Email gathering?

[Aaron Hats]

A couple months ago I went to a website and added a product to my cart. I then closed out after never entered any information. Within a minute I got an email from that company with a discount coupon. Remember, I hadn't entered any information and if I remember correctly I was using Firefox which I have set to clear all cookies and browsing history. So how did they gather my email address and how can I get that feature on my site?

[billbenson]

Are you sure you didn't enter your email address as a sign in?

If not, it wouldn't surprise me if there are databases out there that correlate IP's to emails although I have never heard of one. They can collect your IP. Your IP is probably dynamic, but that is only the D block in most cases (numbers after the last "."). Might have sent it to every email in the db with the same IP except for the last block?

It's certainly not an opt in email.

Another option is they installed spyware on your pc that got your email from your Outlook (assuming you use Outlook or OE). As I'm typing this the latter seems the more likely if you never entered your email address.

[Aaron Hats]

Now that you mention ip address, I had ordered from the company in the past so I wonder if they matched my ip from my first order. That seems the most logical.

[billbenson]

My money would go on spyware.

[KristineS]

If you ordered from them in the past, they probably have your e-mail on file somewhere. They probably know your IP and matched it with your e-mail. They're just working to get you to complete the order by sending you a coupon. It's actually a pretty good conversion strategy as long as you don't get creeped out that they have your e-mail. If you've ordered from them before, you probably wouldn't.

[vangogh]

Aaron if you'd ever given them contact info in the past they probably used the IP address. I would say they used a cookie, but if you have things set to clear them all that wouldn't be around for them to use.

They should really use more than just the IP though as different people can end up on the same IP.

[BillR]

As a devout skeptic I have to ask if it could have just been coincidence?

[Aaron Hats]

While interviewing a new webmaster I mentioned this strange occurance. She said she knew of a company that provided this service. She started to explain how it works and it's above me technically. The only thing I understood is that it does have to do with the ip address. It's also very expensive and only the biggest retailers appear to be using at this time.

Aaron

[KristineS]

If you're a big retailer with a lot of potential orders, salvaging even a few people who abandon their shopping carts would probably be worth the expense. It's a cool idea, but I imagine right now it would be quite expensive.