Using coupon codes to entice online consumers is a long-running debate. The pros are: easy to implement, easy to track, and consistent increase in conversion. The cons are: uncontrollable distribution, tendency to drive non-loyal discount shoppers, and reduction of average order value.

Many companies that I’ve worked with avoid coupon codes, saying that the return is not worth the monetary or human resource investment. Lately, however, I’ve seen many effective uses of coupon codes.

Coupons at J.C. Penney

Consider the case of J.C. Penney. Early last year it eliminated many promotions in favor of everyday low pricing and month-long sales and seasonal sales events. The goal was to convey to consumers that they would always get the best available price simply by shopping at J.C. Penney, without waiting for a sale. J.C. Penney dropped non-seasonal sales, promotions, and coupons. Penney’s ran paid search ads, such as the one below, announcing the shift.

J.C. Penney’s paid search ad.

It didn’t work. By May 2012, J.C. Penney’s stock price plunged nearly 20 percent after it missed sales targets. For the first three quarters of 2012, sales fell by 23 percent. Since then, J.C. Penney started reissuing coupons.

So even though J.C. Penney committed to “fair and square” pricing, which meant that if consumers did their research, they would see a competitive price without the need for a sale or coupon, why did J.C. Penney’s revenue take such a dive? The answer likely has to do with consumer behavior. Online consumers like to research. They use shopping comparison engines. They weigh whether shipping fees will offset tax savings. They take part in online forums to discuss the merits of price and product. Part of online shopping is the hunt. Consumers want to feel like they’ve “found” a good deal, that the effort they’ve spent in finding that deal resulted in a payoff.

When consumers find a coupon and use it successfully, they believe they’ve gotten a good deal. Never mind they could have purchased that same product at J.C. Penney for the same price without a coupon. If the consumer uses a coupon code he found buried on page 7 of the search results, he’s likely going to tell others.

Coupons Disrupt Purchase Path?

Many merchants fear that coupon codes interfere with the purchase path. This does occur. A consumer goes to a retailer’s website, locates a product she wants to buy, adds the product to the cart, and then exits the transaction process to find a coupon code. This is where affiliate marketing comes into play. The consumer finds a coupon code on an affiliate site, and now the retailer has to discount the product for the consumer and pay commission to the affiliate.

However, there are many ways to manage this scenario with proper attribution. Many affiliate tracking platforms allow for a specific commission rate for coupon sites. For example, ShareASale.com not only allows you to set a lower commission rate for specific affiliates, but it also allows you to see at what point the coupon affiliate entered the shopping stream. As a marketer, if you can see that the consumer visited the coupon site seconds before completing a purchase, likely the consumer visited the coupon site to acquire the coupon code.

Coupons Generate New Customers?

If, however, you see that the consumer visited the coupon site ten minutes before completing a purchase, then perhaps the coupon site truly did drive incremental traffic. By seeing the code on the coupon site, the consumer may have been motivated to visit the retailer’s site, where she browsed for ten minutes before completing the purchase.

Coupon codes aren’t just for coupon sites, however. My company recently analyzed 100 blog posts that generated high traffic for a retail client. Over 50 percent of these posts featured a coupon code. I’ve seen blogs generate upwards of 20 percent of a retailer’s new customers. While blog traffic does take time for a retailer to build, the investment is worth it in terms of new customer acquisition. And, as I saw from our quick study of those 100 posts, offering bloggers a coupon code — with an affiliate link in the code — is a good way to get coverage of your brand.

Summary

So here are the takeaway points. Coupons are not horrible. In fact, they can be beneficial if used as part of an overall marketing strategy. Set expiration dates. Set attribution metrics. Ensure that affiliate commission rates are in line with new and existing customer mixes. And don’t be afraid to test.

Loyal shoppers demonstrate conversion rates 5-to-9 times greater than first-time buyers, according to data from Marketing Metrics, eConsultancy, and Adobe.

In the U.S., repeat shoppers, who represented just 8 percent of all site visitors, accounted for nearly 41 percent of total online sales, according to a 2012 Adobe report, “The ROI from Marketing to Existing Online Customers.”

Just 8 percent of visitors generate 41 percent of sales, according to Adobe.

A single repeat shopper could be worth many new customers. Consider that customers making a second purchase may spend 3 times as much per visit as first time shoppers, according to Adobe. While true repeat customers who have made three or more purchases may spend 5 times as much per visit as new customers.

Loyal shoppers may also influence others, generating additional sales for an online retailer through word-of-mouth or mentions in social media. Business professor Stephen W. Brown called this influence the “Loyalty Ripple Effect” and argued that it might be as valuable to a business as direct sales.

Given this information about loyal shoppers, it should be clear that repeat customers are worth having. The challenge for online merchants is earning repeat business. To meet this challenge there are six behaviors that online retail businesses may adopt, including offering high quality products, providing excellent customer service, selling at good prices, making the buying process easy and convenient, rewarding repeat purchases, and saying, “thank you.”

