Online shopping has suddenly become pretty important to me. Not only do I personally shop online, but I now have an online store myself.
Does anyone else constantly find themselves ‘window shopping’ online? Does anyone else get fed up when the payment process takes so long you just put down your phone or laptop and think “I’ll do it later”. Yep, me too.
After being introduced to Parcel For Me, an new innovative way of shopping online, I’ve decided to look at what annoys me about online shopping, as both a consumer and a seller.
- Not being able to choose a delivery date/time. Even though I’m at home a lot more it’s still extremely frustrating when the only delivery option you can choose is ‘3-5 working days’. People are busy, lives are time consuming, so if you’re in a hurry to receive something, or on a tight schedule where you definitely need it by a certain day this can be really frustrating. Having children makes it really difficult to go to the Post Office to collect undelivered parcels, especially where I live. There’s absolutely no parking at the depot and has double yellow lines everywhere. Of course a lot of the time you can redeliver for a day of your choice, but if you’re desperate for an item to arrive this may not be an option for you. Tanya who blogs at Cracked Nails and Split Ends hates long delivery dates and likes to be able to order with next day delivery.
- Endless details to fill out. Sometimes I’m in hurry to buy something and I hate when you’re asked for information over and over again, and this often bores me enough to just give up and try somewhere else, or go in store. I love if you can use something like Paypal where you don’t have to keep filling out payment details and can just simply order with your email address. These days a lot of purchases are made on phones or tablets and it can bee quite tricky to fill out lots of info. Emma who blogs at The Mini Mes and Me totally agrees and thinks quick checkouts are the way forward.
- Non mobile friendly sites. There are a number of websites I’ve tried shopping on that are tricky to use on a mobile or tablet. Seriously? It’s 2016! Jenny from Mum In Practice and I hate sites where you have to zoom in to read the text and the website doesn’t adapt for a mobile. I also hate sites that are horizontal but don’t change to a vertical layout when you open it on a mobile. Websites need to be mobile friendly!
- Difficult returns process. Sending back a return can be really frustrating, especially if you’ve got kids. Sarah who blogs at Boo Roo and Tigger Too absolutely hates having to wait to receive a returns label and then wait for the courier to collect. Or Suzanne from 3 Children and It hates having to return to a newsagent. Personally I like to be able to take to the post office. The label needs to be in my parcel and it has to be free. ASOS have a really good returns service and this is one reason why I shop with them regularly.
- Websites that don’t use Paypal. Kerry from Oh So Amelia and myself are huge fans of Paypal and think all websites should off Paypal payments or something similar. We are busy mums who shop on the go and certainly don’t have time to be filling out bank details.
- Bad layouts. Even if their site is mobile friendly, there are still some shops that have terrible layouts. As a lot of shopping is done on phones and tablets it’s super important you can navigate between pages quickly and easily. Nat from Handful of Half Pennys hates whether isn’t a back button thats takes you back to the shopping page and you have to scroll back through endless amounts of web pages to find where you were originally.
- Paying for returns. This is a difficult one for me as I have an online shop that doesn’t offer free returns. I’m a very small brand and offering free returns would eat away at my profits. It’s certainly something I’d like to offer in the near future once my business is more successful. Having said that, as a consumer I wouldn’t want to pay for returns. Chantelle who blogs at Two Hearts One Roof really hates paying for returns, especially when she has paid for the initial postage costs. I totally agree with this and feel like maybe I should be offering free returns on my shop, although luckily nothing has been returned yet so it hasn’t been an issue!
If you also have pet peeves with online shopping, why not check out Parcel For Me? This video teaches you a little more about their service and personally I think it’s going to be really popular with us busy mums!
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*PR Collaboration
Oh gosh yes!! We hate ANY sites that don’t offer PayPal as a payment hehe.
couldn’t agree more especially with the pay pal one it makes it so so much easier when you can use paypal! x
I think Next does online shopping best. Can’t fault it. Wish a few of my favs would offer a similar service x
Couldn’t agree more! I want to be able to shop and make it snappy, not sit and struggle filling out forms, finding my bank card, trying to faff around on my phone etc. This is all so true – only thing I would add that drives me nuts is when something looks TOTALLY different to how it did in the picture, or you get sent a similar version without being asked first because the first choice was out of stock. Grr.
H x
Ah so true! I also hate the postage fees on some online shops!
I love online shopping, especially as I’m a bit of a shopaholic haha! I like using PayPal too but I tend to just use my card. I’ve somehow memorised my bank details so I don’t even have to get up to get my purse for my bank card! Although I hate having to pay delivery/return costs! xx
I agree with so many of these!! No Paypal option is irritating, as I have to go hunting for my purse to find my bank card…
Totally agree with all of these. If a shop doesn’t use paypal then I more than likely won’t bother use it – I can’t stand sitting there filling out my card details all the time.
xx
I don’t mind online shopping too much. Prefer it to dragging Amelia around the shops that’s for sure ha! I do wish all sites had PayPal options and I hate returning stuff so usually don’t bother ha!! X
I think online shopping could be made a lot easier. Why do couriers always come when I have to do the school run. I love amazons system. So quick and easy to use.