Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

When online shopping, what immediately turns you off from ordering on a website?

It’s November and the unofficial kick-off the holiday shopping season in America -or Black Friday as retailers call it – is just around the corner. On the heels of Black Friday, the Monday after America’s Thanksgiving has come to be known – for better or for worse – as Cyber Monday.

A brief history of Cyber Monday

The concept of Cyber Monday is about as dated as the name sounds. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s high-speed internet wasn’t nearly as common as it is now. And you could forget about accessing the internet through your phone. That was a pipe dream. Most people still had dial-up internet service in their homes High-speed connections were easily only four in businesses and college campuses.

Retailers had this idea that people would be inclined to do some on-line shopping when they went back to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Furthermore, retailers thought that if they slapped a cool name on the day and offered an handful of mediocre deals, people would be even more inclined to blow-off their work and engage in some online shopping thus,  “Cyber Monday” was born.

In my opinion, Cyber Monday is a joke. The “deals” are few and far between. In fact, Amazon Days typically offer much better deals in far more product. Looking back, I don’t if I’ve even bought 5 things in Cyber Monday.

For as much as I will proclaim “God bless the Internet!” Online shopping is not the end I’ll be all of all human existence. It has its flaws. And I will explain my  two biggest turn off for the online shopping experience: 

Too much clutter

Have you noticed how over the years, aisles in traditional brick-and-mortar stores have become increasingly more narrow? This is completely by design. When I worked retail in college, I had managers explain to me that it’s a corporate strategy to surround customer with product. Apparently their rational is that the more stuff you see, the more you’re likely to buy. I guess they don’t take into account claustrophobics who don’t like enclosed spaces; or the neurodivergent who might experience sensory overload in the coffee aisle.

This same practice has infiltrated the digital result realm as well. The internet is great, but when you frequent an online retailer, they track your buying patterns and habits. I appreciate the thought behind “if you like X, you’re going to love…” but sometime, I just want go online with Nettie’s of buying one particular item and I don’t want it wandering all through your online store.

Pop-up ads

Is there anything as universally despised on the internet as pop-up ads? I get it: advertising is a source of revenue for businesses (and this includes online retailers). They have to pay bills too. But the pop-up ads get to be too much; particularly when you see 2 or more of them. 1 pop-up ad I can almost understand. But then your screen starts filling up with advertising, it detracts me from wanting to do any business with a company. To make matters worse, some website will absolutely inundate you with so many pop-up ads that, in your attempt to close, you end up clicking on a few of them accidentally.

Personally, I would rather an I know retailer run a 30 second commercial, then immediately proceed to the option or make a purchase. They could even phrase it like “before we proceed with this transaction, please watch the advertisement from one of our sponsors”. This would be simple enough. I could walk away from my phone or computer for the 1/2 minute and proceed. Of course, I’m sure there’s some corporate bean-counters some who have deduced that when a person walks away from their screen, they’re statistically less likely to continue with their purchase. Geez, maybe I missed my true calling.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy
• Where Do We Go From Here? Five Years Since January 6.

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The article “The Red Flags of Online Shopping” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.