Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Amazons Like Young Girls

I’m gonna make this short and sweet because I know all of you are busy entering your Black Friday shopping locations into your GPS and mapping out your strategy in order to get the best possible deals you can as you attempt to complete your Christmas shopping all in one longer-every-year day.  

STOP!  There is another option. You can still get a deal AND you can do it while you eat that third piece of pie as you watch Bob Hope sing White Christmas.  Or is it Bing Crosby?  Anyway, before you throw down that turkey leg and drive off with whipped cream lipstick, take a breath, click here and read this. 

 Oh, right.  I know.  You’re busy doing your Black Friday stretches, squats and bicep curls in preparation for the shopping battle.  Let me give you the highlight. 

Hesitating on a purchase shows your willingness to go elsewhere and may get a retailer to sweeten the pot. Web research firm Baymard Institute found that 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned after initial click-throughs. Retailers are desperate to convert those carts into sales, so in many cases they’ll offer a better deal to get you to buy, says Phillips.
Coupon site Rather-be-shopping.com found 17 well-known retailers(including Bed, Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, and Williams-Sonoma) that offered coupons (ranging from 20% off to free shipping) to customers who left their carts.
Don’t want to pay full price on those towels from Pottery Barn? Log in to your Pottery Barn account and put them in your cart. Within a few days, you may get an email offering them at a lower price.
Don’t believe me?  Abby bought a comforter from Amazon.  She left hers in her cart for a while because she wanted to discuss it with Jorge first.   When she went back to her cart to purchase it, the comforter price had dropped $10.00 from its original price! After she got the comforter, she liked it so much I decided to replace my own I’m-too-embarrassed-to-tell-you-how-old-my-dust-mite-infested-comforter-is with the same one.  I went to Amazon and the comforter had gone back up to its original price.  I waited a few days and it finally dropped $8.00 and I bought it.  Even though it was still $2.00 more than Abby had paid I was so excited to think this shopping cart price change thing actually worked for me that I sent my final confirmation e-mail to Abby. 

 She responded “I win.” What?!  That's not what I was expecting.  It turns out she had decided to purchase a second comforter and had apparently left hers in the cart longer than I did and it had dropped $14.00 from the original price in her cart! 

So if you have a few days to wait, and you would rather shop from the comfort of your home as you sip a glass of wine, give this a try.  And if it you think it isn’t working for you…………..well……………have another glass of wine and wait a little longer.  It will.  Or ask Abby to put it in her cart.  I think Amazon likes her better.

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Shopping!


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1 comment:

Larry said...

Cathy, You may be right on Amazon liking girls. I'm a big Amazon user, but have gotten a bit timid on putting things in my cart (my wish list has gotten unmanageable) as frequently the price of the desired item goes UP on me. I just know they have some little gnome watching my cart and hollering back at his buddies to jack up the price when he sees I've added something cool to my cart. Having said that, I have gotten a few good deals with price drops. The little shite must have been asleep those times.