[keeringplastik]

REI knows how to close the deal:

I was shopping a while back for a new tent. Wondered if I should wait for a 20% off single item coupon event like they do a couple times a year. Googled "when is the next rei 20% coupon?". I got the expected results: probably around labor day.

Lo and behold, a couple days after this I received an email from REI with a 25% off single item offer code.

I don't know of I should be frightened or not, but I got a new tent!

[awjr]

Standard procedure I try and do on most sites if I can wait a week or two. 1) Add items to basket 2) Checkout until they have at least my email saved. 3) Wait up to a week. 4) Purchase applying discount code that was emailed to me usually with a "Hey you didn't finalise your purchase".

I was working for a sex toy company in the UK and remember one of the developers running a mail shot process with a bug that accidentally resent the "abandoned baskets" email for all abandoned baskets for the last 4 years or so with a 20% off voucher. Busiest unexpected sales spike in the history of the company :)

[elorant]

Sounds like a SaaS waiting to happen.

[teej]

Search "abandoned cart promotion" and you'll find plenty of them.

[meira]

If we were back in 2012. Today is more like a day for a SaaS company like that to close.

[doug1001]

fascinating--i would have bet that sex toys have a fairly high price inelasticity (> 20% anyway) and are purchased impulsively.

[awjr]

The company, Lovehoney, have a 1 year return policy, no questions asked. So people are encouraged to find the one toy that "fits" them perfectly. They do get high return rates but they get very loyal customers.

Pretty awesome company tbh.

[fweespeech]

This is a standard eCommerce tactic.

We watch how much time you spend on a page, if you mess with options, etc.

If you seem to have any interest in a product we want to unload, we send you a coupon.

We have literally hundreds of SKUs we do this for at any given time to clear warehouse space for newer stuff.

[greenshackle]

Amusingly, the tactic resembles in-person haggling in China (and many other places). Salesman offers price, you walk away, they run after you offering a lower price.

[fweespeech]

Where do you think we got the idea? ;)

[keeringplastik]

That makes sense. I was indeed doing some hovering and dithering over tents.

What I found curious however, is the fact that I have never ordered anything from REI on my phone, nor logged on to any REI website (no cart, no account). All REI purchases go through my wife's account for the dividend.

How does casual browsing connect with an email address, excepting the Google search?

Sometimes I wonder if the Web has already passed some basic level of sentience.

You guys will let me know when that happens, right?

[dazc]

If there wasn't any chance of there being a code would you have bought the tent anyway?