What a great (foreign) idea!
You almost had me there!
When I saw the banner that advertised “We pay you for overnight shipping” I was really impressed. My immediate thought was “this is an idea worth exploring”.
I clicked on the banner to discover that www.endless.com (an Amazon company) offers overnight shipping on shoes and handbags at a cost of NEGATIVE $5.00! Here’s the banner on their webpage header that grabs the reader’s attention:
The fine print seemed to hold up, too…
Limited Time Offer: Better than Free Overnight Shipping!
From now through February 28th Overnight Shipping is *negative $5. That’s right, until 11:59p.m. EST February 28th we’ll take five dollars off your order for the privilege of shipping overnight to you. We are serious. Enjoy the special promotion—starting on March 1st you can again enjoy our day-in and day-out offer of FREE Over night Shipping. See details.
But then, it all fell to pieces I clicked the “Contact Us” button to request a phone call. (Not that I was interested in buying shoes or handbags…I just wanted performance metrics on this great web sales concept, if I could get them.) I entered my Canadian office phone number and - was disappointed to see this unhappy message:
Endless shoes and handbags? Sure. Endless eCommerce? No. I wonder what the dollar value of their incremental sales would be, if they globalized their phone service? I know lots of girls who would happily make a pick-up trip to Buffalo or Windsor!
Endless let down.