When you advertise something on your site, be complete. If your product contains parts, list all those parts. Here is what happened:

My daughter (not pictured here, this is a totally random child), newly enamored of The Wizard of Oz, must have ruby slippers for Halloween. Dorothy, however, is aggressively trademarked, making finding her exact wardrobe difficult in stores. Target did have a costume with blue gingham and a red tulle petticoat that they call Ruby Slipper Darling, but it looked too much more like a saloon dancer, so no thanks, I’ll order elsewhere.

I go to a Wizard of Oz costume site. They picture (at right) and describe the Dorothy outfit as including the child’s dress with attached white shirt, inferring that anything else — ruby slippers, hair bows, basket and Toto the dog — will have tobe ordered separately. The dress looks a lot like Judy Garland’s. My daughter will love it. I am happy.

But what about the accessories? I have a perfect little basket, my daughter has a stuffed animal who will not mind being dressed up as the little dog. And since I found the awesome red sequined shoes at Target that were begging for some child to love them, all I needed were the hair bows. So I made sure to add them to my cart.

Then the package arrived. Dress, check. Bows, check. I open the shrink wrapped dress and out pops another set of bows. What? I sat looking at them for a half minute, then went back to the site. The dress description did not mention bows. Now I had two sets of bows. The second set of bows only cost $4.99 plus tax, but I felt kind of stupid for spending unnecessary money.

Moral of the story: It reflects poorly on your brand for people to feel stupid. You want people to love (and use that word) your brand. And it’s pretty easy to be complete. If you are offering a product online, be sure to be clear about what is included and what kinds of hoops might need to be jumped through to complete your order. There is no need to make anyone feel like they missed something. It might be obvious to you, but you are not your audience.

As a woman with many blue gingham bows now knows, clear online directions make for happy customers.