Consumer Packaged Goods, Meet Alice…QUICK!
The name Alice reminds me of the housekeeper on "The Brady Bunch." I cannot hear that name without thinking of a female embodiment of a real-life Mr. Clean powerhouse. She was always there when needed—and even before the family knew they needed her. She cleaned up messes around the Brady house and in the family’s personal lives as well. She had a solution for just about everything.
I’m guessing the branders of the new e-commerce site, Alice, were also TV-watching kids from the 70s. With the tagline “Everybody needs an Alice,” the site promises to revolutionize the way people shop for household goods, and gives them an opportunity to get products straight from manufacturers. By eliminating the middleman and any retail margin, Alice is able to offer prices that are 20 to 30 percent lower than other online stores. In Alice’s own words from the site, “Our mission is to give people a better way to buy the goods that keep their homes running. We have big plans to disrupt the traditional retail market. Everything we do is focused on empowering our customer.”
The site allows users to create a free account where they can manage all of their home essentials, receive alerts when they are likely to be running low on a product, find the best prices, eliminate emergency store trips, get automatic coupons on 1000s of products and have products shipped directly to their door for FREE.
While the idea of never running out of toilet paper sounds heavenly, will shoppers ever be motivated to purchase things like shampoo and deodorant online? Well, I checked out the beta site (the full site is expected to launch in September of this year) and five minutes after creating my personal account, I am a believer. I looked up toothpaste, and there were 160 options to choose from, including an organic brand I love! I was amazed at how fun—and addicting—it was.
Currently, there are around 6,000 unique products from hundreds of different manufacturers available for purchase on the site. A consumer truly cannot beat the price, choice and convenience. The online component adds additional benefits to consumers that include budgeting worksheets, consumer-created profile pages (where shoppers can connect with family, friends and meet like-minded shoppers), and different ways to shop: by room, brand, organic preference, etc.
What’s most exciting to me as a marketing professional (and what consumer packaged goods need to know) is Alice allows brands to form a direct relationship with consumers, enabling personalized coupons, sampling and loyalty programs. No household product will want to miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of this new, more level playing field—especially if you’re a middle-market, emerging brand.
On TV, Alice has always been a force to be reckoned with. Online, she’s going to have even more of an influence.
