Samsung turned cart abandoners into buyers by re-issuing old prices

Black Friday 2023 was supposed to be a bonanza for Samsung Brasil, but the numbers came in lukewarm. Rather than doubling down on generic discounting, the team went looking for the demand that had already shown itself.

It found that 80% of Brazilian online shoppers abandon carts — and many do it deliberately, waiting for a better price. Samsung's data team dug through two years of cart history and isolated 735,000 customers who had left items behind.

The day after Black Friday, each of them got a single personalised email — a 'ThrowBack Deal' that returned the item to its price from two years ago, with a hook ('Am I in your cart for a year because I suck?'). One email brought in R$3.5m (about US$700k) in a week, a 318% jump in sales and a 5145% ROI, and won the Cannes Creative Commerce Gold Lion.

Honour the 'wait for a discount' habit

These buyers had already priced the item and just were waiting, so they were one message from converting.

A personalised old price felt exclusive, not like a blanket Black Friday cut.

The hook named the buyer's own behaviour, which made the email feel like a joke shared with them.

It needed no new media spend — just a data job on history the brand already owned.

A buyer who abandons a cart isn't lost — they're telling you their price. Re-target proven intent and make the discount feel like a privilege, not a blanket cut; one timely email beat the promo.

'ThrowBack Deals' earned the Cannes Creative Commerce Gold Lion and El Ojo's Gran Ojo, and Samsung made it a permanent part of its Brazil sales playbook rather than a one-off stunt — proof the behavioural insight outlived the campaign.