click to cash inTo activate these coupons, you’ll have to either click on the link from the coupon website and/or copy and paste the code at the checkout page and press apply. Ground delivery is usually the cheapest and next day air the most expensive. The fi nal step is deciding who gets your money. Now that you’re at the last stages of checkout, the penultimate price and estimate of time to delivery should appear.
Surf safeWhile mobile shopping defi nitely has its perks in the convenience it off ers, many consumers neglect to think about the risks they incur every time they surf or make purchases. Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to store personal information and conduct everyday activities, from simple browsing to mobile banking, but many of them have a lax attitude towards protecting their data. They underestimate their online vulnerability and mistakenly believe that “it won’t happen to me.” According to a report released by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner in August 2011, only 40 percent of survey participants took steps to protect per-sonal data on their mobile devices.
Mobile malware and malicious mobile applications are on the rise, and they’re designed to steal infor-mation from smartphones or send out expensive text messages without a user’s consent. They can masquer-ade as fun applications like games or wallpapers, or target QR codes that consumers might scan with their smartphones to learn about prod-ucts they want to fi nd or to purchase shopping deals. One of the most popular forms of trickery in Q3 was SMS-sending Trojans that collect per-sonal information and steal money. Another new method of stealing user information is malware that records phone conversations and forwards them to the attacker.
Be sure you have active, compre-hensive protection for all of your devices. McAfee® All Access is the only product that lets you protect a wide variety of Internet-enabled devices, including PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets and netbooks, for one low price for individuals and families. To learn more, visit http://home.mcafee.com/store/all-access-security.
AliciA RichleR
facebook.com/canadapostpromo @canadapostpromo
It’s a gift she’ll cherish all year round. No wonder you’re her favourite.
Send something special in the mail. Discover a world of shipping speeds, services and other options at your local Post Offi ce or canadapost.ca/holiday.
inspiration
oNliNe sPotliGht
SHOPPING OVER THE BORDER?
FACTOR IN TIME FOR CUSTOMS
2TIP
Comparison shop the dot com way
BReNDA MOReTTO
Manager,
canadian consumer Sales, McAfee
Last year, more than a billion dollars were spent online on Cyber Monday in the US ac-cording to comScore. Now that Cyber Monday is becom-ing a popular shopping holi-day in Canada as well, fol-low these online security tips to keep your online shopping safe on Cyber Monday and the rest of the online shoppingseason.
■ Don’t shop online from your lap-top, iPad, or mobile device from an open/unencrypted WiFi network. The owner of the access point or any-one with a wifi scanner can “sniff ” or read all the information travel-ling through the air. For example, there are popular hacking tools to hijack Facebook accounts because by default, encryption is turned off . If you do access an open network, make sure you access websites with “https:”, this means the connection between you and the website is se-cure.
■ Don’t save credit card infor-mation on your mobile device. Other Apps may be able to access this information. When installing a new App, make sure you’re comfortable with the information it is asking to access. i.e. addressbook, location data, usage, etc.
■ Beware of emails from “UPS”, “Fedex”, “eBay” etc. Because so many people are shopping online, hackers like to send “notifi cation” emails from popular companies. If
the email looks suspicious, never click on the links.
■ Buying a new computer and throwing out the old one? Always make sure to securely format the old hard drive to wipe out personal infor-mation before recycling.
■ Never email personal financial information. Email is insecure and e-Commerce companies will never ask you to do this. When in doubt, call the company directly.
■ When buying on eBay, always check the seller’s history and repu-tation.Sometimes auctions are too good to be true.
■ Use an antivirus program and keep it up to date. AVG has a free antivirus product. Symantec’s Norton 2012 is the most popular. Other trust-ed antivirus programs include Avira, ESET, McAfee and Panda Security.
■ When searching in Google, MSN, or Yahoo, don’t click on Spon-sored Ads that start with a retailer name followed by a space and then COM with a diff erent url below it. These sponsored ads are typically scams to bring you to another web-site instead of the one you’re really looking for.
