Is anyone else getting annoyed by getting "come back and finish your purchase" emails?

[AlphaWorld]

I'm particularly irritated by getting them from Sony. I look up a lens or camera on the Sony website to get the official specs, or to see if they is new firmware, and Sony sends me an email saying "Did you forget your Sony favourites?". The email includes a button labelled "Complete your order". I wasn't ordering anything.

Most recently I looked up some details on the 28-70 f/2 and the 400-800. And yes, I got one of those annoying emails.

If they had bothered to check, they'd see I'd already registered a copy of each of those lenses (it's one of the functions of Sony's website, after all). So why do those marketing idiots send these annoying emails?

My theory is that some sales bozo has sold software to a lot of websites saying something like "turn browsers into buyers!!". I guess the marketing departments fell for it. Amazon appears to be another victim - they don't check what you've bought from Amazon. Or maybe they think you need another copy of a book you've bought?

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I used to work for a retailer that had online and stores, this would have been an awesome marketing tool 15 yrs ago. It's a very clever use of cookies, but not so invasive as to cross check your previous purchases or personal account. I say just chalk it up to marketing people getting more desperate.

Now what's really interesting is when an online retailer that combines "did you forget this item" with a 5-10% discount, but I have only seen that for a limited number of retailers...

 

[Richard A]

I was looking at some specs on the Sony Australia website just the other day and I didn't get any emails like that. I have had them from other places before though.

 

[THXGEEK]

Now what's really interesting is when an online retailer that combines "did you forget this item" with a 5-10% discount, but I have only seen that for a limited number of retailers...

I've also seen this and will sometimes purposely leave my cart intact to see if I can lure them into offering a discount. I've also made a habit of checking prices with a different browser (with a cleared cache) and different ip (switched via my vpn). Very frequently, the prices will be different - especially with Amazon.

Final thought - marketing emails are indeed annoying. I have maintained my sanity by utilizing a different email address for different purposes. I have a 'Friends & Family' account, a separate one for finances, one for hobbies (such as photography), one for different political causes (talk about spam!) and a basic garbage account that I rarely check (I log in once every few months and dump the inbox into the bin).

 

[AlphaWorld]

I used to work for a retailer that had online and stores, this would have been an awesome marketing tool 15 yrs ago. It's a very clever use of cookies, but not so invasive as to cross check your previous purchases or personal account. I say just chalk it up to marketing people getting more desperate.

Now what's really interesting is when an online retailer that combines "did you forget this item" with a 5-10% discount, but I have only seen that for a limited number of retailers...

I have had that once (Prograde), and I actually liked that, because the discount was enough to tip my purchasing decision from, “I’ll wait” to “good enough”.

The “Did you forget?” emails, on the other hand, tend to increase my resistance! Especially when I have put nothing in the cart.