i finally have help: a review of Alice.com

Months ago i had heard about alice.com i was very excited and signed up to get an email when it went live; which it did this morning. Only last month did i start using Amazon’s subscription thing for our laundry detergent but i’m already anticipating that Alice will trump Amazon. Here’s why:

Alice provides you a better way to manage all of your household essentials online. You tell Alice what you buy—choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work. We organize all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low, and help you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store. And all this convenience comes direct to your door with free shipping included.

When you go to Alice.com, you’re struck by the simplicity of the web design; something i always appreciate. You immediately know what it is, how to use it, and where to get information you need.

Getting started
Once you’re sold on “never run out,” “find the best price,” “always free shipping,” “eliminates store trips” you’ll click on “start your free account” which asks you about who’s in your family.

Then it asks what your family uses. It gives you a list of standard items you can check or uncheck. You can add more later, but this is a start.

The third and final set up screen gets you to input your standard log in information- what’s your name? what’s your email? what password do you want to use?

once you’re in
you have access to your order history, spending history, reorder alerts, coupon savings, and deals alice things you might like.

Adding your products is easy peasy. you click on the duck that represents the item you mentioned you wanted to add and then you get to choose from all the items they have available.

The search/filter features are amazing. When i first saw it i thought “our library catalog needs to do/look like this.”

The whole thing is very visual, which i appreciate. Once you’ve added your product, you see the product itself on your “shelf” which you can drag and drop into your cart to buy more of. Super simple.

For each product, you also can set a reorder frequency- from 2 weeks to 6 months and every option in between. There’s even an “i dont know” option for those items you have no idea how long it takes you to use it up. For each product, the default reorder time is guessed by the system (aka, toilet paper is probably needed more frequently then deodorant).

One thing that strikes me is that i finally have a true grasp on how much things i usually buy cost. I can sort things by brand, cost, coupon $ or %, green, bargain, premium, brand name, or subcategory. Because who doesn’t love saving money, i filter the products by Low Price and i’m usually amazed at the difference. The price is so clearly stated (unlike the stickers on grocery store shelves) i finally understand things and can make an easier, more educated decision on what i want to buy.

Downsides

• there’s a scrolling coupon thing at the bottom of the pages that updates every minute or so and distracts me
• no store brand, or local brand items

I have yet to finish placing an order or receive it but so far, i’m amazingly impressed and very happy that i can knock the dry household goods stuff off our grocery list. It’s usually enough of an issue to get to the store for fresh stuff!

Try out Alice.com for yourself: