Advertising watchdog raps Manchester online retailer

Boohoo, the Manchester online fashion brand, has had its knuckles rapped by advertising watchdogs.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the company had broken rules over “misleading” promotions.

BBC’s Watchdog Live programme investigated time-limited sales on the firm’s website and found that promotions did not end when a countdown clock reached zero.

The investigation team found that 14 sales had a contdown clock on, between August and November 2018, and in each case when the clock reached zero it re-set and the offer continued.

This included a Black Friday offer for 30% off “absolutely everything”, which urged customers to “Hurry – ends soon.”

But the clock started again when it reached zero.

The ASA told Watchdog Live: “Boohoo is breaking rules around sales promotions that we have investigated and ruled against previously, which is why this has been passed straight to our compliance team.

“Our team will work with the advertiser to ensure they bring their ad into line.

“Compliance have various tools at their disposal to make sure advertisers adhere to our rulings and the precedent set in previous cases where we’ve upheld on the same issues.

“In this specific instance, the use of a countdown clock is problematic if it misleadingly implies the offer is time-limited when that is not the case.”

Boohoo said it had never intended to mislead customers and that demand had led it to extend certain offers.

A spokesperson told the BBC: “At Boohoo, customer satisfaction is our utmost priority.

“We are focused on bringing our customers the latest fashions at the best prices and running promotions is one of many ways that we invest in our customer proposition.

“During the period August 2018 to November 2018 Boohoo ran a number of time-limited promotions.

“On the small number of occasions researchers for BBC Watchdog Live have identified, customer demand drove us to extend these offers and we did so to avoid disappointment.

“It is never our intention to mislead customers and we take full note of the BBC Watchdog’s inquiry.

“We are looking into our processes to ensure that further diligence is exercised in relation to future promotions of this nature.”

Macclesfield-based Hilary Stephenson, managing director at design agency, Sigma, said this is a common occurrence in the industry.

“Boohoo is just one example, but we know this is happening across the entire retail industry.

“Websites are designed with ‘mind tricks’ that confuse consumers into making a purchase, often using behavioural psychology principles to drive sales.

“These tactics take advantage of our desires to find a bargain or our fear of missing out on a deal and are likely to have been deliberately implemented for this reason.”

She said other retailers using ‘Dark UX’ practices over the Black Friday weekend included Amazon, ASOS, Jacamo, Very, River Island and Nasty Gal.

The full report is on Watchdog Live tonight at 8pm on BBC One.