Oct200921
Posted by: Mark Grondin In: eCommerce Best Practices
A recent edition of the Wall Street Journal contained an article about: How to Find Free Shipping Offers. The authors looked at this strategy from a consumer perspective:
“To snare many of the new shipping deals, shoppers have to be in the know: They need to input the right “coupon code” when checking out online. These codes are often delivered via email, advertised on the retailer’s Web site or sent in the mail.”
“But you need not be an insider to crack retailers’ coupon codes. Dozens of sites post codes for various online offers, including SlickDeals.net, RetailMeNot.com, DealNews.com and FatWallet.com… A simple Web search will [also] do: Just enter the name of the retailer and the word “coupons.”
We have recently seen some of our innovative brands using this “value hunter” tactic to their brand’s advantage.
In one example, a brand was working with a retailer to help liquidate last year’s stock. Rather than putting a big discount on their site (a negative for the brand), they “leaked” a special discount to a deal site. Because these sites drive significant traffic, it lead to an instant spike in traffic and a quick clearing of the inventory. A very successful program. (Note: Make sure you are ready for the significant traffic and sales that can be generated. In another case the brand had to cancel orders because they launched the promotion on a weekend when they were not able to adequately monitor the sales and stock level.)
A second brand decided to use a stealth deal as a checkout conversion mechanism. After discovering a high checkout abandonment rate on their shipping costs page and noticeable post-abandonment traffic to deal sites, they decided to “leak” a free shipping code – knowing it would also get indexed by search engines and found by deal hunters. Through this mechanism, those most invested in looking for a deal can find the discount. By avoiding general “free shipping” on all orders, the brand is able to increase conversion for deal hunters, but not forced to provide free shipping to those who would otherwise complete the order without the promotion.
There are many other strategies that have been and will be used on the deal sites this holiday season. We recommend putting these strategies into your online toolbox and using them to reach your holiday sales goals. Have you seen any innovative tactics?