Stay on my site for a product that’s not buyable, says JABONG!

Is Jabong playing smart, is unaware of this glitch or is it my failure to understand something in between?

Few days before I had a call from my sister. She was excited about something and without being asked for the reason, shared the news: “Hey, I am going through the Jabong site and here is an adidas bag worth Rs 799 in just for Re 1 with 100% OFF on it.”

As a marketing person, the first thing I smell is ‘fish’. I asked twice, confirmed thrice and said, wait there must be something more that you haven’t read or noticed.

She said, everything is fine, they are confirming a delivery after 4-5 days. I said, ‘that’s great, so try placing an order. May be you will find the surprise card hidden when you make the payment.’

She said – That’s the main problem. I can’t find a BUY button. No link through which I can place the order. But everything else is ok.

Aaah. I asked to send the link to me. So that I can trace the ‘buy’ link for her, much to her delight. 🙂

Since I was checking on my mobile, the mobile site opened with something clearly mentioned below the product display which could be heart-breaking for my sister – “This product is not buyable”

I sent her a message saying, this is not buyable. So don’t fall for it. She was not very sure and said, nothing of that sort is mentioned in the site which she has opened in her laptop.

Now, the thing is, neither me nor my sister are ardent internet shoppers. But this difference in details provided in mobile site and otherwise caught my attention. I opened my laptop and checked the link and reached the conclusion after searching the site for good 10 minutes that yes, there was no ‘buy’ link and they haven’t mentioned the most important line – ‘This product is not buyable’.

All this confusion led to immediate conclusion that – Stay away. There is nothing FREE. Don’t be carried away.

Few understandings:

–          Does Jabong expect the visitors to get attracted by this ‘100% OFF offer’ on not one but many products displayed on home page?

–          And when the first step is done, does Jabong want the visitor to stay a little longer on the site searching for a ‘BUY’ link?

–          Was the line mentioning the unavailability of the product, just for the mobile site, so that if anyone claims or complains about the trouble, you can show him/her the same?

–          Is this some mistake or a good planned marketing gimmick. If it is, it’s surely working in your favour by increasing the time one stays on your website.

–          It also leads to person checking out other products with a ‘buy’ link 🙂

–          Since I and my sister checked it simultaneously on two different platforms, we were able to pick the glitch. But that’s a rare case I guess.

Still wondering what Jabong guys have to say?

Here is the link, if you want to check it out yourself: https://www.jabong.com/Adidas-Essentials-Tb-Black-Duffle-bag-244366.html

Originally posted here.