NoScript Online Wine Shopping
December 9th, 2008 by David Bradley >> 8 Comments
I drink a lot of wine…not too much, I’m not quite a connoisseur, but not plain sloshed either (Fawlty Towers circa 1975). I’m also hoping that polyphenolic antioxidants are helping with the excess saturated fat in my diet too.
So, in rather seasonal advance news from the January issue of the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Michael Sheridan of the College of Business at Southern Illinois University and colleagues Joseph Cazier and Douglas May of Walker College of Business at the Appalachian State University in North Carolina explain how the wine industry is one of the few industries that has not made an entirely successful transition to ecommerce (you don’t say?):
The wine industry is one of those industries experiencing some difficulty, as it contends with the heterogeneous state laws regulating wine shipments: in some states, the practice is allowed, while in others, it is considered a felony. Additional complexities arise when one considers the issues of taxation, age verification and the great diversity of the wine industry.
In their study, they found that almost all (97.9%) of their respondents bought wine regularly and while 81% used ecommerce, just 5% bought their wine online. They explain further that the “online” wine consumer faces a various issues when trying to buy wine, not least the problem of knowing what’s drinkable, quaffable, or useful for stripping paint.
Anyway, I had a voucher for an online wine company for a cheap case of good-old-fashioned plonk at a discount. Case arrived within a couple of days as expected and I checked my credit card statement to make sure my voucher had been accepted. It had, but then there was another entry for Wine-RECUR (for about $35). Odd, I thought, the voucher was for twice that and had definitely gone through.
I contacted customer support. The response was that in using the voucher I accepted myself into the company’s “Banking” scheme, which debits one’s credit card monthly by a set amount, and then pays you “wine interest” amounting to the same value every third month. Sounds like a reasonable deal, but like I say I’m neither connoisseur nor sloshed so didn’t really want to commit.
More worryingly, though is that I had accepted nothing. I’ve looked at the saved pages from my initial purchase and there’s no mention of the banking option. Then, it struck me! I use NoScript and AdBlockPlus belt-and-braces in Firefox to block the cr*p. Maybe one of these tools had blocked a popup alerting me to the auto-signup. It’s the only explanation I can find.
So, here’s today’s short tip, written long. If you’re shopping online, ensure you “Allow all” on the shopping page you’re using, even if only temporarily, this will ensure a smooth purchase and avoid cross-site errors when you enter your credit card details, but more importantly, it will ensure you see all popups from the company and can make sure you uncheck any boxes that you don’t want checked!
Meanwhile, where’s that corkscrew?
Michael J. Sheridan, Joseph Cazier, Douglas May (2009). Leisure, wine and the internet: exploring the factors that impact the purchase of wine online Int. J. Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2 (3), 284-297
Leave a comment ↓
Urs E. Gattiker // Dec 9, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Dear David
Just got the time to read your newsletter, interesting as usual. Hence, I took the time to visit here and write a comment.
I agree with everything you say in your post. Nevertheless, I would like to add that in some jurisdictions including the UK, it is the seller’s job to make sure that you agree to all conditions of the sale before completing the transaction
Hence, Virgin Wine must make sure that their e-commerce site provides people with all the information they need to agree to the sales conditions.
Put differently, can Virgin Wine proof that you agreed to the conditions before finalising the transaction. VEry likely not
This is a good example that whatever we decide to do, we must make sure that our e-commerce site is user-friendly, even if we de-activate script. Thanks for a nice post
David Bradley // Dec 9, 2008 at 7:47 pm
That was exactly the point I was making. Their system didn’t display the terms and/or had a box checked by default that didn’t appear because of my browser setup.
Jon // Dec 11, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I’ve received a good amount of marketing from websites when I swear I cleared the checkbox for “please send me promotional materials”. I wonder if my similar setup of adblockers and popup stoppers have been hiding from me extra options in the same way!
David Bradley // Dec 11, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Could very well be the case Jon. I edited this post today, having read the smallprint on the back of the paper coupon I used….ahem. But, that doesn’t detract from the fact that they didn’t make it clear when “signing” the online version of the sales agreement that I’d be subscribing without option to their WineBank…actually it wasn’t just Virgin that were guiltly, Laithwaites did the same thing earlier in the year.
Donna // Dec 12, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hey David,
Interesting article. I get very frustrated when companies trick you into accepting something you are unaware you are signing up for. Worst is when you can’t even pinpoint where things could have gone wrong. Reminds me of a few situations I have recently encountered.
A couple years ago I was told by my credit card company that on some sites (this time a customer survey site) when you enter your name twice, it serves as an electronic signature that you have accepted terms and conditions. I was charged for an entire year for some service I didn’t want without realizing based on this scheme. I am not sure if this practice still exists, but I was so mad!
I also recently found out that when you pay at the pump for gas using a credit/debit card, they can put a temporary authorization charge up to $75 even if you pump one dollar’s worth of gas, which sometimes does not clear on banking statements for days! Grrr.
I also love wine, and am frustrated that vineyards and wine online sites are not legally able to ship to personal addresses in my state. Luckily, I can usually get my local wine store to order whatever I am looking for to be shipped to them for pick up. For my friend, a wine blogger and collector of fine and rare wines, the state laws really put a crimp in his style.
Anyway, great topic, maybe one day state restrictions will not limit profits for wine-online sites and these companies will no longer have to use trick tactics to persuade their customers to buy.
David Bradley // Dec 13, 2008 at 9:32 am
Donna, didn’t they rescind abolition in the US quite some time ago, how come they cannot ship to you?
Donna // Dec 13, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Maryland is an example of a state with “laws regulating wine shipments: in some states, the practice is allowed, while in others, it is considered a felony.” Maryland prohibits consumers to have wine shipped to their homes. MD wineries are not allowed to export their wines to other states. These laws date back to the Prohibition era. There was recently a bill here to overturn these archaic laws, but it did not pass.
Paul Murray // Dec 15, 2008 at 4:07 am
“ensure you “Allow all” on the shopping page you’re using – it will ensure you see all popups from the company”
I have a much better idea. If you have charges on your credit card that you did not explicitly accept, threaten to sue the vendor. If everyone does it, maybe they will fix their broken javascript.
It is *their* responsibility to be *sure* that they have *your explicit permission* to bill you.