ComfortChannel.com Blog

With Cyber Monday coming to a close, business was brisk today and the customer email questions were coming in strong.  I have selected a few questions for this blog entry to provide a sample of the inquiries we receive.

Question #1: I am looking for a very firm neck pillow. Could you tell me whether any of these 3 items are very firm, The Tri Core Pillow, the Perfect Rest Pillow , or the Obus Forme Cervical Neck Pillow?

Answer:  The best bet may be the millet pillow, which is packed firm, but allows you to adjust. Otherwise the Tri-core pillow firm is a good choice (4353) http://www.comfortchannel.com/prod.itml/icOid/10482, (Millet). The Core Perfect Rest Pillow  is designed for side sleepers so it not flexible.

Question #2: I have a customer who would like to know if the regular nine week window can be shortened on an order of one Wesaunard Eutopia Towel warmer (Electric, in chrome) model 3Z Electric Fix Kit Right)?

Answer: We can shorten the Wesaunard Eutopia towel warmer to 4 weeks. The manufacturing productivity has improved this fall. Question #3: Is it possible to use the inversion gravity boots with the F9000 Inversion table?

Answer: Yes, the Teeter Gravity boots work with all Teeter Hang Ups Inversion Tables.

Oprah can sell ice to eskimos.  It is widely known that products mentioned on her show experience a sensational demand spike.  Google Trends is littered with her list items, many in the top 20. Comfortchannel.com experienced this first hand with the mention of the chillow pillow in 2005 on her show.  Her list includes the Toywatch crystal watches, Panini presses, Kitchen aid mixers, Melamine bowls, LG refrigerator, Kai body butter, Clarisonic Facial sonic cleanser tool, and the Planet Earth DVD set to name a few.  I remember my wife watching the Oprah show where Oprah plugged Planet Earth and interviewed several people involved with the production. A big reason it made the 2007 favorite things list. 

So how did we do?  We scored pretty good with the panini press, and have a good selection of the kitchen gadgets that are inspiration for some of her list items.  We need to get the facial cleansing tool.  Stay Tuned.

Online retailers are at it again to boost holiday sales and entice customers to open up their wallets.  The Wall Street Journal recently covered several popular perks coming into fashion this year.  Why?  US Consumers are forecasted to spend 33 Billion on internet purchases.  Here are some of the incentives.

1.  Shop early: Retailers are trying to create web only specials for specific periods, such as Black Friday at Best Buy or Amazon ”you pick the special”  offers.  Since internet shopping experiences can range from good to bad, it is best to shop soon after Thanksgiving.  The stress of shipping delays and out of stock notifications will be much lower when you can be first in line for purchases. 

2. Free Shipping:  Many online retailers use free shipping, including comfortchannel.com, because it drives more sales than any other promotion.   Shipping cut off dates may be later this year since Christmas falls on a Tuesday.  Shoppers can sneak in orders on Thursday night December 20th, pay for overnight shipping, and have the item arrive Christmas Eve.  However, beware the processing leadtime.

3. Gift Idea Centers: Comfortchannel offers a good tool for gift ideas for men, women, and children.  These features help customers come up with ideas to give family members when brainstorming without any suggestions may end up with the same ideas as last year.

 4. Give your email:  While giving exclusive promotions through email newsletters seem enticing to retailers.  I would prefer to give coupon codes through a blog and let anyone who has an interest in shopping with us to bookmark the blog, use the RSS feeder for updates and keep up to date with comfortchannel promotional codes, and other special offers or new product launches.   For example, we have launched some cool pet products, such as fancy dog beds and dog houses, that make a great match for the posh puppy.  Fancy pet products are not just for the indulgent pet owner, since people have begun to view pets as a key member of the family. 

So lets tie this together and offer a comfortchannel coupon code for Merry Products Dog Houses. The coupon code is merry.  Type this code into the shopping cart check out page for 10% off.  The code will  expire 12/4/07.

My Wife alerted me this morning that The Today Show did a feature on back pain.  I tuned into the video and found that they covered some of the same stats I found featured in a WSJ article recently.  The program covered the following ideas.  65 million americans suffer from some sort of back pain and $50 billion is spent on items such as back support belts, beds, chairs, and back cushions each year.  The RelaxtheBack Retailer did $90 million in revenue last year selling ergonomic products.  One of the first products featured on the program was the inversion table.  Inversion therapy helps to naturally decompress the spine.  As we also cover inversion therapy and sell inversion tables, we advise that users check with their doctor if they have blood pressure issues before using an inversion table.

 Another point addressed on the site is the amount of time the average americans spend sitting in their car; 100 hours of sitting a year.  Back lumbar support for the car then becomes something that can matter and heated car seat cushions are one of our best sellers. 

 Finally, the main prevention technique to avoid back trouble is strengthening the core muscles.  Core muscles in back and abdomen support the spine.   Good to know that we are providing items that can help alleviate back pain.

We will try to make this a regular blog topic since we receive questions and comments daily and sometimes it is good to share the information to the general public.

We recently were contacted by a customer who claimed that we charged their card and did not ship their merchandise.  Alarming as this is, we immediately investigated and could not find the customer anywhere in the database.  After she checked again, she emailed back and apologized. She informed us that the poor customer service retailer was not us.  She plans to do her shopping at Comfortchannel.com for now on instead of them.  Unfortunately, there are many people out there who get website names confused.  It seems that everyday there is another website popping up with comfort in the title.  I take a look at these sites and feel that no one is offering navigation, information, service capabilities, and site layout better than we are.  We continue to innovate and also add new products daily.  Obviously the effort is paying off.  One of the top keywords for shoppers finding us is our brandname; comfortchannel.  So now you know why the competition likes to bid on our brand name in google and try to poach our customers.    We will focus on doing our job better versus following the competition.