News

Teenagers are trolling Trump by pretending to buy re-election merch

Picture:
Picture:
TikTok/Alex Brandon/AP

More evidence that it is the teens’ world and we’ve all just living in it: they’ve launched a new anti-Donald Trump campaign that involves messing with him where it hurts: e-commerce.

TikTokers (where else would it be happening?) are making videos of themselves trying out a technique called “shopping cart abandonment” on Trump’s merchandise store for his 2020 re-election campaign.

They’re also encouraging others to take part.

One TikTok user says in a video:

Thinking about what a shame it would be if everyone went to Donald Trump’s merch storeand filled their cart up with as many things as they could and then got distracted Googling the damaging effects shopping cart abandonment has online shopping and just forgot to come back to check out. That would be a shame.

Shopping cart abandonment apparently skews data for e-commerce stores, such as reporting to new shoppers that product lines are sold out when in fact, they’re idling in people’s carts for a period before they’re automatically released as ‘available stock’ again.

It costs retailers, big time.

In 2016, Business Insider estimated that the retailers would lose up to $4.6 trillion thanks to abandoned carts.

And the trick seems to be working; Trump store browsers are reporting lines appear to be sold out and in an effort to crackdown on the prank, and customers are limited to three items per person.

It’s not the only digital tactic the teens are doing; they’re also crashing Trump's surveys.

There were even suggestions for their next target.

The power of the teens, at this point, seems unparalleled.

Trump might be able to withstand Joe Biden but he’s done for if up against the BTS army.

The Conversation (0)
x