Looking for a hipster Christmas eCommerce? Try Fancy, Tinggly and Firebox.

Hipster Santa is here!

whats a hipster Christmas eCommerce?

They say it’s the most wonderful time of the year, surely is the busiest and most challenging for eCommerces and retailers: websites are revamped with festive designs and new offers like free delivery, flexible return policy and coupons.

What exactly do customers want?

Your eCommerce business needs to evolve constantly, adapting to new technologies. Consumers are becoming tech savvier. The competition keeps rising. So can your eCommerce answer the growing and changing nature of customer expectations?

It is hard. But it is not rocket science. There are two important points in particular to emphasise during the time of gift-giving.

Social and personal

Whether as an aware-raising or sales-driving role, social media acts as a guide or even search engine. In 2013, 75% of social generated eCommerce sales derived from Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, according to the Drum.

The second point is to ‘personal touch’ as me-commerce is the key differentiator in the time of Christmas.

Nothing more convincing than the actual case studies. So here we go.

Fancy

With over 10 million strong user-base, Fancy’s highly imagery-focused eCommerce is a beautiful combination of Pinterest, magazine and shop. ‘’This combination crowd-sourced catalog and pinnable wish list offers some serious e-commerce opportunities.’’

It is hip, stylish and social.

Just like how you pin your favourite images, you can ‘fancy’ a product image, follow other users, or even add the products that are not yet sold on the platform, linking to the seller’s website. For merchants, Fancy’s eCommerce platform is designed to ‘’give sellers more perks than any other services out there’’.

Tinggly

Tinggly is one of the best examples for an eCommerce with personal touch.

If you want to give some truly memorable and personalised Christmas present, then this could be what you are looking for: Tinggly ‘s experience-based gift packages range from a romantic helicopter tour over Las Vegas to Arctic Whale Watching in Iceland. As a gift-giver, you can choose gifts from over 50 countries with up to 2 year validity from purchase.

But their unique business idea is not what I want to highlight here. Tinggly offers more personalisation as ‘’the person you’re giving the gift to can choose the experience and where in the world they want to have it’’, taking pressure away from those who want to choose the most thoughtful presents.

So is your Christmas eCommerce designed to make the life easier for the users?

Firebox

eCommerce is not for everyone. Neither is Christmas.

Some people just want to get their Christmas-present buying done ASAP. While it is difficult to make a website that serves the need of every single user, Firebox’s “no-bollocks” style service like their “Crap Wrap” campaign gives a slightly unusual approach.

It’s not only their anti-wrapping service and goodies that makes your gift original and sharable, but their confirmation email also adds to their unique personal touch.

Many eCommerces tends to undervalue the role of confirmation email. In fact it can be a useful tool to demonstrate excellent customer supports. Just like the tone used in their eCommerce, Firebox keeps its persona consistent even after your purchase using beautifully and carefully worded content.

Dear XXX,

[…]

1.       Your online shopping skills are truly exceptional.

2.      Firebox has strong feelings for you.

3.      See 1 & 2.

Just in case you were possessed by aliens/malevolent spirits intent on a high quality impulse buying spree, here’s a confirmation of what you/they bought.

[…]

Your pre-ordered box of joy will contain:
[…]
When stock arrives, our crack warehouse team will slap it (carefully) in our hand-folded packaging and have it on its way to the address below.

We’ll also drop you another email to let you know once it’s out the door.
So you know when to get really excited.

Until we meet again, stay out of trouble.

Cheerio,

Firebox

(See more here)

So, confirmation emails do deserve a bit of your attention. Who knows, it could harness repeat customers in a long run.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading! Here is a bonus image.

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Appnova is a digital agency specialising in web design, UX, eCommerce, branding, digital marketing and social media.

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