Rob: Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English.
I'm Rob.
Neil: And hello, I'm Neil.
Rob: Now Neil, what do you feel about
surf and turf?
Neil: Surf and turf? Love it. What’s not to
love? Some lobster, a juicy steak – fries
on the side. Mmm, delicious.
Rob: Ah, you know what you’ve done there?
Neil: No, do tell.
Rob: You’ve got completely the wrong end
of the stick.
Neil: I said steak, not stick – a juicy steak.
Rob: No! Wrong end of the stick. You
misunderstood me. I’m not talking about
the surf and turf meal, but the online
shopping habit of surfing
and turfing.
Neil: Oh, my bad – but to be fair this is
quite a new use of this expression, isn’t it?
Rob: Yes, it is. Now, you probably know
that 'surfing' is a verb we use for looking at
things on the internet. Surf and turf refers
to when we go to an online store, select
lots of things for our virtual shopping
basket but when we get to the checkout,
which is the place where
we pay for our shopping, we don’t actually
complete the purchase. We turf out the
basket. We abandon it.
Neil: To turf something out is a phrasal
verb for throwing something out.
Although it’s normally used about people
– for example, someone who is behaving
badly might be turfed out of a club.
Rob: Indeed. Well, I’m sure I’ll get turfed
out of the presenter’s union if I don’t
get to today’s quiz question. According
to recent research, which items are the
most likely to be surfed and turfed? Is it
a) Books b) Watches, or
c) Women’s knitwear?
What do you think Neil?
Neil: Right, I think... I'm also certain it's a)
books.
Rob: Well, we’ll find out if you’re right later
in the programme. Now, this research
also revealed that approximately 40% of
people have abandoned an online
shopping basket in the last year.
Neil: And it was calculated that this
meant there was approximately 18 billion
pounds worth of lost sales.
Rob: I have to say I’m a bit sceptical about
that figure. I don’t trust it. We don’t
always intend to buy everything we put in
our baskets. It’s a bit like window shopping -
We just browse and find it convenient to
put things in our basket to think about
later. Have you ever done that?
Neil: Sure. It’s a bit like browsing in a shop
isn’t it – except you can save items you
are interested in to look at later. You might
also make a basket in one online store
then go to another to see if you can get
the same or similar items cheaper there.
So I agree, I don’t think that the figure of
18 billion represents a total. Some of that
was never intended to be spent and some
would have gone to other stores.
Rob: But there are other reasons we don’t
complete our purchases. For some it’s
finding out at the end that there will be a high
delivery cost or that paying is very
complicated.
Neil: Yes, I agree with that. That’s so
annoying. You spend time collecting all
the things in the basket then find you
have to create an account or can’t use
your favourite payment method or you
have to pay more to use a credit card and you
have to fill out so many details.
Sometimes you get so frustrated that you
just give up.
Rob: Exactly, and this is a subject that
retail expert Clare Bailey discussed in the
BBC programme You and Yours. She talks
about retailers, which are the businesses
that sell things. What does she say 70%
of retailers hadn’t done?
Clare Bailey: We found that something
over 70% of the retailers hadn’t invested
in the payment process in the last two years
so the technology is really out of date -
whereas they have potentially invested
in getting us to that page and then
they fell foul.
Rob: 70% of retailers hadn’t invested in the
payment process. They hadn’t changed
the way people pay online for at least two
years.
Neil: Because online technology develops
so quickly, that means that their systems
are out of date.
Something that is out of date is too old,
it’s no longer suitable.
Rob: She says that companies invest in
the shopping experience of their sites but
have ignored the checkout process. This
is where they fall foul. This is where they
make a mistake and get into trouble –
and where they can lose customers.
Right, before we fall foul of the listeners,
let’s have the answer to the quiz. I asked
you which items were the most
commonly abandoned at the virtual
checkout. Was it books, watches or
women’s knitwear? So Neil, what did you say?
Neil: I am pretty certain it's books.
Rob: The answer was actually women’s
knitwear.
Not books, as you thought.
Neil: Ah well, I can’t be right all the time.
Rob: Some of the time would be nice.
Anyway, let’s have a look at today’s
vocabulary. First surf and turf is an
expression for online shopping without
the actual shopping. You put items in your
basket but never actually buy them.
Neil: It’s also a delicious meal of seafood
and red meat.
Rob: Not if you’re a vegetarian, Neil.
Neil: Ah, good point, good point.
Rob: The verb to turf out means 'to
remove someone from a place or
organisation, possibly because
they’ve broken the rules or behaved
badly'.
For example, if we don’t finish the
programme on time we might be turfed
out of this studio.
Neil: The place where you pay for your
shopping, either in a real shop or online is
the checkout. That can be a verb as well
as a noun, you check out at the checkout.
Rob: The businesses that sell you things
are retailers.
Neil: And with hope they don’t sell you
things that are out of date because that
would mean they are past their best, too
old to be suitable.
Rob: And finally there was to fall foul of
something or someone, which is to make
a mistake and get into trouble with
someone. And as we don’t want to fall
foul of the next team who need
to use this studio, it’s just time for us
to say goodbye and to remind you to join
us again for 6 Minute English next time
and if you can’t wait you can always catch
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and our website bbclearningenglish.com
where you can find lots of useful audio
and video programmes to help you
improve your English. That's all
for now. Bye bye!
Neil: Goodbye!