Cutting the Crap - Meaningful Shopping

Many e-commerce companies have come up in last 10 years. There was a time when we knew only about Walmart and TESCO. Today, we have Amazon, Carre Four, e-Bay, Sainsbury, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Alibaba and many more. While few companies have gone for acquisitions or mergers, many others are competing against each other. As part of that competition, they want to attract users via price wars. One such game is special sales events. Big Billion Day, Wednesday Sale, Christmas Sale, Festival Offers, Great Savings Week are few of the many sales happening throughout the year. 

This week, Amazon India is running the Great Savings Week. For all obvious reasons, a promotional email landed in my inbox. 

I wanted to buy this book The Doodle Revolution for a long time. The only reason I backed out is that this book has shipping fee plus import fee, which was a lot of money.

There are several problems with this promotional email:
1. This email nudges me to buy this book, without telling me if this book has any offers 
2. This email tells me there are discounts on books, but doesn't tell me if this book is part of the deal (similar to 1 above)
3. This email doesn't tell me how much discount I might get

As a shopper, I have to now go to books section from the email, check out the offers for books, identify if this book is eligible for that discount and then place an order if I like it.

Legacy e-commerce giants are sitting on piles of data from over 30+ years. Can't we use this data to provide a relevant and lucrative offer to the user? 

Yes. We Can. We Must.