It is a commercial technique that is fashionable at the moment: Mystery Shopping. We don’t know what we are buying but we are sure we are getting a good deal. The most recent example is these mysterious cars that appeared in Auchan. Customers cannot see the contents of the cart offered to them. But the store assures them that they will save up to 66% on the initial price of the products purchased.
This promotion operation began in Dieppe last October. It is, therefore, an idea that emerged from the countryside and was immediately successful. And since then, it has been absorbed by around fifty more Auchan stores.
Surprise awakens desire
This success is not surprising. On the consumer’s side is the appeal of promotion and the pleasure of surprise. Because the latter – when it is good – awakens desire. The merchant also benefits from this. This is an opportunity for him to get rid of unsold products and at the same time attract unusual customers.
Businesses that have registered with the application Too good to go I can appreciate it every day. This company connects merchants willing to sell food products whose sales deadline is very close with customers who will instantly discover the basket they have just purchased at half or even a third of the usual price.
15 million French people convinced by Too good to go packages
In France, 15 million consumers have downloaded the app and 45,000 merchants regularly offer them their unsold items. Since its creation in 2016, Tood good to go claims to have sold 70 million surprise baskets. Such success that the company has decided to stop simply playing with trusted third parties.
Since last summer, it has been recovering batches of food products from manufacturers or wholesalers who are having difficulties selling (damaged packaging, reference to a past event, etc.) from its usual resellers. Packages of five to six kilos are sold for 20 euros instead of 40. “The surprise effect is very appreciated by our members,” underlines Luisa Ravoyard, spokesperson for Too good to go.
The SAS company offers its loyal customers a flight to an unknown destination
In another sense, merchants specialize in reselling packages that never reached their recipient. This is the case of the company Destock Colis, which collects them and resells them, by the kilo, without opening them. Inside there may be high-tech products, DIY tools, small appliances, kitchen utensils, as well as books, clothing or toys.
This approach inspires even service companies. The Scandinavian airline SAS, of which the Air France-KLM group has become a shareholder. This week it offered its most loyal passengers the opportunity to use their miles to buy a ticket without revealing the destination. SAS still gave them the date of the return flights, in April. Just so they can rest for days if they work. But otherwise, the surprise will be total. And in the first hours after sending this original offer, the company had already surpassed the barrier of 1,000 reservation requests.
In Switzerland there is even an agency that only sells “surprise” trips. With a nuance. Travelise does not sell out. He simply designs stays in Europe for his clients based on a previously completed questionnaire. And the surprise is not limited to the destination, but to everything your clients will discover during their trip.
Source: BFM TV
