Imagine a shopping mall designed just for “boomers and beyond.”
No, no, not Victoria, B.C. Wisevillage.com is an online mall that targets people 50 and older who might be a little skittish about taking their credit card out for an online stroll.
“We’re trying to create a new kind of shopping experience,” says WiseVillage vice-president of marketing Deb Pare, “a cozy, comfortable village.”
Hitting their site does induce a sudden surge of Norman Rockwell nostalgia. First you get a folksy welcome from the immaculately coiffed Mayor of WiseVillage. Then you’re transported to a graphic representation of everyone’s dream small town. There are candy-striped awnings and streets with names like Chestnut Court. There are also plenty of “coming soon” signs in virtual stores such as Canadian Tire, though FutureShop and CompuSmart are already on board, at least with some products.
Pare says buyers can rest easy, because they’ll always get at least as good a deal from the WiseVillage site as from a merchant’s own website. I decided to put this claim to the test and the answer is . . . it depends. The reasons why go right to the heart and probable future of online shopping.
Let’s take the three-day excursion to the 17th annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering in Pincher Creek, June 18-20, 2004. It’s run by Alberta-based Anderson Tours and I’m sure it’s a jolly old time. The WiseVillage discounted price is $355 versus a regular price of $366.
Checking the Anderson Tours site, indeed the price for this trip with double/twin occupancy is $365.94. But, what if you plan to pick up a cowperson and want a single room? (That’s available on Anderson’s site for $456.89, cowperson not included.)
What if you’re willing to squeeze in four cowpokes for the quad price (only $329.56)? Those options are just not available if you shop through WiseVillage. So the site’s designers definitely opted to keep it simple – but life isn’t always simple.
A more striking example comes from the online gift shop Baskets in the Park, which, like Anderson Tours, is located in Sherwood Park. Its store on the WiseVillage site features a beautiful rise ’n shine basket with “buttermilk pancake mix, pure Canadian maple syrup, honey and maple syrup blend, mouthwatering preserves, coffee, tea and more” for $46. But hang on – here’s an almost identical description on basketsinthepark.com, showing precisely the same picture, with a listed price of “from $24.95.”
To sort this out, I spoke with the store’s owner, Cathy Slobodian. “Oh,” she says, “well for $24.95 you might get a small jar of maple syrup and those mini-bottles of preserves. I had to come up with a single price for WiseVillage, so I put down what it would cost to have exactly what’s pictured there.” She admits that she strongly prefers to talk to people, asking them how much they want to spend, and what the occasion is.
“I mean, if it’s a sympathy basket, I don’t want to be putting in happy faces and balloons, right?”
There’s also the issue of food allergies, which are hard to communicate through a one-size-fits-all website. She adds that she’s having trouble setting shipping costs because “a basket costs a lot more to ship than a teddy bear.”
Asked if she’s getting many orders through WiseVillage, she reports that “we had a few come in around Christmas, but really not much.”
She is hopeful that the site will pick up later. “After all,” Slobodian says, “I don’t think Canadians are into online shopping yet.”
Of course, WiseVillage takes its cut of the online sales action. Its website lists a range of pricing options for merchants, depending on whether they go for a lease fee (quoted at $1,500-$3,000 per month) or a percentage (five to 10 per cent) of sales. For the higher fees, merchants get better visibility, just like the anchor tenants in a physical shopping mall.
Pare says they plan to offer a lot more than just shopping. “We’re looking at chatrooms, forums and online games like bridge and chess.”
One clever feature is ‘peek-a-boo’ advertising. As you look at one store you might see the ‘up to 60 per cent off’ sign of a neighbouring virtual store. Just like a real trip to the mall, only no parking hassles.
Their site still needs some tweaking. Features such as e-mailing the merchants don’t seem to work, and I managed to provoke some decidedly unfriendly php BB-Critical Error messages. They’ve also been bedevilled by pop-up blockers, since their original design depended heavily on pop-up windows.
Be patient, Pare says. “We’re building this community one brick at a time.” They plan to relaunch the site next month.
Edmonton social worker Bryan Sandilands has used the site to purchase vitamins online, and he says they seemed a little less expensive than in pharmacies. He says what’s most impressive to him about WiseVillage is the “dovetailing of commerce and communities in an environment that no longer has physical barriers.”
He did a stint with an Alberta government commission on disability, and says this site can go a long way to making life better for people with limited mobility. And seniors-oriented services have certainly been a hit in other places.
Seniority.co.uk claims more than 2,500 registered users at its site. Once you sign up (it’s free) you use it to book a cheap B&B room in Scotland, or chat about anything from growing gloriosas to Jane Austen.
The WiseVillage folks may plan to aggregate the eyeballs and buying power of Generation Wise, but do those folks want to be aggregated? There’s no doubt that some people will be attracted to the bright, shiny user interface of WiseVillage, and it will certainly ease some timid folk into the world of online shopping.
Personally, I’m more inclined to become one of those ‘greedy geezers’ who looks for the best deal and is willing to do some work for it. See that Omron blood pressure monitor that’s featured on WiseVillage’s The Medical Post store? It’s $142.75 Cdn shipped, but it sure looks like the Omron HEM-711AC that I just saw on eBay with a high bid of $25.01 US (plus $18 US shipping to Canada and whatever they ding you at the border.)
Or for those impatient souls who can’t wait to check their blood pressure, it’s $64.73 US at www.blood-pressure-monitors.com, with free UPS ground shipping. Plus, being Americans, they throw in a free gift – a digital thermometer good for “oral, rectal and underarm use.”
Alas, this company only ships to the U.S.
But, hey, you can put the money you save toward a bus ticket to Montana – and maybe even catch that Cowboy Fest on the way home.
Web watch:
(Tom Keenan is a professor at the University of Calgary and an expert on technology and its social implications. He can be reached at keenan@businessedge.ca)
