You probably all know by now just how much I love helping people to save money. However, I have a confession to make. While on the face of it I may seem like some kinda consumerism-hating hippy, by day I actually work in an industry that thrives on making people spend as much as possible. I know. I’m a dishonest monster.
I work within the digital marketing industry and I’ll let you into a little secret… When we see that someone has abandoned their online shopping basket without buying the things they were originally going to buy, we lose our minds!
As a result, an increasing number of marketing folk are targeting online shoppers with very specific adverts based on the things they’ve left in their online shopping basket.
I even find myself ‘falling victim’ to the cheeky trick from time to time. Just this morning I added a book to my Amazon shopping basket before changing my mind and closing the tab without making a purchase. Sure enough, a few hours later I started to see adverts on numerous other websites reminding me to buy the book in question.
This might sound like a bad thing but in reality, it can actually work in your favour! Some companies are so keen to get basket-abandoning-shoppers to buy things that they’ll offer them a discount in the hope of making the sale!
So that’s right, you guessed it…By adding the items you want to your shopping basket and then abandoning your cart, you could find yourself inundated with offers and discounts on those very items. You’ll need to be registered with the retailer in question and logged into your account when adding the items to your basket.
Some retailers will send you vouchers via email while others may show you adverts on other websites.
Obviously an even better way to save money would be to abandon your cart altogether, run a mile, and never return! As far as I’m concerned, the best way to save money is to not spend it in the first place.
Besides, it’s worth remembering that discounts and vouchers codes weren’t invented to save consumers money. They were invented to make businesses money!
As a result, before making any purchase I suggest taking a second to ask yourself “Do I really need this?”
If the answer is ‘yes’ and you really *must* have a particular item, this could be a great way of getting the things you need at a discounted price. However, be aware that not all businesses do this trick and so you may spend ages filling your basket only to never see an advert again.
