Random Thoughts – Randocity!

Nothing is more frustrating during online shopping than when e-tailers send out a coupon code for a one day sale that doesn’t work.  I have to wonder, are these sites just stupid, clueless or technically inept?  Let’x explore.

Holiday Shopping Spree

If you’re like me, I tend to shop for things when people send me coupon codes.  Specifically, I shop when things are wearing out. I try to make sure these purchase times match up when coupon codes are available.  So, I like to wait for sale days like Memorial Day, President’s Day or, like today, Labor Day.  So, I’m happy when companies where I like to shop send me a 20% or 30% off coupon.  I generally like to take advantage of these deals because they don’t appear that frequently and I can shop for clothes that are wearing out.

Clickable Ad Banners in Email

Unfortunately, many of these e-tail sites are so inept or mismanaged that they email out the code but they forget to activate the code.  Sometimes they deactivate it too early.  Worse, they send an email with a big clickable banner ad describing this ‘Sale’ that, when you click, takes you to their home page and not to the sale items that apply to the code.  This action leaves you wondering what the heck is actually on sale?   One word comes to mind: inept.  Retailers, this is a seriously stupid practice.  If you send out an email that you’re having a 20% off sale, a click should immediately take you to the sales item(s).  Don’t make your customers guess what’s on sale.   In the case where I am taken to the front page, I close the browser, delete the email and move on.  Sorry, you’ve just lost a sale and I simply won’t shop there.  I know I’m not alone in this.  A lot of people fill their carts and either abandon the cart or clear it out because of stupid things like coupon codes that don’t work.

Coupon Codes that Don’t Work

I’ve had many times where some company sends me a coupon code that when you type it into the cart and click ‘Apply’, the message says ‘This coupon is not valid’ or ‘This coupon does not apply to the items in your cart’.  This goes back to the above issue.  If you’re planning to issue a coupon code and spend the time and effort to email your email list with this code, you damned well better test that code to make sure it works and you damned well better make sure the customers know to which items the code applies.  Don’t make your customers guess.  Additionally, for 24 hour sales, you should make also sure that code works until midnight.  And by this I mean, make sure it works until midnight of the customer’s timezone, not just your company’s timezone. That coupon should not expire at midnight your company’s timezone time as that could be midday in some locales. The code should expire at midnight wherever your shopper resides or better, expire it the following day sometime during the day to prevent expiration before the day is over for every customer and also lets late customers take advantage.  After all, isn’t the idea behind a coupon code to get people into your site to purchase?

Customers walking away

Making stupid moves like not activating coupons, deactivating them early or making your customers guess as to what merchandise the coupon applies is just a stupid practice.  You probably think I’m talking about small mom-and-pop shops here.  No, these are well known well respected companies that are making these most basic mistakes, like Jockey, Tommy Bahama and Zagg.

Nothing is more frustrating than filling up your cart with merchandise expecting to use a coupon code only to find that it doesn’t work.  Or, worse, not finding the merchandise to which the sale or coupon applies.  In these cases, I empty the cart, close the browser window and delete the email.  If these companies do this more than once,  I remove myself from their email list as it’s quite clear that these companies do not have their act together.  Which, if you think about it, is completely odd.  These are retailers in business to make money.  If you’re planning to offer a sale that uses a coupon code and that code doesn’t work, do you really think people are going to pay full price anyway?  No.  Selling your merchandise is your bread and butter and if you want people to buy your stuff, then you need to make sure your email ads reflect the reality of your site.  If it doesn’t work, then you have even more serious issues on your hands, not the least of which might be considered fraud.

Amazon Better?

I just don’t understand this practice.  This is why Amazon is kicking butt.  With Prime, you get 2 day shipping included and the best price without hassling with coupon codes.  Sure, you might be able to find it slightly cheaper at some mom-and-pop shop.  But, the hassle of setting up a new account and dealing with yet more email that can’t do it right outweighs the few pennies of savings you might get from that mom-and-pop shop.  So, I always find myself back at Amazon buying, at least for hassle-free purchasing.  I don’t want to deal with coupon codes that don’t work, sites that don’t specify what’s on sale or silly stupid problems like this.

For those sites that do this, fix your sites or lose the sale and be trampled by Amazon.  It’s quite simple.