…Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) that is. What were you expecting anyway?
Alice.com officially launched to the public in it’s beta stage earlier this week on June 22nd. Since then the CPG retailer has managed to grab the attention of KillerStartups and startup superblog TechCrunch. The main idea behind alice.com is to allow people to conveniently shop for their household goods (kitchen, bathroom, office, cleaning, hygiene, etc.) on the internet.
While alice.com is perhaps one of the most innovative and new concepts to grace the internet this year, it is perhaps also one of the riskiest. While most of the world shows no aversion to shopping online, most shoppers still turn to brick and mortar stores when then need such things as toilet paper, deodorant, toothpaste, and postage stamps. In theory, this makes no sense at all. People buy other things online, such as clothes, without knowing that they will fit perfectly. Yet they cannot bring themselves to buy their preferred brand of shower soap even though they have used it and have known it works for the last 10 years. So, where is the major breakdown?
Shipping. While people may not mind paying the extra few dollars to have their new digital camera delivered strait to their doorstep, spending $5 to ship a $3 can of hairspray is a bit unsettling. Fortunately the brains behind alice.com anticipated this consumer reaction and eliminated all shipping fees. That means a $3 can of hairspray costs $3, and a complete order of $50 still only costs $50. Alice.com’s shipping policy in itself makes the convenience worth any marginally higher prices paid for any products.
Generic Brands. Because alice.com works directly with manufacturers they are unable to offer the often less expensive private label brands that the superstores like Target, Wal-Mart, and CVS are able to offer. Despite this Alice.com has taken measures to make sure that the products offered through their platform are price competitive with the private labels and generic brands. A instant updating coupon ticker runs across the bottom of the website alerting customers of available deals and savings. The direct-from-the-manufacturer approach should also turn out to be a rewarding feature in the future as well. It seems safe to say that as the alice.com community grows and shows that online CPG shopping is viable the manufacturers will be more willing to comply and perhaps price their products a bit more competively.
Emergencies. This is perhaps the biggest reason why many people choose to shot at the brick-and-mortar outfits for their household product needs. When you run out of toilet paper you can’t just wait another three days for your next batch to show up on your doorstep – you need toilet paper now! Yet again, alice is ten steps ahead. The creator’s of alice.com essentially rigged things up so that the people of the world never have to run out of toilet paper again. Alice’s cool estimator tool shows (according to statistics) how many days of supply you have left before running out so that you can place a new order in time and avoid emergency toilet paper trips.
In the case that you are left confused or perplexed about alice.com check out how they describe their service:
“Alice provides you a better way to manage all of your household essentials online. You tell Alice what you buy—choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work. We organize all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low, and help you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store. And all this convenience comes direct to your door with free shipping included.”
It will definitely be interesting to see how alice.com develops and how much of the CPG market share alice will be able to pull. As alice.com continues to grow and attract more merchants and partners you can expect that it will become yet another excellent smart shopper resource.
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