After reading grumpybloke's thread, I've been thinking: How much longer can the falling price auction last in its current form?
Since the introduction of the timer, the falling price dynamic has been lost. If a channel can decide to close the auction with a significant quantity remaining, then it's not truly falling price - it's yet another gimmick to add pressure onto people to buy.
bid shopping have always had ways to try and get people buying - initially, the "guide prices" were enough to make people both bid and buy. When price-drop launched, the falling price auction was brand new to TV, and people were fascinated. Since then, we've had the presenters going to the drop spot; fixed price specials; half price or less; low price alerts; megadrops; we had a month of occasional falling price speed auctions on bid-up.tv; guide prices reincarnated as "start prices"; jewellery avalanches; timers to end the sales; all sorts of music used to apply pressure; sales continuing throughout the day; under £10/£20 events; beat the high street; and, of course, prices in both pounds and pence.
That's a long list of gimmicks that bid shopping have used to get people in - there can't be that many more that they can use - and with people starting to tire of these techniques, where can bid shopping go next?
One - unlikely - option is to slowly try to revert to a rising price dynamic, but it would have to be phased in - in a similar way to the phasing out of rising price auctions back in the late 00s.
They've started going back to the themed hours that they used to have at the very start - the problem is, the quality of the products is too low for anyone to stick around, and the cost to purchase a product is too high for people to buy multiple items in a single hour. If somebody purchased two items over the phone, they'd likely spend £19.04 on postage and call charges alone. It'd be more cost-effective to go to the high street and get better quality for the same price.
In the past 12-18 months, there's been a slight shift. Their current focus appears to be on the elderly and vulnerable - those who are least likely to factor in the call charge, and the postage charge. Products like the worry angels, the fire blankets, the TV simulator, ID protection stamps, and the faith fairies are all aimed at people who need something to help them feel protected. The sales pitch for these products always tries to prey on the weaknesses of some viewers, and tricks a lot of viewers into buying these products for prices higher than the average high street price when postage and phone charges are factored in.
Anyway, what do you lovely people think? Will the format have to shift again for bid shopping to keep in business, or will the sales techniques continue to become less ethical in order to get whatever money they can?
Since the introduction of the timer, the falling price dynamic has been lost. If a channel can decide to close the auction with a significant quantity remaining, then it's not truly falling price - it's yet another gimmick to add pressure onto people to buy.
bid shopping have always had ways to try and get people buying - initially, the "guide prices" were enough to make people both bid and buy. When price-drop launched, the falling price auction was brand new to TV, and people were fascinated. Since then, we've had the presenters going to the drop spot; fixed price specials; half price or less; low price alerts; megadrops; we had a month of occasional falling price speed auctions on bid-up.tv; guide prices reincarnated as "start prices"; jewellery avalanches; timers to end the sales; all sorts of music used to apply pressure; sales continuing throughout the day; under £10/£20 events; beat the high street; and, of course, prices in both pounds and pence.
That's a long list of gimmicks that bid shopping have used to get people in - there can't be that many more that they can use - and with people starting to tire of these techniques, where can bid shopping go next?
One - unlikely - option is to slowly try to revert to a rising price dynamic, but it would have to be phased in - in a similar way to the phasing out of rising price auctions back in the late 00s.
They've started going back to the themed hours that they used to have at the very start - the problem is, the quality of the products is too low for anyone to stick around, and the cost to purchase a product is too high for people to buy multiple items in a single hour. If somebody purchased two items over the phone, they'd likely spend £19.04 on postage and call charges alone. It'd be more cost-effective to go to the high street and get better quality for the same price.
In the past 12-18 months, there's been a slight shift. Their current focus appears to be on the elderly and vulnerable - those who are least likely to factor in the call charge, and the postage charge. Products like the worry angels, the fire blankets, the TV simulator, ID protection stamps, and the faith fairies are all aimed at people who need something to help them feel protected. The sales pitch for these products always tries to prey on the weaknesses of some viewers, and tricks a lot of viewers into buying these products for prices higher than the average high street price when postage and phone charges are factored in.
Anyway, what do you lovely people think? Will the format have to shift again for bid shopping to keep in business, or will the sales techniques continue to become less ethical in order to get whatever money they can?