MATTheW cheNG
Founder,
e-coupons.ca
Ensure your security when shopping online
Grabbing gifts online may beat facing the mall crush, but ensure you’re getting what you pay for—and keep your card safe!
DAY 3!
AN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOSt6 · deceMber 2011
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if Black Friday—the day right after American Thanksgiving—is the busiest shopping day of the year, then the rest of the holiday shop-ping season may as well be known as “Dark Grey December”.
It goes without saying that the holiday season brings about the most wild and frenzied days of shopping the year has to off er. And if you’re any-thing like me, you want nothing to do with a shopping mall during this time!
As Vice President and Chief Oper-ating Offi cer of Synergy Marketing Consultants Inc., I know a lot about gifts. Our company specializes in pro-motional gifts and corporate items that business owners use to promote their companies. The sentiment that makes the giving of promo gifts such a successful advertising strategy is primarily that people feel valued and appreciated when receiving gifts.
Avoiding mall madnessNow, don’t get me wrong, I’m as much into the spirit of giving as the next guy. But the thought of trying to wade through a sea of shoppers in a crowded mall where I’ll spend more time wait-ing in line than I will actually locating items is...well, let’s just say that I’d prefer to wade through an actual sea! Honestly, holiday shopping is a chore and a half. This is why Synergy makes it so easy for our clients to purchase
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KOBO Touch E-Reader“The simplicity of the Kobo Touch e-reader makes this a
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DAY 4!
AN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOStAN iNdepeNdeNt SUppLeMeNt by MediApLANet tO tHe NAtiONAL pOSt deceMber 2011 · 7
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AT YOUR FINGERTIPSAccording to a study, Can-adian shoppers adapt to new technology faster than most.
Canada Post Comparison Shopper was launched in October 2010 as a shopping destination that provides trusted insights to help Can-adians make smarter on-line shopping and in-store shopping decisions. Within three months it became the largest Canadian Compari-son Shopping site in Canada with more traffic than all of its competitors combined.
The advanced data processing engine analyzes products and deals from over 700 merchants in Canada and the USA. Whether you are a fashionista or tech-whiz, Canada Post Comparison Shopper has you covered. There is an ever increasing selection of items available to Canadians in over 1000 categories ranging from books to electronics, fash-ion, sporting goods, appliances, auto-parts and more. There are over eight million products on the site.
Under the radarIt takes more than a low price to make a truly great deal. Canada Post’s team of secret shoppers evaluates each merchant on over 40 criteria from return policies to warranty service to help con-sumers make better shopping decisions.
Canada Post Comparison Shopper works with hundreds of trusted merchants along with logistic providers and Canada Customs to collect informa-tion about product availabil-ity, pricing, store policies, and import fee estimates.
Once you find the product you are interested in, you are directed to the store website. From there, you may complete the checkout and buy the item directly from that merchant.
Making informed decisionsCanada Post Comparison Shop-per doesn’t sell products dir-ectly, but instead helps direct consumers to a merchant with the best offer for what they are looking for.
Buying guides have been added to help consumers become savvy online shoppers. All the buying guides are available at www.can-adapost.ca/shopper/guides.
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nEWs
phoning it in: a smart new trend
Black Friday and Cyber Mon-day 2011 have come to a close and delivered what can only be described as stellar results.
Mobile traffi c grew by more than 200 percent overall. On Black Friday, mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad accounted for 14.3 percent of all online retail traffi c. Cyber Monday online spending increased by 33 per-cent over last year.
What the numbers say about Canadian shoppersBehind those results are some inter-esting facts (see Facts). But what does it all tell us? Very simply, mobile retail is the next major computing cycle. Companies who excel will be those who understand how to use it to build customer loyalty.
Canadians should take notice. In Canada, mobile business resonates particularly well for two reasons: Canadian telcos now have some of the most highly developed, highly opti-mized information infrastructures in the world. 3G smartphones have become the standard mobile device. The number of Canadians with broad-band access is 33 percent and growing exponentially.
Drawn to the webSecondly, Canadians tend to gravitate to online activities, ranking number one globally in online adoption, hours
per visitor, sites visited and video usage. There are 18 million Canadians on Facebook, 5 million on Twitter and 4 million on LinkedIn. We send 199 million texts per day.
