“Overall, the number of people with a tablet or an e-book reader over the age of 16 now stands at 43 percent. That’s up from just 25 percent last year.” [1]
During the summer of last year, my parents bought me a Kobo Vox eReader tablet that fulfills my functional need to have a portable device where all my books are stored digitally. At that time, there were not many touch screen eReader tablets in the market, so I was quite pleased that I had got something relatively “new.” I continued to be satisfied with it in the first couple of months, but of course, the inevitable happened – better, faster, slicker, or more inexpensive eReader tablets came out, such as the Kindle Fire and Kobo Aura. With the constant announcements of new technology, it is more important than ever for Kobo to reduce buyer’s remorse in order to keep customers satisfied, which is undoubtedly a very difficult task. This made me think of the time when retailer, Best Buy introduced its Buy Back program in 2011 for consumers who get frustrated when a recently bought electronic device quickly becomes obsolete. The slogan of the campaign was:
“You buy it now, we buy it back when the new thing comes out!”
In my experience, Kobo regularly sends me coupons via email for eBooks, which could to some degree reduce buyer’s remorse, as the company continues to extend out to its customers after making the sale. However, more effective strategies need to be undertaken to further address this issue, whether it may or may not be a strategy sharing similar concepts with Best Buy’s. Reading reviews of the tablet on pcmag.com, I have been quite disappointed with the negative experiences that other customers have received from the product – the device earned a lowly average rating of 2 out of 5 stars. This also illuminates the fact that there is a greater likeness for consumers to spread a bad word of the product that they are dissatisfied with (especially on social media platforms), as opposed to when they are content or ecstatic with their purchase.
Source: [1] http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112979080/tablet-and-e-reader-market-still-growing-101813/