Buy, Buy, Baby (Retail Goodbye): The Impact of Buy Buttons
This brief discussion of an “Issue in Focus” contains candid observations and opinions from staff members of the Office of Inspector General.
Remember the days of going to a mall, visiting store after store in search of the perfect gift? Those days may be behind us. In an age when consumers want everything as soon as possible, marketers are pursuing avenues for instant action. Hassles, including going to the store, searching for a product online, or simply remembering to reorder a common household item, reduce the chances of the consumer making a purchase. In order to create a more convenient online shopping experience, marketers and retailers are exploring new ways to help consumers purchase quickly and easily with buy buttons.
The buy button is typically a small, clickable icon that appears next to a featured product on a website or mobile application. It allows for a one-click shopping experience that is extremely convenient for consumers and increases the odds of an impulse purchase. While buy buttons have primarily been utilized by social media websites, marketers are exploring ways to utilize tangible buy buttons as well as interweave online buy buttons with physical advertising. Their innovations could be significant for stakeholders on both ends of the two-sided postal market. This Issue in Focus explores the landscape of buy buttons and discusses some ways the technology can be used to enhance the value of mail for advertisers and consumers.