Offer Quality Products

Intuitively, online retailers know that customers will not return a second or third time to purchase a low quality product that crumbled or broke soon after it arrived. The first step in building a cadre of loyal, repeat shoppers is offering good products.

To ensure that a business is selling high quality products, it should vet suppliers, test samples, and monitor return rates.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

Some 72 percent of respondents to a 2012 survey from Zendesk, the customer support software, said that customer service was what made them loyal to a particular brand or business.

Excellent customer service should be responsive and effective. As an example, a repeat Zappos shopper purchased a new pair of shoes for her son about two weeks ago — her husband related the story to me during a meeting. Within two days of arrival, one of the shoes broke. The customer emailed Zappos, and Zappos responded in less than five minutes. A new pair of shoes went out that day via overnight shipping; a return label was ready immediately; and the Zappos representative was “very sorry” for the trouble.

To provide great customer service, be available, be responsive, and focus on making the shopper happy. Remember the goal is to build a long-term relationship.

Sell at Competitive Prices

Price matters, especially for branded, consumable items.

Here is an example, Nutri-Vet’s Equine Joint Supplement reduces joint pain and improves flexibility in older horses. It is available at dozens of online stores, and many horse owners consider it a must purchase item. Each of those horse owners, no doubt, has a favorite store.

In spite of that apparent loyalty, a significant difference in price could get a customer to change stores.

One shopper in Florida did just that. For several years, she bought three Nutri-Vet’s Equine Joint Supplement pals from an ecommerce website every month that sold the 3.75-pounds pals for $79.99 for a 3.75-pound.

This buyer liked the site’s shopping experience, but the exact same product was available for $75.99 — $4 less — at a competitor’s site. Given that this customer buys 36 pals a year, the savings amounted to $144 annually, which was more than enough to encourage her to switch.

Ensure that selling prices are competitive. It is a must for keeping repeat customers.

Be Very Convenient

Shopping online should be easy. The aforementioned Zendesk report found that more than 40 percent of shoppers said that convenience contributed to brand loyalty.

Offer customer accounts so that repeat shoppers may easily login and make a purchase without having to complete a long checkout form. If possible, let shoppers log in using social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and now, Google+.

Reward Repeat Purchasers

Everyone likes to be treated well, and repeat customers are no exception.

Progressive, the insurance company, is an example. Progressive makes its best — long term — customers “Emerald Members.” When an Emerald Member calls Progressive’s service center that customer is moved to the front of the line and given immediate service. A recorded message tells the caller about the privilege.

Consider offering repeat shoppers expedited shipping, faster customer service response times, or even special sales and offers.

Never Stop Saying “Thank You”

Telling a repeat customer “thank you” costs almost nothing. But it has a huge impact. KISSmetrics, the analytics firm, reported this month that “as many as 3 out of 4 customers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive experiences. Kindness and gratitude for a customer’s business is an undeniable way to further enchant them for the long term.”

Try doing it often. In fact, make it a habit to send any shopper who makes more than two purchases a hand signed thank you card. It will go a long way toward building long-term relationships.

Posted by Armando Roggio on http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3937-How-to-Earn-Loyal-Repeat-Ecommerce-Customers-

So why don’t businesses take advantage of responding to complaints and negative reviews on their own product pages?

4 years ago, we recommended this tactic in an article Thinking Positively About Negative Reviews. It took me 4 years to come across an ecommerce site actually using it. But I recently found 3 – White House Black Market, Aliexpress and Ice.com.

If you’re going to use this tactic, here are some tips to make the most of them:

1. Clarify the issue

In the 2009 article, we cited research from Forrester on customer reactions to negative reviews. 7% indicated they would contact the retailer or manufacturer for clarification of the issues raised in the negative review. Contacting the seller takes time and effort, so though this is a low percentage, a much larger percentage would benefit from a clarification in-line with the review.

Take the opportunity to show off PK (product knowledge) and teach customers how to get the most of their ownership. For example, the Huawei Ascend G was getting a number of negative comments about the ringer volume. The manufacturer released a firmware upgrade that solved the issue. Customers may not read each and every review, or research these problems themselves. A staff spokesperson who can respond to these comments can reassure customers it is a good product can save sales and build trust with your company.

Tip: When staffing your response team, choose individuals who are good at researching and finding solutions to problems.

2. Suggest alternative products

Forrester found 47% of customers would search for alternative products when they read a negative review (26% would buy anyway). Why not help them navigate to a suitable, recommended alternative whilst showing off your team’s product knowledge and building trust?

