And so it happened! I logged on to one of the e-commerce sites to shop for something personal (I leave it up to you to fill in the blanks!) and that too from my office laptop. Due to some unavoidable reasons, I had to abandon my cart. Yes, that was the crime I committed, at least they made me feel so.
And it started haunting me. First there was a mail from them saying I have an abandoned cart, as if I didn’t know about it. Then irrespective of which site I visited, their ads kept on following me. To add to my discomfort, the ad had the same product image on display. Behavioral retargeting, they might call it but it was no more than a reminder of my so-called crime.
It was like my conscience pinching me every time I went online. “You tried to shop using your office laptop? And that too you did not complete your transaction? Now bear the consequences!”
To purge myself of the sin, I decided to go back and complete my transaction and trust me, I did. And I thought this was my holy dip in the Ganges and my sin is now washed away.
The next day I had to give a presentation to my boss and I happily went with my laptop. During the course of discussion, I had to show him some other websites for reference. And there it pops up again- the same ad with the same product image on display, bigger and bolder than before. Maybe the bigger size of the ad was only my own perception; I was so scared of it by now. Both of us tried to ignore it…that feeling when you see something yet pretend you did not.
I goofed up my presentation and finally cleared my cookies.
P.S: I am not against such ads. I am just against the faux pas moments they sometimes create.
Do you have any such e-commerce faux pas moment?
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely my own and do not in any way represent the views of the organization I work for.