A new species of shopperA recent IBM survey revealed shop-pers here are adopting new shopping technologies faster than most. The number of Canadians willing to use mobile technologies to shop increased by 160 per cent year-to-year, second only to the US in uptake. The research
also showed the number of Canadian “instrumented” consumers -- who use two or more technologies such as a website, mobile device or in-store kiosk—increased by 65 per cent over last year’s results, almost double the global result.
What’s emerging are more com-plex, competitive and sophisticated shoppers, who leverage social media like Facebook and Twitter to discuss retailers, products and brands with friends, family members and stran-gers. They use smart phones and UPC
tags to check prices at competitors, while they’re in the store. And they want to shop seamlessly across chan-nels, get promotions based on the items they scan, and use a personal mobile device to avoid the checkout lane.
Get appy and informedMost mobile applications available today don’t yet harness all of the capabilities these devices can off er to address shoppers’ soaring expectations. But we see that happening in the not-too-distant future
There are currently up to 17 diff er-ent kinds of sensors on the average cell phone – sensors such as the camera, GPS or microphone that can be incorporated into mobile applications to gather data. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so if your pizza was delivered with anchovies when you ordered olives, a mobile appli-cation could process a free one next time, based on little more than a quick click of your phone’s camera.
Applications will also become more contextually aware. For example, by noting your calendar indicates you’re hosting a party, alerting your favourite grocer of the fact, which prompts that store to send you discounts and special off ers .
The bottom line is Canadian shoppers want a personalized shopping experi-ence. They will spend more and be more loyal to retailers who demonstrate they know them, by off ering quality, service and promotions on items they regularly buy, and remembering things such as their preferred payment methods. It’s up to Canadian retailers to act.
“A recent ibM survey revealed shoppers here are adopting new shopping technologies faster than most.”Lisa CaldwellManager partner, ibM Global business Services
liSA cAlDWell
■ Question: what are the factors behind Canadians’ increasingly web-based shopping habits?
■ Answer: Growing social media involvement and sophisticated apps mean shoppers are staying out of the mall this holiday season.
FaCts
Cyber Monday 2011 Compared to Black Friday 2011
Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales were up 29.3 percent over Black Friday.
■ The Mobile Bargain Hunter: On Cyber Monday mobile traffi c averaged 10.8 percent compared to 14.3 percent on Black Friday.
■ Mobile Sales: Consumer sales on mobile devices reached 6.6 percent versus 9.8 percent on Black Friday.
■ The Apple Shopper: Apple’s iPhone and iPad continued to rank one and two for mobile device retail traffi c (4.1 percent and 3.3 percent respectively). Android
maintained its position in third at 3.2 percent. Collectively iPhone and iPad accounted for 7.4 percent of all online retail traffi c versus 10.2 per-cent on Black Friday.
■ The iPad Factor: Shoppers using the iPad also continued to drive more retail purchases than any other device with conversion rates reaching 5.2 percent com-pared to 4.6 percent.
■ The Social Influence: Shoppers referred from Social Networks generated 0.56 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday versus 0.53 percent on Black Friday. Similar to Black Friday, Facebook led the pack, accounting for 86 percent of all.
JOhN cAiNeS
National Media relations, Ottawa
resources for savvy shoppers
“it takes more than a low price to make a truly great deal.”
if Black Friday—the day right after American Thanksgiving—is the busiest shopping day of the year, then the rest of the holiday shop-ping season may as well be known as “Dark Grey December”.
It goes without saying that the holiday season brings about the most wild and frenzied days of shopping the year has to off er. And if you’re any-thing like me, you want nothing to do with a shopping mall during this time!
As Vice President and Chief Oper-ating Offi cer of Synergy Marketing Consultants Inc., I know a lot about gifts. Our company specializes in pro-motional gifts and corporate items that business owners use to promote their companies. The sentiment that makes the giving of promo gifts such a successful advertising strategy is primarily that people feel valued and appreciated when receiving gifts.
