Comments on: Recover Lost Sales From Your Online Store

By: David Koh

David Koh — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:50:02 +0000

Hi Steve,

Well,this is a feasible idea to give it a try.If you are not sure,test it out by doing a test market on some of your customers and see how is the response.

It is common to follow up on a sale offline when a customer did not purchase an item.The main reason is to find the negative behind not making a purchase,overcome it and close the sales.This provide a sale person a second chance to seal the deal.Free gifts or discounts are being use to move things along.

It is a sensitive issue.Emails send may not be read or be in the spam folder.Doing it incorrectly will causes the customers to have the impression that you are desperate for sales.

To overcome this,send out an email with a strong title to get them to read it.Overall,it is worthwhile to give it a try.Use this as a good opportunity to project your business image as value for money and broaden the customer base.

To your success

By: Scopulus

Scopulus — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:53:05 +0000

Its a good idea as long as its not abused. One email, that’s it. I noticed it once and i emailed them to ask if we could help. Ten minuets latter i noticed he purchased the product and completed the transaction. He emailed me back to say he was sorry he abandoned.

When i sent the email I was not sure if i did the right thing as i never send out an email unless it is expected. For some reason that day i though it was a fair game as the same person did it twice. They were obviously having a problem. It could have been our system or his pc, who knows.

By: Jace

Jace — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:30:20 +0000

I’ve been thinking about the referral system for my own uses and I think an email is too flimsy, doesn’t compel the user to actually refer anyone. For my system I think I’m going to have some cards printed up (probably plastic like gift cards) that people can physically hand to someone and has a code on it (haven’t decided whether I want it to be one-time use or not). Include it with the shipped order and let them give it to one of their friends, it’s a physical reminder that’s more useful than a business card. Or better yet, have your business cards printed up with a referral code on the back, double exposure. =)

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:15:54 +0000

@Jace @Walt
Free stuff is definitely compelling. I was thinking of offering a free order of hot wings with purchase of some wedding linens:) Believe it or not, we have quite a few repeat customers. Most of these customers are event planners, wedding planners or people who do their own embroidery on the side. Offering brides a discount for their friends does sound interesting however. I’m positive that we get a lot of business from referrals as it stands.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:12:01 +0000

@Walt
Happy to hear that you and your family are launching their online store! If you ever need any help, please do let me know. Yeah I really hate how Amazon sends me loads of email as well. Clearly it works though, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:10:57 +0000

@MsConstantine
So true. If I could regain just 20% of the abandoned customers, that would equal quite a bit of revenue.

By: W^L+ (Walt)

W^L+ (Walt) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:34:17 +0000

Good point, Jace. An occasional, infrequent e-mail message can be a great way to pick up repeat business.

I think the thing with Amazon is that they send out so many. Even if I decided to buy every book they recommended, I couldn’t fund that many purchases. I’d have to move out of my house and live in my car.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of the hotel loyalty programs do the same thing. (Hint to the hotel chains: I’m too work-oriented to be able to enjoy a week in the Caribbean. By day two, I’d be trying to find reliable Internet, so I could do something constructive. You should know this already, since every hotel stay is for “work” purposes.)

I’m sure their software has a pretty detailed picture of my interests by now. How about e-mailing once every month or three with the one or two things that are most likely to interest me?

In Steve’s business, however, I doubt that most of his customers are repeats. So post-sale e-mail needs to be about “did we satisfy you?” and about “we’ll give your friends a discount if they order on your recommendation in the next three months”.

By: Jace

Jace — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:25:11 +0000

Last night I received a call from a local pizza shop that I ordered from only once in the last 2 years. It was the manager/owner and he offered me a free appetizer if I wanted to “come back” and try them again. I’ve tried a hundred pizza shops and I don’t recall if I liked his or not, but that free app will make me choose his the next time I order pizza.

Perhaps give your customers a nice discount after 6 months to invite them back, or a referral discount if one of their friends makes a purchase.

By: W^L+ (Walt)

W^L+ (Walt) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:08:50 +0000

I think sending ONE discount message on the same day or the next day is great. Waiting longer or sending multiple messages will tend to push people away.

And the worst you can do is follow Amazon’s example of filling my inbox with “since you bought X, we thought you might be interested in Y” messages. Frequently, they are right–and I print out the information and take it to the local Barnes and Noble store to buy the book–simply because I hate spam that much.

By the way, Steve, I’m getting some family members together to launch our own online store soon (but nothing to do with weddings).

By: Ms Constantine

Ms Constantine — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:08:49 +0000

Also, those gaming the system may not buy from your shop without the coupon. You could count that as a brand new customer you might not otherwise have.