The “Refund Clawback”:
A New Tactic in E-Commerce?

It seems so backwards — asking people to buy at the moment you're refunding them. But researchers say it works.

Today's News

• AD PLATFORMS • PayPal to Launch Ad Targeting

• COMMERCE • Cross-Sell When Refunding Customers

• TIKTOK • “TikTok Studio” Groups Editing Tools

• INSTAGRAM • “Just Add Meme” Button Coming

• META • Block Incoming DMs Based on “Verified” Stat …

• UPDATE • The Big Leak: Radio Silence from Google

AD PLATFORMS • PayPal to Launch Ad Targeting

A few months ago, I had one of those “smack myself on the head” moments. Chase Bank announced it would hoover up all the purchase data it’s amassed from people who used its credit cards, and turn that into a giant retail media ad platform.

I remember thinking “Of course. Why didn’t I see that coming? That’s genius.”

Apparently other people thought so, too — notably, executives at PayPal. The company yesterday announced it wants a piece of that lucrative ad pie as well, and is launching a platform to let marketers target its nearly 400 million active users based on their purchases.

PayPal has recruited some pedigree for the job — the lead executive used to run Uber’s ad business and previously led product strategy for Amazon’s ad platform.

PayPal and Chase are in a growing category of companies that seem to be waking up to the realization that they could sell some of the data they collect. Earlier this month, the travel site Expedia said it would also join the party.

COMMERCE • Cross-Sell When Refunding Customers

Product returns are a common part of business, often hurting short-term revenue.

But some relatively new research has found that there’s a way to claw back some of that revenue — and it’s something probably most marketers haven’t tried.

Research published recently in the Journal of Consumer Psychology shows that people are generally pretty willing to buy something else from you at the moment they’re asking for a refund.

The thought is that in people’s minds, that money — even though it’s coming back to them — has been written off a little. So cross-selling products that are equal to or just lower than the price of their refund could actually convert.

Among the five experiments:

• 78% of participants used refunds to buy a Starbucks gift card, compared to 47% using non-refunded money.

• People were 2.5 times more likely to buy a Nike shirt with a refund.

• After returning winter shoes, 27.6% were more likely to buy a jacket than when buying it outright.

However, the researchers found the same effect didn’t happen when people buy items expecting to return them, like different shoe sizes.

Also, the research focused on low-involvement products like clothing and gift cards. High-involvement items, such as furniture, might have different results.

The study is called "Mental accounting of product returns;" it was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

TIKTOK • “TikTok Studio” Groups Editing Tools

TikTok has introduced a new dashboard for brands and creators. It’s called TikTok Studio and lets users manage video uploads, some editing features, see performance analytics, and more.

They’re not new tools, per se, but TikTok Studio is kind of an upgraded version of its Creator Center platform, where similar tools are in one place.

The new site can also recommend monetization programs to join, and has links to their training videos.

TikTok also recently amalgamated its AI tools under something it calls the Symphony platform.

TikTok Studio is currently only web-only, but the company says they’re working on a desktop version as well.

You can find it at https://www.tiktok.com/tiktokstudio

INSTAGRAM • “Just Add Meme” Button Coming

It happens to the best of us. One day, we think we understand Internet meme culture and are using it effectively in our marketing campaigns — then, one day, all kids start running around screaming “skibidi toilet” and your Monday creative brainstorming meeting sinks into an uncomfortable silence.

Keeping track of the memes can be pretty challenging, especially these days, which might be what’s behind Instagram’s latest feature in testing — a kind of “just add meme” button.

According to reverse engineered screenshots, Instagram is adding a quick meme feature to its Reels editing workflow.

It’ll show up as a button — alongside things like stickers, volume, and filters — and will add animated GIFs making the rounds as popular memes. Notably, you can view them according to how much viral traction each is getting.

META • Block Incoming DMs Based on “Verified” Status

While Meta executives snark at Elon Musk over social media, their product teams are busy copying features that the owner of X.com has added since buying Twitter.

After testing it for a year, Instagram will now let anyone who pays for the blue checkmark block all incoming DMs from users who do not also pay for Meta verification.

Whether or not this actually was working to keep bots away from inboxes on X is still up for debate. Musk seemed to think that charging a bit of money would all but eliminate the spam problem, but that hasn’t really happened. The bots now just have paid checkmarks — presumably they’re making more money scamming and spamming, so the $8 a month expense doesn’t matter.

UPDATE • The Big Leak: Radio Silence from Google

An update on our big story yesterday about that massive leak of confidential Google Search documentation.

It’s been more than a day since the news broke and, as of our deadline today, Google still had not said a word about it.

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