In today’s digital age, smartphone apps play a crucial role in our daily lives, from social media and shopping to entertainment and healthcare. To keep users engaged, app developers often craft creative notifications to stand out amidst the flood of alerts people receive. These notifications sometimes blend humor with marketing to grab attention.
However, this approach can backfire, as seen in a recent incident involving the popular e-commerce app Zepto. A notification sent to a woman crossed a line, leading to widespread criticism and prompting the company to acknowledge its mistake and pledge corrective action.
Zepto Criticized Over Inappropriate i-Pill Notification
A woman named Pallavi Pareek recently received an unexpected and inappropriate notification from Zepto, which read:
“I miss you, Pallavi, says I-Pill emergency contraceptive pill.”
This message left Pallavi shocked and upset.
Taking to LinkedIn, Pallavi shared a screenshot of the notification along with her thoughts:
“Dear Zepto and Zepto Cares team, this is wrong on so many levels. Firstly, I’ve never ordered an emergency contraceptive pill from you. Even if I had, it’s not something I should be ‘missing,’ nor should it be ‘missing me.’ Are you implying I need to use such a product? Moreover, why am I receiving this message when I never placed this order with you?”
Pallavi further expressed her frustration, stating:
“Notifications are fine when they are sensitive, humorous, or logical. But when they become flirty or inappropriate, that crosses the line. This one was simply too much.”
Despite her anger over the notification, Pallavi clarified that she wasn’t criticizing the app itself or the promotion of the product, but rather the thoughtless tone of the message. She added:
“Just to be clear, I love Zepto as an app—it’s essential to my daily life as I rely heavily on it for orders. My issue is with the mindless logic and wording of the message, not with the i-Pill promotion or its availability.”
Zepto Acknowledges Mistake and Apologizes
After Pallavi’s post gained attention on social media, Zepto responded, admitting its mistake. The company issued an apology, acknowledging that the notification was careless and could have caused harm. In their response, Zepto stated:
“Hey Pallavi, we messed up, and we’re truly sorry. We understand how thoughtless and potentially harmful this was. We’ve taken immediate steps to correct the issue, updated our processes, and retrained our team. We value your trust and well-being above all. This won’t happen again. Speedily yours, Team Zepto.”
What do you think of Zepto’s mistake? Do you believe such personalized notifications are appropriate? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
