Twice today I found myself drawn to an email that promised to sort my Christmas shopping woes with free delivery in time for Christmas – Bang – I’m sold.

So I duly went to the sites (John Lewis for my wife and Gap for my daughter) thinking a few stocking fillers would help with the shopping worries no end. So on both occasions I’m busy looking for that special something when bingo – the perfect item pops into view – could this get any better? Well yes, the truth is it could get a lot better, because on both occasions the sites failed to have anything like a normal size range available – my daughter would need to be about 6 feet tall not 6 years old if she was to fit into anything available at Gap, and my wife would have to put on about 4 stone if she was going to get the item I chose from John Lewis. So – I promptly logged off both sites and grumbled to myself that I still didn’t have the gifts I needed, but now I had less time than before.

So, the moral of the story retailers is this; sort out your UX (user experience) and consider the content in your offer (if indeed there is any content in the offer). I’m now less likely than I was to respond to a Gap or John Lewis email because I’ve simply lost faith in them. Hollow gestures like free delivery in time for Christmas are indeed good hooks, but let’s face it, we need more fulfillment than this if we are to really engage with the product and truly become brand advocates. Talking of which – Ocado still rocks!