Part of the objective of the proprietors of the North Cummingsburg ‘store’ Web Source is to create as customer-friendly a service as they can in a trading environment that has left the old-fashioned variety store behind.
Online shopping may be devoid of the ‘touch and feel’ trading culture to which Guyanese have become accustomed but that doesn’t say that it has to be devoid of good customer service, says Tracy Vieira, one half of the Web Source partnership.
Over time, Web Source has created a clientele out of consumers who, hitherto, may have ‘run a mile’ to evade website shopping. These days, Vieira says “regular, run-of-the-mill customers” come from Linden and other places with their debit cards to do their shopping online.
Guyana apart, Web Source is also located in Jamaica and Grenada and is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago.
Inside the Web Source Camp street outlet there are store attendants ready to help customers clear such technological hurdles as they might encounter shopping online. Here, the emphasis is on ease of shopping. In the area of clothing, sizes can sometimes become a problem and the service at Web Source can include the application of the old-fashioned tape measure just to ensure that correct fit.
Mindful of the local addiction to the visual element in shopping, Vieira says, Web Source has created its own show window, a modest area in which small quantities of ‘in demand’ items are placed on display.
Operationally, Web Source is geared for quick and easy shopping. It could take as little as three to five days between placing an order and having your package (s) delivered.
The desired items must be small enough to comprise manageable packages. Cellular phones, clothing and car parts are popular buys. Many of Web Source’s customers are looking for items in a hurry, replacements for parts or whole items that might have been stolen, broken or simply worn out.
Vieira herself spends a considerable amount of time on the internet often researching what can be found where. She believes that it is one way of staying ahead of the game. “People sometimes come to us with challenging requests,” she says.
So versed have Guyanese consumers become in the ways of the North American shopper that local internet service providers have become acutely aware of ‘peak periods’ associated with shopping. Those periods are linked to sales in the United States (Black Friday sales are known to significantly increase demand among Guyanese internet shoppers) and with holidays and special celebrations. Last week Web Source’s modest showcase displayed a small collection of Halloween material.
Customers are charged 6 per cent of the total cost of their shopping bill for use of the company’s card.
