Netflix‘s latest documentary Buy Now: The Online Shopping Conspiracy delves into the surge of online purchasing and how major companies have managed the soaring demand for products.
The film comes from acclaimed director Nic Stacey, who earned an Emmy nomination for her work on The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
The synopsis of the documentary reads: “This subversive documentary unpacks the tricks brands use to keep their customers consuming – and the real impact they have on our lives and the world.”
Among those offering insights is ex-Amazon worker Maren Costa. She helped established Amazon Employees for Climate Justice but was later dismissed from the company. Costa played a key role in crafting Amazon’s early online shopping interface, as reported in the Mirror.
“We were constantly developing new ways to get you to buy,” she admitted. “Influencing your behaviour in subtle ways that you’d never even realise.”
Costa also shared that one tactic used to encourage consumers to spend more involved altering the colours of certain elements on the webpage.
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“We could have a certain sentence that says ‘Free shipping if you purchase $25 or more’. In one case you made the $25 orange. In another one you make it green, and you can have nine different things that you’re testing against each other,” she explained.
“And there’s enough traffic to the site that you could get statistically relevant data on which version of that sentence makes the most money.”
Given her insight into the inner workings of online shopping, she offered a top tip to potential buyers to prevent them from making impulsive purchases they might later regret, and it’s incredibly straightforward.
“If you think you need something, put it in your online cart and leave it there for a month,” she suggested. “And if you still want it after a month, it might actually be something you need.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, viewers are introduced to ‘waste’ TikToker Anna Sacks. The influencer, who boasts nearly half a million followers on the social media platform, shares videos of herself wandering around New York and tearing open large bags, revealing usable items that many major companies discard.
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