Kelly Mooney's blog about the online shopping experience from the customer's point of view -- MooneyThinks.com

Shop.org Predicts More Will Shop from Work on Cyber Monday

If you're hungry for holiday deals, you may want to forget about Friday and move on to Monday, Cyber Monday, that is.

According to Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, and coiner of the term "Cyber Monday," next Monday, November 26, is going to be brimming with promotions:

• 32% or e-retailers said they will have email campaigns for the day
• 29.9% will have specific deals
• 24.7% will have free shipping
• 72.2% will have a specific promotion

The Monday after the weekend that typically kicks off holiday shopping has earned an increasingly prominent place on the shopping calendar. And this year is no exception, as Shop.org (I happen to be a board member) predicts that more Americans will be shopping from work--54.5% of office workers, up from 50.7% last year and 44.7% in 2005.

And among those shopping from their desks at work will be a team of e-retail strategists in our building, as we've just kicked off our 11th season in the field, studying, shopping and analyzing the online consumer experience.

So if you're one of the 68.5 million office workers with high-speed internet access who plans on shopping from work, limber up this week, you've got a busy day of shopping to look forward to.

Room and Board Scores on the Delivery

On a recent mother-daughter bonding trip to Chicago, I squeezed in a visit to Room and Board. Since my daughter is still young enough to enjoy the thrill of escalators, not to mention an array of snacks scattered throughout the store (brilliant!), I was able to shop uninterrupted for a blissful 20 minutes (parents, you know how unusual this can be). With my web print-outs in hand, I quickly settled on a dresser (long overdue to toss the just-married set from Ikea), a floor lamp that I had been lusting after for years. I even walked over to the lamp with the sales rep, Bill, to say "this one."

Lo and behold, my delivery arrives -- wrong lamp (seriously) and the dresser was damaged (argh!). Admittedly, I was unnerved, but customer service was empathetic, responsive, and arranged for a new delivery just a little over a week later. Best of all, they gave me the cell phone of the driver, Chad, so that I could coordinate a convenient delivery time. This way, my Saturday wasn't ruined with the waiting game and I could still get my kids to their practices, pick up my basket of veggies from the organic co-op and go to my yoga class.

Chad not only showed up on time, but he began by apologizing for my inconvenience. Then, he and his partner carefully carried the dresser up a flight of stairs, navigating one another in order not to damage the walls, stairs, or the dresser itself. Because of the weight of the dresser, they had to stop numerous times to discuss options and coordinate their plan for maneuvering up and through a tight stairwell. It's as if they'd been trained in Crucial Conversations. Impressive. They wrapped the old dresser and carried it out but on the way down the stairs, they made a small mark on the wall. No big deal. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a quick paint touch up. But, Chad didn't ignore or slip into his truck as quickly as possible, he alerted me of the mark and apologized profusely. This company gets it.

Toys 'R' Us Kicks of the Holiday Shopping Season with a Safety Message

If your holiday shopping list is bound to include toys this year, you've probably got safety issues on your mind, with all the problems and recalls of the last few months.

My own kids are past the take-that-toy-out-of-your-mouth stage, but still buy for friends and relatives that have young tots. So I was pleased to see this email (which took the form of an official message) from the chairman and CEO of Toys 'R' Us. Titled, "Our Commitment to Safety:A Holiday Message from Toys 'R' Us". I can see how they kind of had to send the message, but it's still nice that they did.

It's lengthy, but the gist is that he wants us to feel at ease about shopping at his stores because in recent months the company has enhanced its "already high safety standards".

Most important is the "No quibble" policy. Not only will the stores take back a recalled toy even without a receipt, they'll take a recalled toy back even if you didn't buy it from them. Good move.

Another point he made is the company's relationship with a respected third-party testing company that will re-test toys "right off our shelves." While on one hand that feels like a strong, gutsy statement, in my mind those toys should never get to the shelves if they haven't cleared the highest of safety standards.

Clinique Brings Personalization to Packaging

As the first of the holiday gift ideas start floating into our email boxes, I thought this was a great one to showcase. (At least, I thought so until I tried to buy one, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

It's pretty self-explanatory--upload a picture and Clinique puts it on a bottle of Happy perfume. It looks easy, it's not a bad price, only takes 10 business days, and voila, what a hot gift. Which gets me to the down-side. I tried lots of pics and they were either to big or too small for the site's requirements--according to all the error messages I kept getting. An associate here at RI had a little more success. She was able to upload an image, see it on a bottle and order it. They even offered her the opportunity to "showcase" her bottle design online. I'm anxious to see this OPEN experience and find out what Clinique customers are Happy about.

Smith & Hawken's Garden Advisor Offers Help for Holiday Decor

With traces of Trick or Treat still in my house (okay, more than traces...for the record, we have 16.5 lbs of candy!) and plans for Thanksgiving not yet firmed up, I'm not quite ready to think about winter holiday decor. (I still need to get rid of the rotting pumpkins that we carved too early. You?)

So the timing of Smith & Hawken's "Grand Holiday Entrance" email may be a bit early in my book, but the sentiment is a good one. Offering three tips for decorating your entryway, a quote from the company's director of product trend, and a few FAQs--questions I would ask myself, the email does serve as a nice entree into the season itself. I guess even if my head's not ready for the holidays, it won't be too hard for my home to be.

Eddie Bauer Inspiration Comes from the Top

Inspiration is a big part of retail, and often inspiration comes from the products stories. Williams-Sonoma has this down pat, and Lands' End often gets it right in email.

Inspiration also comes from customers. From professionally crafted customer showcases, to the genuine voices of icitizens echoing across blogs, opinion sites, shopping aggregators and branded e-retailers, inspiration from consumers is all around.

But it seems more rare these days for the CEO of a leading retailer to be the source of inspiration, not just to associates, but customers, as was the case last week with Eddie Bauer's new CEO (and with full disclosure, a former Resource client at the helm of Bath & Body Works up until early this summer).

The subject line of the email read, "Eddie Bauer's CEO tackles Mt. Rainier." Click through and you can read his story and see the clothes and equipment he used. How refreshing -- and inspiring -- to see the CEO living the brand, sharing his experience and, of course, selling his products.