You go to the store to get that great sweater on sale you saw in yesterday’s paper. You go to the department, then to the aisle, then to the rack. You see the sign. “Great Sweaters. Regular $49.99. Two Day Sale $1.78.” You reach for it and find . . . a picture of the sweater with a banner across it that says “Sold Out.”
No, this never happens at the store. Not a brick and mortar store, that is. But it happens all the time on line. You get an e-mail that says for tonight only, all housewares are 99% off. You click on the link, the page opens, you see the counter in the corner, “Page 1 of 24; 20 of 480 Items.” Page 1 has a couple things you like. That Ice Crusher would be a real centerpiece for the counter but it’s “Sold Out.” Page 2 has a few more things of interest, and a few more “Sold Out” banners.
By the time you get to Page 5 you’re seeing more “Sold Out” masks than items of any real interest. You brace yourself for the long ride and decide to hit all 24 pages. The final count. Two things actually worth considering, one of them actually at a good price, and 307 items with a banner across their pictures announcing them to be “Sold Out.” Is that fair?
If they can put a banner on the picture why can’t they remove the picture? Or are the on-line stores trying to tell us that if we had less of a life and could spend all day with our e-mail open and hop on the announcement as soon as it was posted we too could be proud owners of a solar powered ice crusher?
Yes, we know that sometimes things go fast on line. Better to know they are sold out than to try to put a pair of chinchilla bowling gloves in your shopping cart only to find out later you aren’t getting them. Still, a little site maintenance would probably end up in better sales. We’d get less frustrated and actually go through all 24 pages – now reduced to 4.
Brick and mortar stores found out the hard way through consumer backlash that if they plan on advertising a fabulous deal but only put 2 or 3 copies in each store that they better say that in the ads. Then we know that when we get to the $1.78 sweater rack and we see an empty space that we missed out. We don’t need a picture to remind us of what we didn’t get. Maybe the on-line shops should take heed.
“All housewares on sale. Seven to choose from.”
Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?
The Real Reality Show Blog 