Online poundshops – Poundshop.com vs Hereforapound.com a comparison

I recently compared online supermarkets, so I thought I would take a look at the new online pound shops. At the beginning of February, there was a media buzz around the new online discount stores. The major contenders were Poundshop.com, Hereforapound.com and Pound Panda. Now Pound Panda seems to have already exited the ring and its site is still down, so I decided to focus on the other two. My summary of pros and cons and my first impressions are below.

I have to admit that with two Pound Land shops within walking distance of my house (I am really lucky ;-)), I am not that tempted to shop online, however, for those that have to drive into town or want to buy a stack of stuff and use public transport, or for those that don’t like to be seen in a pound shop (shame on you ;-)), then the online alternative is perfect. However, also beware that you can find products for less than a pound too that the pound shops sell, for example, I picked up two 125 g bars of Simple soap for 74p in Morrisons, and the pound shops are selling the same thing.

Now when shopping online, trust is a massive consideration, especially for new stores, however, both of these operations have some pedigree. Poundshop.com is part of Pound World and also the brain child of ex-head of Pound Land, and Hereforapound.com is a run by a husband and wife team with an already successful online business. That said, do keep on eye on any negative reviews that are building up on any online retailer if they are new…watch out for lack of delivery and no customer service. Right rant over, here are my findings.

When looking at the shops, I was reviewing range, delivery costs and speed of delivery primarily and if the site was easy to use, then brilliant that would make my life easier.

My findings for Hereforapound.com

With 14 categories, I was very much looking forward to a browse. I started with the 100 products in the toiletries category, but was disappointed when I found five items in the car category and two in batteries.

Because of the limited range, I struggled to buy more than £5 worth of items, so to get my free delivery at £15, otherwise, it’s £3.50, I bought a lot of deodorants.

For both Hereforapound.com and Poundshop.com, I used the contact form to ask several questions on 25 February. No automated response and actually no response at all at time from either of the shops at the time of posting. However, I also used the help button on the home page for Hereforapound.com for one simple question on 1 March and was answered in a few hours.

The site was really attractive and worked very well on my mobile too. I hovered over the product for more detail and there is a quick look button.

I found that the products I looked at had good quality descriptions.

When I came to check out, there was no need to be registered as you can check out as a guest, which is very welcome and saves time.

Ooh I got free delivery and looks like the delivery can be made over a wide timeframe in a day – betweeen 9 am and 7 pm Monday to Saturday – and will be attempted three times before return to Hereforapound.

I could pay by either Paypal or credit or debit card.

My findings for Poundshop.com

This site was much more drab looking than rival Hereforapound website and it was hard to navigate on my phone, but the choice was much better. It’s a shame that there’s no free delivery and the 10% discount code I was sent didn’t work. With 18 categories, even though some of the items were in more than one category, I went through the whole site and was very impressed by the range. I found it easy to spend over more than £20.

There was a lot of choice. This is one of the subcategories – for cleaning products, with 122 products:

Ooh and I discovered one of my Pound Land favourites in there, Finish Dishwasher tabs for £1 for 10. Now if you want to stock up and can’t face carrying them from town, this is a deal and a half.

And in the fashion category, some interesting items like this bra:

As a diet coke addict, this also excited me. I like the 500 ml bottles you see and this deal is the best I’ve ever seen on these bottles:

They have a cool party range too:

When I ordered and was a bit annoyed that I found out about a couple of items insufficient stock levels once I came to confirm my order. It would be good if they could indicate, less than five left or similar up front.

Unfortunately the discount code I got the day before didn’t work. I guess I needed to use it that day, but as I didn’t get it till 7.31 pm, that seems a bit daft.

Annoyingly I had to have an account:

The £3.65 for delivery for up to 15 kg did grate a bit as Hereforapound offer free delivery over £15. Poundshop.com also offered PayPal or credit card payment.