A few weeks ago I received an email from a web consultant that was working with Quebec based Simons. He asked me to write a review of the shopping experience and would provide me with a $50 gift certificate to get started. Simons has always been a must visit on my trips to Montreal. I accepted his offer and hence this post.

The gift certificate came to me via email which I thought was excellent considering a physical card really didn’t serve a purpose in this situation. The Simons.ca website has a clean, simple layout and lots of white space. I hate websites will lots of bells and whistler or ones that use flash and play music automatically. It shouldn’t take the user many mouse clicks to get product into a shopping cart and I tend to give up on sites with lousy user interfaces. The Simons.ca user interface provides all the search functions I expect: colour, brand, price and date added.

I purchased the Trompe-l’oeil plunge-neck sweater and a large cowl neck striped tunic. I spent more than $50 but was pleasantly surprised that in addition to the regular credit card payment options you can choose Pay Pal or Interac. I used Interac to pay the difference and it was super easy. Simons offers free shipping for orders over $40 and free returns. They also gives you the option to pick up your order in store. I also like that I didn’t have to create an account to process my order.

Delivery was very fast. I ordered on the Friday and had my package on Wednesday. Some online retailers don’t put any effort into packaging. I think packaging is one of the most important aspects of an online shopping experience. I automatically think higher of companies that think of both the online and offline experience for the customer. My order came in a perfectly sized box branded with the Simons logo in its signature green. The clothing was wrapped in branded tissue paper and sealed with a Simons leaf sticker.

Included in the box was one of the coolest branded tote bags I’ve ever seen. The tote is included in orders for a limited time only. The last aspect of the packaging that I really liked was the envelope the invoice came in pictured above.

So, I give Simons.ca a big thumbs up for their e-commerce experience. I love that Canadian companies getting into online shopping cause I really hate shipping fees and duties. They are unavoidable in some situations but I’m happy that more options for Canadians are becoming available.