Offers and Specials and Deals, Oh My!
I’m freakin’ out, man.
I mean it. It’s not even Thanksgiving and I’m stressed out about the holidays. Holiday shopping, to be specific.
Every day I open my e-mail to see yet another round of offers from online and offline retailers.
Buy today, get free shipping!
40% off everything for the next 48 hours!
Free beer with every order!
Okay, I made up the last one. And I would have ignored it, as I don’t drink beer anyway. But you get the idea. Every day, there’s another offer that could be better than the last.
Don’t get me wrong. I love a bargain. But as a consumer, it’s stressful as all heck. I don’t know whether to buy today, or wait a day or a week, in case there’s a better deal.
For example, my kids need new winter gloves and I’m partial to the ones from Lands End. I know exactly what I want to order, but haven’t yet, because every single day Lands End has a new “St. Nick’s Pick” deal. What if I order today, and tomorrow is the day they discount gloves? And what if I order on a day without free shipping? And if I wait too long, they’ll run out of the colors and sizes I want.
Arrrrragh!
I find I’m checking Weather.com obsessively to make sure that it won’t snow any minute, so the knit “SpongeBob” and “Star Wars” $3.99 gloves will suffice until I break down and order the proper waterproof ones I’ve been eyeing.
How about you? As a retailer, are you buffeting your customers with an ever changing array of specials? And as a consumer, how are you responding (or not responding) to the offers you receive?
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go look out the window to see if there are any flurries.
