SpaBoomers know the benefit of offering Instant Gift Certificates. More and more national retailers are picking up on the idea, implementing some form of online gift certificate capability. Jakob Neilsen has recently done a usability study of the online gift giving capabilities of major retailers like Macy's, Nordstroms, LL Bean and Cooking.com.

It's a bit shocking the ways in which these big retailers fall short:

• Almost all only allow emailing gift certificates, completely missing the personal touch of printing a GC and including in a card or hand delivering. More than 75% of SpaBoomers' Instant Gift Certificates are printed.
• Little or no personalization: rarely do you get the option of choosing different designs, and message capabilities are often very limited.
• The actual email for delivering gift certificates tends to be very corporate and impersonal — focused on the retailer, and not the gift giving experience.
• Most retailers use the same shopping cart approach for gift certificates as for products, causing tons of confusion, like asking for a shipping address when emailing a gift certificate.
• Big delays in emailing gift certificates — it's not unusual for retailers to take hours to email a gift certificate, and some take days.

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One Response to “It's always fun beating the big guys”

1. Christy Says:
   February 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pm

   I'm surprised to see Nordstrom's on this list, since they are known for outstanding customer service. It's nice to know that, as a small business owner, I am providing a great service to my clients that a lot of big retailers don't have a clue about. And, I have SpaBoom to thank!

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