28/12/2018
BBC Watchdog catches “Boohoo” red-handed!
Boohoo, one of the most active and the most aggressive online fashion outlets just broke some of the fundamental rules of advertising, and they got caught red-handed while doing it!
Namely, this retailer used a series of discount promotions during the previous period, including the Black Friday when they offered all of their products with no less than 30% discount. This is a legitimate strategy to increase sales, and all of the retailers use it periodically. The only problem is – Boohoo was using foul play in order to maximise the effects of their campaign!
The counter
They used a counter that was marking the duration of the promotional period. This is also quite an acceptable and frequently used technique, but there was a catch to it!
Even when the counter reached zero, there were still products that were available at discounted prices! Since this technique compels the customers to buy quickly and seize the limited opportunity they got, the sales always soar in these cases.
By keeping the discounts after the counter reached zero, Boohoo broke one of the major advertising rules. The deals they offered as discounted for a limited time turned out to be actually on permanent discount! The shoppers who did buy during the promo period should feel cheated due to the fact that there was no time limit!
The explanation
People from the Boohoo tried to explain this in a rather peculiar way. Namely, they say that the customers were so interested in certain products that they decided to extend the discount period even after the promotion has been finished.
If they did so within a new campaign, there would be no reason to complain about anything, but they did so without launching a new promo period.
It turns out that they simply noticed that some of the products are selling rather quickly when offered at discounted prices, and they decided to keep offering them in that way.
Since this is a case of real and severe breach of advertising rules, there is a possibility of significant legal consequences. In the future weeks, it will be clear whether Boohoo will suffer any of those.