Before you unsubscribe…
I was browsing through the hundreds of Internet Retailer sites I signed up to receive emails from this afternoon, when I realized how different the Pinoy consumer is from our Western counterparts.
For one, Americans are already used to making transactions online. Whether it be to pounce on that “Today Only” sale from Bestbuy.com, or to have the week’s bag of groceries get delivered to their doorstep, the cons of making a purchase online is now close to none.
Filipinos on the other hand, are more accustomed to buying their stuff in person. They do it not only because of apprehensions on shopping online, but they would just rather have their stuff right away. The courier services (or lack of) do nothing to help the present situation.
One thing I learned on a trip I made to the US in June of 2003 — is that you don’t even need to shop online to benefit from a little email marketing.
Being the movie buff that I am, I used to mark my calendar for DVD release dates. During the months I was there, the big releases were the Superbit Version of Spiderman 2 (We didn’t have Bluray yet back then), as well as the Back to the Future Trilogy DVD set. Though there were set release dates for both titles, I wanted to make sure that I found out just in case they were released in advance. Hence my trip to Best Buy’s website to sign up for an email alert. Though I got the DVDs even without waiting for the emails to arrive (as I frequented Best Buy every chance I got while I was there). The bottom line is, I got an update for what I had signed up for.
I wish I had kept a copy of that particular email, as it’s a perfect example of how you can benefit from signing up to receive an online retailer’s emails. If you signed up to receive alerts and start feeling like you’re getting blasted with too much “spam”, look for a preference settings page to adjust the frequency. If not, the ol’ unsubscribe button is always there.
Before you hit it though, always remember that not everything you receive is a sales pitch. There’s a little bit of service in there, so always keep an eye out for it.
