In a recent Toronto Star article, Futureshop.ca was left to explain how customers were left without receiving products even after payment. The article, available here: Futureshop pricing error, explains how 2 products were being offered for the price of a single item - which was apparently wrong. The pricing error was fixed, but not until customers had already checked out with the previously stated price. Those customers were not provided what they purchased. Futureshop attributed the error to a recent eCommerce platform change. Both futureshop.ca and bestbuy.ca recently changed platforms and are reporting some minor bugs.Obviously pricing errors happen regularly, but it highlights a couple important issues. 1) Online retailers need the ability to resolve pricing and product information errors quickly and reliably and 2) Once a shopper makes it through checkout, it is important to honor the purchase where possible. The issue reported in the article would be similar to buying the product in the store (after seeing an advertised offer and checking out), loading up the car, then being flagged down in the parking lot by someone asking to return the product and pay more.
For retailers like futureshop, maintaining accurate pricing, inventory, and locations on the website requires sophisticated integration. This will typically involve near real-time two way synchronization of the back office IT systems with the eCommerce Platform and Order Management System (OMS). These integrations will rely on triggers, like a price change for example, and can be set to update the website immediately through pre-defined business rules and approval work flows. This level of integration can help retailers avoid (and resolve) these types of website issues.
In all likelihood the Futureshop pricing error was just part of getting settled into their new platform. However, there are some good Customer Service lessons in here for future hiccups.
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