Archive for November, 2009

Alice.com & Good Guide help shoppers find out what’s really in their shopping baskets

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

In the past few years, sustainability has evolved from a small niche consideration into a mainstream trend for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies.  In fact, shoppers across all market segments in CPG are now factoring environmental, health, and social considerations into their purchase decisions.

To their credit, CPG manufacturers have responded aggressively to this trend, introducing a host of manufacturing, packaging, and ingredient changes to their products to satisfy changing consumer demands.

One next big step for the industry will be to help consumers separate true innovation from the sea of marketing claims being made in the sustainability realm.  Simply put, consumers need quick, reliable information about CPG products at the point of purchase.

That’s why we are pleased to announce today that Alice.com is teaming up with Good Guide to incorporate the Good Guide product ratings into our Alice.com shopping experience.

Good Guide Rating

By integrating GoodGuide’s independent  rankings and data into our product inventory, we’ve helped put important  information about the sustainability and health impacts of products at the point of purchase where consumers need it most.

Alice.com is excited to be the first eCommerce site integrate GoodGuide’s independent  rankings and data in this fashion. Shoppers choosing products on Alice.com can now see GoodGuide’s independent health, environmental and social responsibility ratings for everyday items such as cereal, cleaning products and baby shampoo.  GoodGuide is also integrating links on its site to Alice.com providing consumers with an easy option to purchase products they have researched on GoodGuide.

You can read more in our press release. We’re excited about this improvement to the Alice.com site and look forward to hearing what you think.

Alice.com announces $6 million in funding and rapid growth

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Today, we announced we have completed a $6 million round of funding.  The latest funding comes from a group of private investors and brings the total amount raised by Alice.com to date to more than $10 million.  We will tap the funding to continue to manage our growth and onboard additional manufacturers onto our unique industry platform.

Since opening the Alice.com service to the public on June 23, 2009, the company has experienced rapid customer growth, and is currently averaging more than 1 million unique visitors to the service on a monthly basis.

“We have been extremely pleased with the reception that the Alice.com platform has received in the marketplace from both consumers and manufacturers alike,” says Brian Wiegand, CEO.  “Direct to consumer sales by manufacturers is a growing trend online, and the Alice.com platform is helping the CPG industry open up a direct channel to its mainstream consumer.  It’s a win-win that brings great value to the end consumer, and critical consumer relationships and insights to the manufacturer.”

Read the full press release >

Alice makes it even easier to find the best price

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

We live in a transparent world, and Alice is continually working to ensure that the consumer has the big picture on price when shopping at Alice.com.  We’ve always given the user a price comparison on every product so they can compare the prices available at other stores.  Today, we are enhancing our site to add a price per unit feature to unit in order to compare one product to another and find the best value quickly.

This price per unit feature has been requested by many of our customers, and we are happy to be able to respond to their requests.  Here’s how it works:

Cost per unit

On all of our products, you will now see the cost per unit listed next to the quantity on that item. For instance, if you’re looking at a pack of 104 diapers at a cost of $20.24 on Alice, you can easily reference that the price is $0.19 per diaper. You can also sort by the Price Per Unit feature to quickly find the lowest price.

In today’s economy, every purchase is more considered, and we are happy to bring this new functionality to market to help make buying CPG goods online even more powerful for today’s consumer.