Push It: “Shop It To Me”
Last week I wrote about the lack of creativity and dearth of great products in push media. Here’s to one that is doing a great job: Shop It to Me. I’ve been testing it for a few months and I have to say it’s absolutely brilliant.
The idea is that you enter what sort of things you’re interested in buying and Shop It To Me sends you an email whenever any of those things are onsale somewhere online. So, for example, you might be interested in all J Crew shirts size L or specifically a pair of New Balance sneakers in your size. When one of your items is up for sale, you get an email. When you click on a link you head to the retailer’s site and SITM takes a cut of the action for putting the goods in front of you.
Shop It To Me is a perfect example of an excellent modern-day push service. It bills itself as a “free personal shopper,” creating value for users due to:
- Clarity and efficiency: You get only what you’ve already asked for.
- It’s fun: Even through you specify what you want, there’s a great sense of discovery and surprise in those SITM emails. Sometimes the photos of the Christmas-themed Brooks Brothers blazers just bring a smile to my face.
- Customizable: change your frequency or brands in under 10 seconds.
SITM has taken the notion of “items wanted” and turned it into a business. Imagine if there was a SITM for everything. Here’s what I’d sign up for right now if there was a push service willing to give it to me:
- Sales on 1:18 scale model rally cars
- Northern Michigan cottages with weekly rates under $X
- Movie tickets under face value
I was first introduced to Shop It To Me by my sports marketing friend Shane Mahoney, who knows the team behind the company. I hope they roll out more useful versions of SITM for other areas of life.
Push it real good!
