Etsy Seller Surprised By Abandoned Cart Discount Change
An Etsy seller is dismayed after an abandoned cart discount was immediately offered to a buyer rather than waiting for the 24 hour time period stated in Etsy's policy page.
Etsy community moderators edited the post to remove the exact quotes from support, but the seller made it clear they were told directly that the 24 hour waiting period befor sending abandoned cart emails no longer applies.
I have listed a dress literally less than 14 hours ago. Etsy has sent "abandoned cart" offer to a buyer in less than 24 hours of the item even being on the site. Buyer applied coupon and purchased. Thing is, I was convinced that there must be at least 24 hrs for item being carted for this to even happen. I contacted Etsy via chat and after being pushy and not letting go, the customer service ADMITTED that now there is no time limitation for this type of discount anymore!...
...Oh wow. Shouldn't such info be available so that you know precisely what you get your shop into?? But guys, keep reading, it only gets better.
I kept being pushy calling them out on absolute lack of transparency and it only got better from there... Here comes literal quote from the chat about the ABANDONED CART OFFER:...
...This made me lose my mind. I have sent them literal quote from my dashboard...And I asked how on earth am I suppose to conclude from this dashboard info that offer ISN'T IN REAL abandoned basket but something entirely else ?! And can be sent out by Etsy randomly, not just in case of abandoned basket as stated ?! THIS IS LITERALLY MIND BLOWING. They have forwarded my case to specialists who should reach out to me via email. I will update this thread when I receive such email.
This is absolutely horrendous case of misinformation and I am not just leaving it like this. Especially that they had audacity to tell me I should be happy item sold. It would have sold full price and I know it but it isn't even about that anymore. It's the principals. How is it even legal? Even though I'm reading this forum daily and am aware of much worse things going on recently (refunds of delivered items make my skin crawl), I am still shocked. It's like they told me "yeah, we say it is A but in real it is B, sorry for confusion, hehe, ciao". U N R E A L
Oh and by the way, the cherry on the top of s##t cake: this buyer asked me for discount before purchasing. I said no, because it's a freshly listed item. Then they carted item, received coupon within 5 minutes and purchased. And here I am as a result looking like a clown of a seller
I never planned/ agreed to have all my items randomly discounted. So yeah, as said, I have enough time to push with this case because that's just absolutely mental. Pure, undiluted disrespect towards sellers. I'll be updating this thread whenever Etsy decides to explain this nonsense to me.
Here's what Esty's help pages specifically say about Abandoned Cart Discounts (emphasis mine):
How to send targeted offers to interested shoppers
When you send targeted offers to interested shoppers, you create promo codes that are automatically emailed to shoppers who have shown interest in your items. The buyer can then enter the promo code at checkout.**What kind of offers can I send? **
There are 3 types of targeted email offers for shoppers opted-in to receiving marketing email messages:Abandoned cart
If a shopper has an item from your shop in their cart for more than 24 hours, they’ll get an email offering them a discount for that item 24 hours after they abandoned it in their cart.
A shopper can receive this type of targeted offer email once every two days. We’ll include up to 12 different discounts per offer email. If a shopper adds an item to their cart and then removes the item within 24 hours, they won’t receive an offer for your shop in a targeted offer email.
With that very clear policy language, I can definitely understand why this seller is concerned that a buyer received the offer well before the 24 hour time period.
Based on the over 170 responses that thread has so far, many sellers seem to agree.
Blooming heck (polite version!) I wondered why my sales this week all had discounts! Will remove the abandoned cart coupon immediately - thank you for the info OP.
And it is correct information - 2 minutes after I put something to backet I get coupon
If they SAY 24 hours it should BE 24 hours..not an instant discount. If it was an "If someone carts your item do you want to give them a discount code" coupon I doubt as many would sign up as obviously the majority of those carting are fine with the full price and are buying. It is not recovering indecisive shoppers it is handing out discounts willy nilly and NOT what people signed up for. Say how you are going to run the program and stick to it!
It is dishonest. I was wondering why I had more of these in the last few weeks than I've had in three years. It's bogus. I guess I'll turn it off.
I totally agree about the lack of transparency. It baffles me that Etsy does things that erode seller confidence. In this case, a decision to make these coupons available immediately is a relatively small change but the lack of an announcement of any kind is major. And they have to know that sellers will figure it out and once again be disappointed in the lack of transparency.
this happened to me for the first time yesterday.i added an item to my cart and i was still shopping around.
10 minutes later i receive a notice that says the shop has sent me an offer for an item i left in my cart.
it was not emailed to me...it was under updates where they show me the new items from shops i follow even though i am not following that shop.
i agree with the others who say it is no longer an abandoned cart discount, it is just a cart discount.
How quickly do you think Abandoned Cart discounts should be sent? Should Etsy have informed sellers before making this change?
Let us know in the comments below!
