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When should stores use your previous buying habits in marketing? What's too much?
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January 12th, 2011
More and more retailers are using the information they have to tailor your experience with them.
Some examples would be:
* suggesting items based on your previous purchases (Amazon and iTunes do this fairly prevalently)
* suggesting items based on your browsing history or wish list (if you’ve been looking at waffles, Amazon shows you tons of other waffles)
* emailing you asking to review items you’ve purchased (Netflix sends you a request when you return a movie for example)
* contacting you when an item is about to run out (“We noticed you bought <these items> 30 days ago, need some more?”)
* contacting you with specials related to your previous purchases ($10 off oil change, haircut, teeth cleaning, whatever)
Retailers use the information generally because a specific offer will get a much better response than a general one.
When do these efforts cross over from a helpful service to something that freaks you out a little bit? Does it depend on the type of products? The retailer? How the offer is presented? (email vs. on a website vs. a postcard for instance)
When is it no longer a positive thing?
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