I was asked by the owner of PowderTalk.com to review their website. She asked me not to worry about being nice and that she wanted feedback that was useful. You can be guaranteed that I don’t hold back when I write my reviews. I am by nature a positive person but if I don’t like something I go ahead and say it.

PowderTalk.com at First Glance

At first glance their site is warm and inviting, they have a cute flash image that shows a young woman sitting down surrounded by shopping bags. Next to her, shoes and parcels appear out of thin air. That is the picture PowderTalk wants you to envision for yourself. You can shop in the comfort of your own home and packages will come to you instead of having to deal with Kuwait’s heat, congested traffic and crowded malls.

“Our store focuses on bringing new items to our customers in Kuwait, with our cash on delivery service, all you have to do is to choose your order, confirm it, and voila! It will reach you in a couple of days at most.”

When browsing the site, you can find such categories as Fashionista, Sassy Skull, Bride To B, and Yummy Mummy. PowderTalk tries to cater to all these women, offering eclectic and funky items to those with a unique sense of style. You won’t just find women’s apparel at PowderTalk. They offer many pieces for the office, the working woman, children’s wallpaper and baby items. The prices are reasonable. Some of the charms were for KD2 and shirts ranged from KD20 and higher.

One of their best sellers is the Voom dress. I noticed that the majority of their inventory was sold out or one of the last piece. Sizes were hard to come by, ensuring you got something unique. Customers have already addressed the issue of few pieces and PowderTalk’s reply is that they will continue to stock their online store but they focus on select pieces, quality instead of quantity.

Many of the items on the site are perfect to present as gifts, from office ornaments to presents for newborns. Wall Candy Art was one of the first things that got my attention. Each kit comes complete with pictures that you can decorate a child’s room with. These pictures can be peeled away later. They’re fun for the entire family.

“We also encourage young q8y designers who have new and innovative ideas to contact us and we will arrange for their items to be shown on our website. We love new talents and we love the feeling of pride we get when we see new generations thinking out of the box and trying to spread out their wings.”

Keeping the Customer Happy

PowderTalk knows the cardinal rule to business is keeping the customer happy! In order to keep the customer happy, they strive to offer the best customer service. One feature is payment on delivery. PowderTalk rewards their best customers with special and exclusive offers. Their first ten customers received a special newsletter that notified them of opportunities not available to those browsing the website. Customers get newsletters letting them know of next week’s arrivals and a chance to reserve pieces before they appear online. That sense of exclusivity appeals to local tastes.

“Also, since our customers always come first, we will try and find the brands they love and stock them at our website for no extra charge. All they have to do is ask.”

PowderTalk relies on customers to let them know what works, what doesn’t and what items are in demand. This is why sizes vary depending on demand. They have a numerous amount of special services, such as gift wrapping which is available on request for an extra charge and they are looking into shipping gifts directly to their recipients.

What I Didn’t Like On The Website

This section is biased because I didn’t order anything from the site so my review is incomplete in that respect. Instead I will talk about what I did experience and that was browsing through the website.

In general, the site needs to improve the presentation of its content. For example, the categories could be better organized. I disliked seeing the same items in different categories. Separating items will ensure people click on each category.

I found the red number at the end of the category to be jarring. Maybe a different color would work better or removing the numbers altogether.

Another issue that dealt with presentation was a number of the images on the site are pixilated. Several times I clicked on Enlarge and still saw a blurry image. That defeated the purpose of enlarging an image. A couple of times I clicked on an image and it would open a new window in a new browser instead of a pop-up. There should be harmony and unision in presentation elements.

Organizing the sizes in which products were available in would help. I clicked on an item and the first thing I saw was that one size was sold out. When I clicked on the arrow to see what other sizes were available I noticed that they were out of order. You can see an example of what I mean below. A little organization goes a long way for customers trying to make up their minds.

The last issue I had with the presentation on PowderTalk is over sold out items. It didn’t make sense to me that I was able to add an item into my cart when it said it was sold out. Talk about a mixed message! Does it mean they will process my payment and fill out my order? I didn’t find out because I didn’t go ahead with my purchase.

I know that putting together a site is a tough job. I think Powdertalk has done an admirable job so far. They just launched on May 17th and already I’ve heard a lot of positive buzz about them on the internet. The site demands constant tweaking but in the end I’m sure PowderTalk will get it right.

Now here is where YOU can help out!

Visit Powdertalk.com. Browse. Return here and tell me what you thought of them in the comments.

Remember that the owner of the site is reading this and values constructive feedback so please be thorough. If you’ve purchased anything from them your feedback increases in value since you have knowledge of their delivery service. Did you return something to them? How is their customer service? Let us know in the comments!

Are you a Kuwaiti store with your own site and/or blog? If you would like me to review your store send me an email:

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