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The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

thehustle.co

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Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#41

Post by joshvm »

legatus wrote: post #33

Does anyone know of a book (even better a textbook, if possible) detailing these strategies? This article is about the "BOGO" deal, I'm interested in reading about other kinds of these strategies, and why they work. If anyone has any recommendation, especially for more academic stuff (textbooks or papers), I would greatly appreciate it!

Not a textbook, but Freakonomics is in that ballpark.

It's (un-) surprisingly hard to find academic information about this on Google because all the results are click bait articles about how to improve sales, rather than peer reviewed theory.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#42

Post by tomeson »

The shipping is "free" but you have to spend $5 a month to qualify. If you don't spend at amazon during that month you are still down £8 (that's about £100 a year). If you spend something at amazon during the month you are still down the $5 in addition to the money spent at something. WWW.Geosalary.com

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#43

Post by dspillett »

nebulous1 wrote: post #34
chippy wrote: post #32

> Most online clothing brands offer ‘free’ shipping, with the catch that you have to meet a minimum purchase amount (often $100) to qualify. Some 58% of consumers will add additional items to their cart — often things they didn’t originally intend to purchase — just to “save” $5 to $10 on handling fees. You will find people vigorously defending their behaviour when challenged on this. For example: Amazon Prime. Amazo…

You do get the streaming service too.

This in itself is an irritation for some: the price went up when that was added and many don't use it at all. I hardly use it (my TV from Amazon connected to a PC with a graphics card from Amazon by an HDMI cable from Amazon won't play Amazon HD streams because of a licensing issue - if I want HD I need to get the content ahem elsewhere) though for me the price is still worth it for other factors.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#45

Post by runyor »

This can be generalized to: Every time someone offers you a "deal of a lifetime" it's a deal that mostly benefits him. If it doesn't screw over a third person it usually screws you, and if it screws over someone else it still might screw you.

That's why the smart man will find deals himself. E.g. instead of waiting for a prospect from a cars dealer that makes him a good offer, he will study what makes a good second hand car, when the prices of second hand cars are lowest and then he will go and make an offer to a caring owner of a car to become its second hand owner.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#46

Post by chii »

dspillett wrote: post #36

Everything even vaguely commercial with the word "free" attached is shady. I'm in a minority here (I must be, otherwise it would stop being common because it wouldn't bring in enough marks) but I've grown cynical enough that the word actually puts me on guard and I go searching for the small print, or it just puts me off completely if I don't have time for the small print. It isn't just BOGO offers, anything free is…

> * First month free! (if you don't cancel 27 days before the free month ends you'll be paying for the service for at least 6 months afterwards)

yes, this is a terrible bait and switch - and should be illegal unless the fine print isn't so fine that nobody reads it.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#47

Post by joshvm »

chippy wrote: post #32

> Most online clothing brands offer ‘free’ shipping, with the catch that you have to meet a minimum purchase amount (often $100) to qualify. Some 58% of consumers will add additional items to their cart — often things they didn’t originally intend to purchase — just to “save” $5 to $10 on handling fees. You will find people vigorously defending their behaviour when challenged on this. For example: Amazon Prime. Amazo…

Given that other retailers charge upwards of £10 for Saturday courier delivery, Amazon is cheap. They also have fairly no-questions-asked customer service policies which is nice.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#50

Post by simonh »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #31
simonh wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm only (vaguely) familiar with the rules in the UK, but they include tests to ensure the 'was' price was actually a genuine usual selling price. This includes tests that the 'full' price must have been in place for longer than the promotional period, that it must have been recent and that significant sales were made at that price. Buy one get one free also has to mean you get two equivalent or similar products. Com…

I'd be pretty surprised if British law prohibited "buy a dress, get a belt free" promotions.

If you promote it as such, or 'free belt with every dress' then sure. You can't market it using the phrase 'buy one get one free' though.
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