The Red Shoes
So I saw a pair of red shoes advertised on Facebook. Followed the link to the merchant and put them in my cart, but didn’t buy them. I was ambivalent about whether I really needed red pumps. Even if they were only $19.99.
Then the algorithm showed me the same shoes, over and over, on Facebook and Instagram. No surprise there.
And then I got an email asking if I still wanted the shoes.
Funny thing, though.
All of the ads are from essentially the same company— it’s one website with multiple tabs— but with different prices for the same shoes.
And the email offered the shoes at a price that wasn’t in any of the ads.
Here, take a look.
Yeah, I bought them for $16.99.
I am so hesitant to buy anything from Facebook ads. But a few of the retailers you have screenshots of are retailers I do buy from. The worst part of the ads for the thing everywhere is when I bought it, just not immediately.
ReplyDeleteAll of those ads are from related brands, and were on Facebook within days of each other. The worst was when I had the shoes in my cart fir $20 and tge email asked me to buy them for $62
DeleteAs your research showed, many of these are owned by *Full*Beauty*. Some of the names are familiar to me from many years ago when (perhaps) they were independently owned. (Roamans, Catherines) I am speechless at the "you left this in your cart" offer being so much more expensive than the original cart offer. Smh. I do not purchase from Facebook ads. This makes me even less likely to.
ReplyDeleteStrange, but not surprising. I get lots of Amazon clothing ads on Instagram, but when I click "shop the ad" it never goes to those items. I also get Walmart ones. I was one of the dresses in the store yesterday, and it cost a lot more than the ad showed!
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are persistent and I wonder sometimes if they ask you to pay what they think you've paid before, or what they think you are likely to spend, not what the item is really worth or what it sells for usually.
ReplyDelete