Avoiding mall madnessNow, don’t get me wrong, I’m as much into the spirit of giving as the next guy. But the thought of trying to wade through a sea of shoppers in a crowded mall where I’ll spend more time wait-ing in line than I will actually locating items is...well, let’s just say that I’d prefer to wade through an actual sea! Honestly, holiday shopping is a chore and a half. This is why Synergy makes it so easy for our clients to purchase
items directly from our website.And why wouldn’t we? Online shop-
ping is only growing in popularity. In fact, our web business has enjoyed exponential growth by nearly 40 percent over the past two years. And while we’re delighted that our clients have taken to our website to make their purchases, I can’t help but get just as excited when I consider the ways in which I plan on doing my own holiday shopping.
Let’s see...join a gridlocked trough of human traffi c at a shopping centre? Or cozy up to a computer in my paja-mas all day? I know what I’m going with! Replacing the shopping mall with the internet to do my holiday shopping was the best decision I’ve made since I married my wife. (Let’s just hope she’s reading this—the more brownie points before Christmas, the better!).
The convenience of computingThe convenience factor of not having to leave my home cannot be stressed enough. Online shopping literally allows me to jump from one store
to another within seconds. Imagine stepping into your favourite electron-ics shop in Toronto and then bouncing right over to a fashionable clothing store in Vancouver. I’ve done it! A com-puter makes browsing a breeze.
This, by the way, is another key benefit to online shopping. Take advantage of the fact that hopping from website to website allows you to easily compare prices so that you end up with the best deals. But don’t forget to consider shipping and hand-ling charges as well as taxes before going through the checkout. In fact, as easy and safe as online shopping is, there are a few things to consider before your purchases are made:
■ Your payment options: Most on-line retailers off er customers the op-tion of using either their credit cards or PayPal accounts. Essentially, your PayPal account would take the place of your debit card as it allows you to make payments that will be deb-ited directly from your bank account. However, many consumers prefer to use their credit cards since many of them will assist in reversing charges if issues arise with any purchases.
■ Shipment of items: Many web-sites make it a cinch to pay for your items, but it’s important to under-stand how and when you will be re-ceiving them. Be sure to confi rm the length of time it will take for the item
to be shipped to you. The last thing you want is to be waiting for it passed Christmas day. And be sure to shop Canadian! Not only will you get your gifts quicker but you’ll avoid poten-tial fees related to customs and for-eign taxes.
■ Sweet deals: There’s a good num-ber of retailers—including many of the big ones like Wal-Mart, for ex-ample, that will off er signifi cant dis-counts on items that are specifi cally purchased online. Flyers are ram-pant this time of year, so be sure to go through them to see if the in-store prices are any diff erent than the ones listed online. You may be surprised to fi nd out how much you can save by or-dering through the company’s web-site.
■ Legitimacy of retailer: While sit-ting there on your laptop in your slip-pers, sipping your coff ee and listening to Christmas music (well hey, that’s how I do it!), be sure to locate a phone number for the retailer you plan on making a purchase from. You’ll want to confi rm that the company actually exists. Put in a quick call if you have any reservations about a business you may be learning about for the fi rst time. Better safe than sorry!
John M. Melochevice Presicent & Ceo,synergy marketing Consultants inc.
JOhN MelOche
avoid the mall crawl with online shopping solutions
Black Friday and Cyber Mon-day 2011 have come to a close and delivered what can only be described as stellar results.
Mobile traffi c grew by more than 200 percent overall. On Black Friday, mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad accounted for 14.3 percent of all online retail traffi c. Cyber Monday online spending increased by 33 per-cent over last year.
What the numbers say about Canadian shoppersBehind those results are some inter-esting facts (see Facts). But what does
■ Answer:involvement and sophisticated apps mean shoppers are staying out of the mall this holiday season.
ALWAYS LOCATE A PHONE NUMBER FOR A RETAILER WHEN SHOPPING
ONLINE
3TIP
3 TO GIVE AWAY!
Ease the stress of holiday shopping with Interac® Online.You can shop securely for whatever’s on your list with money from your own account. For great gift ideas or a list of merchants, visit interaconline.ca/holiday.
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