I was shopping a while back for a new tent. Wondered if I should wait for a 20% off single item coupon event like they do a couple times a year. Googled "when is the next rei 20% coupon?". I got the expected results: probably around labor day.
Lo and behold, a couple days after this I received an email from REI with a 25% off single item offer code.
I don't know of I should be frightened or not, but I got a new tent!
I was working for a sex toy company in the UK and remember one of the developers running a mail shot process with a bug that accidentally resent the "abandoned baskets" email for all abandoned baskets for the last 4 years or so with a 20% off voucher. Busiest unexpected sales spike in the history of the company :)
Pretty awesome company tbh.
We watch how much time you spend on a page, if you mess with options, etc.
If you seem to have any interest in a product we want to unload, we send you a coupon.
We have literally hundreds of SKUs we do this for at any given time to clear warehouse space for newer stuff.
What I found curious however, is the fact that I have never ordered anything from REI on my phone, nor logged on to any REI website (no cart, no account). All REI purchases go through my wife's account for the dividend.
How does casual browsing connect with an email address, excepting the Google search?
Sometimes I wonder if the Web has already passed some basic level of sentience.
You guys will let me know when that happens, right?