• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It’s one of those moments where you’re left struggling to figure out who this is even for. Like, it’s simply too much to even respond to for the most gullible user.

    It’s akin those scam calls where the person on the other end has to read you a ten minute long pitch before getting to the actual scam, but calls you back two minutes later fully knowing you’re not their target.

    • tiramichu@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      You have to remember - if this didn’t work they wouldn’t do it.

      Which means, it works.

      Gambling-like graphics and exciting sounds. The illusion of winning big. Praise for being a good loyal customer. The promise of huge rewards and discounts. Time pressure to act fast, now now now. Don’t think, just do.

      It’s every single trick and dark pattern crammed mercilessly into one app.

      And it works.

      I fear for our species.

      • Diurnambule
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        2 days ago

        It work I was flabbergasted and though wait 400# is a good deal. But boy 30 minutes on the page they lock you on is pushing people to urgency. Crazy to see, I am glad I avoid these like pest

      • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        It’s every single trick and dark pattern crammed mercilessly into one app.

        And it works.

        It works for now, but like any other trick it will eventually wear off when people see it everywhere and figure out that it is just a scam.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        if this didn’t work they wouldn’t do it.

        Which means, it works.

        That’s circular logic, assuming some kind of infallibility at the business end.

        Gambling-like graphics and exciting sounds. The illusion of winning big. Praise for being a good loyal customer. The promise of huge rewards and discounts. Time pressure to act fast, now now now. Don’t think, just do.

        So, how much did you end up spending on Temu after you watched the ads?

        • voodooattack@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          That’s circular logic, assuming some kind of infallibility at the business end.

          Are you familiar with multivariate testing?

          So, how much did you end up spending on Temu after you watched the ads?

          It doesn’t have to work on everyone, just someone. I also sincerely doubt everyone is getting the full 2 minute edition. Maybe their algorithm decided to push it in this instance.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Are you familiar with multivariate testing?

            Real marketing data is messy, skewed, and full of rare events that models struggle to learn from. When accuracy becomes the goal, models can look impressive while quietly getting the most important decisions wrong. This article explains why that happens, how imbalanced data creates false confidence, and what marketers should do instead.

            If you ever get your teeth into Game Theory, you discover why A/B Testing patterns can run you down a rabbit hole.

            That’s before you even consider the Ur-challenge of any business enterprise - The Principle Agent Problem. When you build an incentive structure to reward certain results, you can incentivize your agents to lie to you about the effectiveness of your policies.

            It doesn’t have to work on everyone

            It presumably has to work on an increasing slice of retail market cap with each iteration.

            Is there any evidence that Temu’s splash screen is generating more revenue per visitor than Amazon’s?

            • voodooattack@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              If you ever get your teeth into Game Theory,

              My ideal (personal) version has a protocol axis for the matrix, and the players can choose to wait. The payoff comes from ongoing constructive interference.

              you discover why A/B Testing patterns can run you down a rabbit hole.

              Multivariate testing isn’t A/B testing, it’s applied multivariate statistics that employs A/B testing as an operation.

              Tap for spoiler

              Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statisticsencompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable, i.e., multivariate random variables. Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the different aims and background of each of the different forms of multivariate analysis, and how they relate to each other. The practical application of multivariate statistics to a particular problem may involve several types of univariate and multivariate analyses in order to understand the relationships between variables and their relevance to the problem being studied.

              That’s before you even consider the Ur-challenge of any business enterprise - The Principle Agent Problem. When you build an incentive structure to reward certain results, you can incentivize your agents to lie to you about the effectiveness of your policies.

              What agents?

              Is there any evidence that Temu’s splash screen is generating more revenue per visitor than Amazon’s?

              No idea, but if they’re doing it all the time then I doubt it’s detrimental for profitability.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                What agents?

                Principal Agent Theory

                the conflict in interests and priorities that arises when one person or entity (the “agent”) takes actions on behalf of another person or entity (the “principal”)

                The owners/investors in the company aren’t the same people doing the yeomen’s work of UX design. Often, these are two entirely separate companies.

                if they’re doing it all the time then I doubt it’s detrimental for profitability.

                That’s not reliance on Multivariate Testing, that’s dogmatic belief in the infallibility of business management.

                • voodooattack@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Thanks for introducing me to that!

                  The owners/investors in the company aren’t the same people doing the yeomen’s work of UX design. Often, these are two entirely separate companies.

                  Then we can’t speculate on how well they’re compensated or how. They clearly did a stellar job despite the cursed content though.

                  That’s not reliance on Multivariate Testing, that’s dogmatic belief in the infallibility of business management.

                  No. It’s an empirical observation. If a shop near you is doing 80% off all the time and not looking under the weather after a while you start to think they’re doing something clever behind the scenes. No dogmatic belief needed.

                  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                    1 day ago

                    They clearly did a stellar job despite the cursed content though.

                    Idk if I’d call 120 seconds of unskippable flash animation “stellar”.

                    If a shop near you is doing 80% off all the time and not looking under the weather after a while you start to think they’re doing something clever behind the scenes.

                    If they’re doing 80% off all the time they aren’t doing something clever. They made a decision once a long time ago and haven’t updated their marketing model since.

                    If you’re just stacking longer and longer click-bait marketing gimmicks on your splash screen, that’s the opposite of “clever”. That’s a business model of slapping the feed bar ten times because you saw it drop a nugget of food the first time.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Is there any actual evidence of this?

        Or is Temu’s revenue growing independently of the changes to the splash screen?

        • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
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          2 days ago

          It’s called A-B testing. All of the big shops do it to increase profits. You can automate it by giving the system a lot of possible variations, and then it will tell the shop owner which design generated the most orders, shopping cart value, items viewed, time on site and other metrics after a few hundred users had tried it.