Why R50 off vouchers mean nothing
Two things prompted me to use the Carlucci’s voucher:
- I had a less-than-stellar Friday evening. I thought that I’ll be attending a symphony concert at the City Hall on 21 November; however, when I got there I realised the concert took place the previous evening. And yes, the ticket has been paid for.
- It’s the weekend before payday, which means I need to find as many free things as possible. This includes all my yearly memberships: Aquarium, South African Gallery, Iziko Museums. And it might be a good idea to get that free facial or make-over at Edgars Red Square.
I also wanted to see whether I’m one of the lucky people to have Google SearchWiki added to my account. So I got hold of my laptop and went to the Carlucci’s Wine website after checking all my vitals. I bought Wine Magazine on Tuesday partly because of the R50 Carlucci’s Wine voucher. I figured it’ll be good to get some vino for the weekend: I only have a bottle of MCC in the fridge.
So I browse through the site and settle on a R49.50 bottle of L’Avenir Chardonnay 2006. It’s not that I’m cheap; this is my broke weekend — it’s the weekend that I can’t afford to shop at Woolworths.
I add the bottle to my shopping cart and am bemused at the error message:You cannot continue the checkout procedure. Please select a minimum of 12 bottles and click “Update Cart”
Um, is this normal for wine websites? To have a minimum order of 12 bottles? Nowhere on their site do they mention the minimum order. The R50 off voucher makes much of their free delivery nationwide but doesn’t warn about the minimum order.
I then checked with GetWine, which is another online wine retailer. Same story: minimum order of 12 bottles. Of the same wine. Isn’t this blasphemous? To force us to get 11 bottles more than what we want? I’m a fan of online shopping, hell, I used to work at Inthebag back in the day. And even wif all their problems, they’re still a reliable option.
Online shopping can only mature if the website and the company makes it as easy as possible for everyone to shop. Not just the techno-savvy Ted.com and 27Dinner geeks. And it shouldn’t be limited to the upper middle class, either. I consider myself middle class but there’s no way I’ll pay for 12 bottles of wine when I only want one.
If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment below. Get free updates to my blog with my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter.
[...] just read Joy-Mari’s blog post where she states that she tried to buy 1 bottle of wine from an online shop, and to her dismay, the [...]
The reason why we can’t allow one bottle orders on our website is that we do free shipping in the Western Cape and to deliver a R50 bottle of wine from Cape Town to Durbanville is not feasible.
However, you’re not obligated to order 12 bottles of the same kind. Using the Personalised Mixed Cases section on our website, you’ll be able to order four different wines (3 bottles each), totaling 12 bottles.
Feel free to contact me directly if you have any further queries.
Johan Wegner
Hi, Johan
Thank you for responding. Do you know whether there are more people like me who only want one or two bottles and would be happy to pay a delivery fee?
Some of our GETWINE clients sometimes request an order of six bottles but seldom only one bottle.
If you purchase one bottle @ an average price of R45 per bottle and you add the shipping rate of R87, the unit price shoots up to R132 per bottle.
Would you be prepared to pay R132 for a bottle of wine worth R45?
Johan @ Getwine
021 461 2891