Time for a webshop review!
A couple of weeks ago, I got a newsletter in my mailbox informing me that Kruidvat, probably Belgium's and the Netherlands' biggest drugstore, had finally launched a Belgian webshop. I was immediately into the idea, because I love spending (way too much) time in my local Kruidvat, and because Belgium is still sadly lagging behind when it comes to online shopping. I'm happy to say we're catching up, though, and Kruidvat taking the plunge is a big one.
After expressing my enthousiasm on my personal FB page, I was contacted by Kruidvat's PR people who offered some store credit in return for an honest review. As I am a fervent online shopper and have actually helped launch a webshop myself some time ago, before I started working on my PhD (I used to be a social media manager at Meubelen Jonckheere), I was quite excited to get into reviewing Kruidvat.be so here we are!
First, here are Kruidvat's claims or promises to the customer.
- when you order on a weekday before 7pm, you will receive your parcel the next day
- free home delivery if you order over €50 of items (for under €50, you pay a flat rate of €4.95 for delivery)
- everything you can buy in the physical stores is also available online
- every discount, coupon or offer found in the Kruidvat flyer or in stores also applies online
All of these are true, as I found out while shopping. My order arrived promptly the next day. Of course, I wasn't able to check out whether everything in stores was also available online, but I did notice that whenever I set out looking for a specific colour of a specific make up product, sure enough it popped up. Nothing I looked for was sold out. This was definitely my favourite thing about the Kruidvat webshop, as quite often when I walk into the store, a particular colour or product I'm looking for is sold out or not available because of limited store space. I imagine Kruidvat.be becoming verrrry popular when a drugstore brand launches a limited edition collection, for example, as smaller Kruidvat stores don't always carry these collections.
Not listed among the claims, but Kruidvat also allows you to return purchases per mail or in your nearest shop, which is very practical. I received regular emails updating me on where my order was (whether it was being prepared or already shipped out).
Not listed among the claims, but Kruidvat also allows you to return purchases per mail or in your nearest shop, which is very practical. I received regular emails updating me on where my order was (whether it was being prepared or already shipped out).
I also like the user-friendly filter options (product type, brand etc.), that discounts are listed very clearly when you are browsing, and that your shopping cart immediately shows the final price after discount as well as a notification of how your shipping will be free if you spend over €50.
Kruidvat was having a bomb-ass sale so I happened to take €20 off my final order amount. Here is my haul! I will be reviewing some of my favourites shortly :-)
While using the Kruidvat webshop, only one downside clearly jumped out to me: instead of having one listing for, say, "L'Oreal Paris De la Vie en Rose" that shows all the available colours once you open the product page, separate colours of each product have separate listings.
Above you see the separate listings, and below you see the individual product page.
As you can see, opening one of these lipsticks' product pages gives you a link to click on to take you to everything by the brand (L'Oreal) or all other lipsticks, but it doesn't list all the other available colours of this particular product. I imagine this being fairly easy to fix for Kruidvat, and having all of your colours on one page linking all of these products together really makes shopping a lot more practical. This would offer the customer a clear overview of what is available, allowing you to make a more informed shopping decision.
Another thing I would add to the shop, is reviews by customers. I love reading user reviews of people who bought a product, and have often made a decision (not) to buy something based on other people's reviews. Kruidvat could send an email to customers asking for reviews, and list them on the individual product pages.
Finally, allowing customers to pay with paypal would be great: hassle free payments and buyer protection. I love using paypal.
Finally, allowing customers to pay with paypal would be great: hassle free payments and buyer protection. I love using paypal.
To sum up, I love the Kruidvat webshop and will definitely continue to use it when I get a late night impulse buy craving or can't find a particular product in my local shop. If you have any questions or issues with your order, you can find Kruidvat's customer's service on twitter.
No comments