Red Gift Bag could be improved

The Red Gift Bag (www.theredgiftbag.co.za) is a recent newcomer to the South African e-tailer market. Launched in February, the site allows consumers to purchase gifts or gift hampers as presents for friends or family, or as corporate gifts. Gift-wrapping and door-to-door delivery forms part of the service.

The site`s theme colours are red and gold, which aim at lending it a sense of opulence and luxury. However, the site layout is reliant on tables and frames, and looks rather amateur in its design. The product images are of a poor quality, and do nothing to excite the imagination or stir one`s gift-giving spirit.

There are a number of themed gift hampers on offer; gifts for new babies and their parents, chocolates and wine for the romantic, biltong and cigars for the man`s man and various other gift ideas, including a range of bath products, flowers and various teas, biscuits and other edibles.

Shoppers can choose to create their own gifts from the selection of individual items that go into a gift hamper, or alternatively, rely on the Personal Shopper service. This involves supplying some information on your intended recipient to The Red Gift Bag staff, who in turn attempt to personalise their gift suggestions according to the information provided.

The corporate gift service offers the corporate client personalisation of promotional goods, and includes delivery. The site also features a registry service with RSVP capability, and a reminder service that notifies clients via SMS, fax or e-mail.

The site has a top-anchored navigation bar that keeps the main sections just a click away. Each page refresh brings up a different set of gifts to the right of the main frame, while another navigation menu is situated below this display. While it is not ideal in design, the navigation is easy enough in practise.

Apart from the range of gift items already discussed, the site is rather lacking in that it doesn`t contain much other content. The gifts themselves are somewhat limited in range as well, but there are some true delights.

Information compiled by Keynote Systems, a Web site performance measurement company, finds that The Red Gift Bag is a well performing site, with download times well within the informal industry standard of eight seconds, and error rates of less than 1%.

I was quite intrigued by the thought of a personal shopper. I wondered how accurate their suggestions would be, given the little information they have to go on, and considering that finding the perfect gift for anyone is generally extremely difficult.

The site promises to respond to such requests within 24 hours. Sad to say, I didn`t believe this for a moment, and sadder still, I was proven correct in my assumption that I wouldn`t hear from the site for a few days at least. It was three days before first contact was made, and the gift suggestions were, as I had feared, completely off the mark.

I requested more suggestions, and offered a few specifications to narrow down the field. That mail was replied to again, three days after I sent it, and I haven`t heard a word from The Red Gift Bag team since then.

Even if the staff were to suggest a suitable gift, I think the delivery options might sour me against going all the way. On the plus side, the site offers delivery to hospital patients, with a day or two`s delay depending on where the hospital is situated - but no deliveries will be made on weekends or public holidays.

The delivery costs are structured according to postal zones, and appear to be directly proportional to the distance between The Red Gift Bag`s operation and the recipient. For example, national express delivery sent to anywhere within 35km of a major city centre will cost you R48.50, and the gift will arrive on the day after despatch.

Were I to express deliver a gift to Dubai, it would set me back R985.60 for the first hamper and a further R410 for every additional hamper. At that rate, I`d sooner shop from an e-tailer based in Dubai and catering specifically for that region. The Red Gift Bag`s offering, while pleasing enough, is by no means unavailable elsewhere in the world.