n Line, Online or On Hold, Late Shoppers Pay a
Price
By Stephanie Stoughton and Sarah Schafer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 22, 1998; Page A01
Fred Simpkins logged on to the Internet on his home computer at 6 a.m. one
day late last week with visions of a speedy shopping trip. Cyber-shopping, he
thought, would allow him to avoid cash-register lines and mall traffic jams.
No such luck. On his computer, the toy store FAO Schwarz's busy Web site
froze and wouldn't let him enter. When he called the retailer's outlet in
Towson, Md., he was put on perma-hold until his call was disconnected. And
no matter where he went, he couldn't find the popular Lego MindStorms,
which is what the Baltimore stockbroker badly wants to give his 9-year-old
son, Crawford, for Christmas.
So is the Internet much different "than driving to a mall and getting stuck in a
parking lot?" Simpkins asked. "No."
Take a deep breath, procrastinators. No matter whether you shop from a
desktop computer, by catalogue or at the mall this week, you'll find legions of
people with the same thing on their minds. The last-minute crunch has been
compounded this year by one fewer shopping weekend in December, along
with warm weather early this month that had more people biking than
shopping.
Late-in-the-game buying at World Wide Web stores isn't a panacea: Sites are
crowded, shipping fees are skyrocketing, and many retailers new to the
Internet are trying to work out kinks.
On top of that, people late to the shopping party can buy Christmas gifts on
the eve of the holiday at stores -- but rarely online, because it can take at least
a few days for merchandise to arrive.
Yet some Internet companies are finding a way to compensate.
America Online Inc., the Dulles Internet giant, has opened a special spot for
procrastinators. (AOL customers can use the keyword "Last Minute Gifts";
others can access the area through the Web site AOL.com.) The company lists
500 gift items, including watches and fragrances, from 15 merchants.
Purchases are guaranteed to arrive 24 to 48 hours after the order is logged.
And there are similar shopping outlets, such as 911gifts.com.
High shipping costs, however, go with last-minute decision-making. Apparel
retailer J. Crew, for example, allows customers to order as late as noon Dec.
24 -- and it will arrange for Christmas Day delivery through the U.S. Postal
Service, a J. Crew sales associate said. But customers may balk at the price: A
$51 sweater would cost $34 to ship.
Brick-and-mortar stores have their own last-minute frustrations. While you
can carry packages home from your local store, you may endure long waits
because the worker shortage has led to understaffing. While merchants
discount some items before Christmas, many of this year's most popular gifts
-- particularly toys such as the electronic gibberish-speaking Furby -- are long
gone. And online customers at least don't have to worry about finding a
parking space.
Catalogue shopping remains popular, but at this late date, consumers trying to
get a human order-taker are instead likely to get a big dose of
Christmas-inspired on-hold music. And like online retailers, cataloguers need
at least a few days to ship products.
Some consumers who had hoped to join this year's online onslaught realized
they had waited too long. Janice Emert, an office assistant for a Falls Church
computer firm, said she would rather shop on the Internet but decided to head
for the malls so she can have her gifts in hand instead of peeking out her
window every few minutes on Christmas Eve to see if the delivery truck has
arrived.
Already she can see the signs that the electronic streets leading to retailers'
Web sites are beginning to fill with shoppers. Last week she was looking for a
pager for herself, and several electronics retailers' sites slowed to a crawl.
"It's like waiting in line," Emert said.
That's just what Kelley Parks was doing Thursday night at the Hecht's store at
Tysons Corner Center. She grabbed a number from a bakery-style ticket
dispenser and, when No. 98 popped up onto the screen, breathed a sigh of
relief. She had finished her holiday shopping.
"That's me," said Parks, a 32-year-old bookkeeper from Herndon, as she
scurried to the counter to buy a bracelet for her babysitter.
Outside the department stores, slumped on a bench, Joyce Purvis and Ray
Carman were regrouping. Just a few minutes earlier, the Sterling couple had
finally finished their excruciating wait at a cash register shared by three busy
sales associates.
"It is not good," Purvis said.
Mitch Turpyn and his wife, Susan, had a more pleasurable shopping
experience via computer. But they also found that cyber-stores, like regular
shops, run out of popular merchandise, which means rifling through leftovers.
A week ago the Turpyns spent five hours on the computer in the loft of their
Chantilly home, ordering gifts.
"It was kind of fun," said Mitch Turpyn, who typed away while his wife sat
next to him, helping point out gifts on the computer screen. "We have four
kids, so it takes a while. It was a shopping day."
From retailer Delia's Web site they picked up an inflatable chair for their
daughter, Ashley, 14. They found a ski hat for Ryan, 17, at Performance
Snowboards' Web site. From cyber-retailer eToys, an Internet site they found
speedy and well organized, they bought about $800 in toys, including a
Nintendo 64 game set for their two younger boys.
But there also were items that weren't there: the sweaters at Delia's and the
drawstring pajama pants at the Gap. Early shoppers had snagged them.
Hoping to generate more sales, some online retailers are providing discounts
on purchases made before Christmas. Others say they'll guarantee shipping for
last-minute shoppers.
So far, analysts say most Internet stores are holding up well under customer
traffic that exceeded their forecasts. Other cyber-retailers are dealing with
glitches.
Shoppers at the eBay auction site, for example, might have noticed the
company's technical problems last week. The company's site reportedly was
down for several hours one morning. The site experienced similar problems
earlier this month.
Analysts add that shoppers trying to make it online this week may be pushing
their luck.
"A lot of these gifts will be coming in a few weeks from now," said Peter
Krasilovsky, an e-commerce analyst with Arlen Communications in Bethesda.
James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research, believes cyber-retailers
have swamped many delivery firms, which are also coping with an increase in
catalogue buying.
"Between the post office, Federal Express and United Parcel Service, the
shipping logistics are maxed out," McQuivey said.
Analysts say catalogue retailers, rather than being hurt by the online shopping
boom, are aided by it because many catalogue retailers also have Web
shopping sites. Consumers may become interested in a product online and then
go home and buy it via catalogue or the merchant's toll-free line.
"The Internet awareness may have ignited the catalogue business," said
Thomas Tashjian, a retail analyst with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities.
But the online and catalogue shopping rush has some experts wondering
whether these merchants can ship their products on time.
Shipping companies say they're prepared. UPS has been getting ready for the
explosion in e-commerce since last Christmas, company spokeswoman Kristen
Petrella said. "There is absolutely no chance things will slip through in our
system," she said.
Savvy shoppers foresaw that waiting until the last minute to buy gifts on the
Internet would be risky business.
Bruce Kirschenbaum, president of the firm that runs AcmePet.com in
Herndon, overcame his tendency to procrastinate and did his cyber-shopping
last week, buying 20 gift certificates at online book retailer Amazon.com and
then e-mailing them to his employees.
"I usually wait until two days before Christmas," he said. "But if you wait
until two days before Christmas, you can't do it online."
Emert, the Falls Church office assistant, learned her lesson last year.
Panicked, she realized a gift did not make it to her doorstep on time, and so
she hunted through her house and did the best she could.
"I wrapped up a picture and put it in a box," she said.
Staff writer Leslie Walker contributed to this report. |
