I received a voucher to use to test the website. I bought a book with it. All opinions are my own.
As a mom who works almost full-time and holds over 75% in purchasing power for the family, I’ve had to shift most of my non-grocery shopping online just to make life easier.
No more power-walking through shopping malls or traveling as far as 30 kilometres to bigger shopping malls with the expensive department stores. No more browsing shops for many hours and then going home with nothing. Online shopping has now become part of my ‘normal’.
I love it when I discover new online outlets from where I can grab a bargain and receive my purchase in very little time. So when I was approached to try out MumsDelivery Marketplace I was excited.
The website offers many of the features that we expect to find on an online store for parents, such as a blog, sections for tips, stories, recipes and reviews. It also has a marketplace, as the website name promises. That’s where I spent most of my time.
What makes the MumsDelivery Marketplace unique is that it features small and medium businesses, most of which are Australian. The businesses provide rare, quality products that are not so easy to find in the brick-and-mortar shops.
Having these suppliers in one place is great because I won’t need to visit each business’ site to place an order. You don’t deal with the businesses when placing your order on MumsDelivery Marketplace. You browse, add to your cart, review your cart and make the one purchase. Easy.
MumsDelivery Marketplace is not a massive outlet yet and I’m not sure what the plan is in regards to growth/expansion, but you can already find lots for every person in the family with options available to suit babies, growing children, and adults.
It also gives the option for a Gift Registry as well as the choice of ordering without signing up. If you want to, you can still track your order even if you didn’t sign up.
Busy mums will particularly appreciate the quick delivery, as we all know with children we can’t afford to wait.
Likes
Ordering was a breeze. The site has more or less the same kind of functions you’d expect on an online shop of various categories.
I don’t remember ever shopping on a site before that didn’t ask me to sign up prior to ordering. Happy to say that this was possible on MumsDelivery Marketplace.
The book I ordered came directly from the distributor, not MumsDelivery Marketplace. It came quick, too. Big thumbs up for that. The website is the middle man, bringing products in front of me in one spot, and then they are shipped from various spots.
That there, to me, is bliss, and tells me that if I had a few items and one was on back order, I should receive all the others except the one on back order. Perfect! Won’t have to wait.
Dislikes
When I placed my order I didn’t get an email with a notification that I’ve made a purchase. So I had no record of my invoice/receipt initially. I did manage to get one when I went back to the site to retrieve order information.
Because the book didn’t come from MumsDelivery Marketplace but the distributor of the book, I was expecting a notification on the site to tell me so. It’s not obvious right there when placing your order that products will come from elsewhere.
The only other thing that bugged me a bit was the Categories list on the left navigation menu. It’s too long and I don’t like that it’s in bold font. I recommend grouping them to condense the list, remove the bold, expand that sidebar slightly, shorten the words on the categories and fit each onto one line. I want to see the entire list above the fold, which in website lingo means without scrolling down. That way, if you are not selling the category I’m after, I can move on.
Would I order again?
I’ve ordered only once but I’m satisfied with my purchase. It was quick and I didn’t encounter any security issue that worried me at all. MumsDelivery Marketplace is now on my list, so I will come back.
I will also check for improvement, I think the concept is a totally great idea and whoever though it up to pool together the businesses lined up on the marketplace should be hugged, tightly.
Have you shopped at Mums Delivery? Share your opinion below.