Aaaahh, the holidays and the holiday sales flyers. While perusing through a flyer, I came across a promotion for a GPS navigation system for my car. After getting lost the day before, I thought it was time to get yet another gadget for my collection, so I went to the seller's Web store and entered the Web ID from the flyer into the search bar. To my surprise, it went straight to the right product.

I quickly looked over the product reviews of others and found that the product was one of the highest rated in the group. The price of the GPS looked appealing, so I went to the "pick it up today" option. Apparently, sales items are not stocked in my area. The GPS was sold out in six stores within a 30-mile radius.

I thought I'd have it shipped home and added it to the cart. Well, two of my research items came to mind while doing this: user-defined content (the reviews which sold me) and the fact that the business process of promotion to cash was broken.

Next, I thought I needed some accessories to go with the GPS. The accessories were in stock at the store but I chose to have them shipped, because going to the store no longer seemed fun without the GPS prize.

Once again, the user-defined product reviews of the accessories made me feel like I was buying the best product for me. However, I really wanted the items today. I couldn't wait any longer not getting lost anymore, so I abandoned the cart and decided to save my money.

Let's review:

Sales promotion in flyer linked to site: Good
Promotional Web ID printed in flyer: Good (but could use larger font)
Web ID working with search engine: Good
Shopping recommendations and cart managed: Good
User-defined reviews: Excellent (Nice use of Web 2.0)
Online reservation and in-store pick up: Good
Stock in any store: Bad

Nice second-generation multichannel focus. However, did I mention the Wed ID that took me to a different product than the one in the flyer? Well, that's third-generation.

How was your shopping over the holiday? (And for you business-to-business folks, don't think you don't promote and sell out-of-stock items by the truck load.)