For example, a 1-star review for the Urban Decay Naked Pallette on Sephora stated “Not enough matte colors. The shimmer/glitter colors just don’t work for me.” A helpful response could be “Yes, this palette leans more towards frost shades than matte. If you prefer matte, I recommend the Stila Neutral Pallette. It has a number of comparable shades with a matte finish” A link to the recommended product not only helps this customer, but educates all other readers about an alternative that addresses this particular concern about the product.

3. Embrace variety

Canned replies are efficient, but don’t come across as authentic once they appear more than once per product.

It’s not always possible to respond to a negative review with a clarification or alternative. (For example, how do you respond to someone who simply didn’t enjoy a book?) Don’t feel obliged to respond to each and every negative review. Use discernment which ones warrant clarification, alternative recommendation or an apology to show your business’ attention to customer complaints.

After encountering a negative review, 18% of customers will look for a retailer/manufacturer that offers a money-back guarantee. Simply reminding customers of your satisfaction guarantee at this point of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) can have a positive effect.

4. Enable community responses

Sometimes your staff doesn’t have the benefit of experiencing the product first-hand. Allowing others to chime in with their own solutions has benefits.

Community responses also educate your customer service staff, and can be re-stated in staff replies.

5. Don’t get defensive / offensive

This may sound obvious, but there’s no room for snark in customer service. Don’t insult the buyer, suggest they don’t know how to use the product, or publicly ask them to change their feedback.

Not only can hosting negative reviews build trust by demonstrating your transparency – they provide an opportunity for you to educate and resolve customer service issues in public, which can translate into more buyer confidence, and ultimately, sales.

Posted by by Linda Bustos on http://www.getelastic.com/negative-reviews-think-like-twitter/

What Are Key Metrics?

Key metrics help you understand how customers interact with your brand. By integrating your marketing plan with key metric data, you can measure campaign performance and its effect on your customers. Key metrics go beyond mass marketing. Instead, you have the power to harness data on a detailed level, seeing metrics for individual customers. By targeting customers on a more personalized level with your marketing, you’re more likely to create loyal business.

Key metrics can be divided into three broad categories.

1. Customer value. You have the option to investigate customer value from a variety of angles. For instance, you can track the revenue per customer on a year-to-year basis. If you’re working to retain your customers, it’s essential to see whether or not customers are giving you the same, less, or more revenue year after year. Furthermore, you can dissect this data to determine the average number of purchases a customer has made in the past year. Combined, this data allows you to predict the total revenue you can earn from the customer. Use this information to fine-tune your marketing campaigns to ensure you see a return investment. Since this key metric shows year-to-year data, you’ll see the effectiveness of your ongoing campaigns.
2. Recency.By studying how long it’s been since specific customers have made a purchase, you can categorize them into “New,” “Engaged,” or “Inactive.” This data is important when you are planning an automated email campaign. When sending emails based on a customer’s recency, you’re more likely to increase conversation rates.For instance, when sending marketing emails to new customers, emphasize their reengagement with your brand. Whether you stress the benefits of your rewards program or upcoming promotions, emails to new customers should focus on building value and setting up incentives to a return visit. But emails focusing on the return visit would be out of place with your Engaged customers. Since these customers are already recurring, email marketing towards them should be focused on your latest offerings and products you think they might enjoy, not a return visit.
3. Frequency. Monitoring the frequency of orders from a customer allows you to predict when a customer is likely to make another purchase. For instance, knowing that a customer orders, on average, every 104 days will allow you to plan automated emails promoting products that interest that particular client. Typically, less than 25 percent of ecommerce business customers are repeat clients. Using this data to craft a marketing campaign can help improve retention and purchase frequency.

How to Use Deeper Customer Insight

With these three key metrics, you can use the data to execute and automate your marketing campaigns. You can also observe deeper insights, such as the most popular products and how frequently they are bought. By knowing which products are the most popular, you know which ones you can continue promoting and where you need to focus new marketing efforts.

These metrics will differ with existing and new customers. Knowing that, you can create campaigns that truly target their needs and thus increase your conversion rates.

Here are three marketing campaigns that use customer-driven metrics.

• Create a welcome series. Use your Recency metric to generate a list of new customers. Then create an automated email to welcome them — and encourage future business. A welcome series of emails can expand on your rewards program, or promote products based on the customer’s initial purchase. By hammering, not spamming, your brand while it’s still fresh in the customer’s mind, you’re more likely to create a loyal customer.
• Reengagement.he next step of your email campaign should be to re-engage your customers. You should combine the Recency and Frequency metrics to automate the appropriate emails to existing clients. Take advantage of a regular calendar interval to send out recurring emails and be sure to include personalized events such as birthdays and anniversaries in your email marketing.To increase the chances of reengagement, target emails towards the customer’s past purchase history as well as the pages they’ve recently visited. If the customer makes another purchase, be sure to honor it with a transactional email that acknowledges and confirms the order, and provides shipping information. Also, be sure to use “Purchase Reminders” to inform customers of any products that are new and similar to previous purchases. Specialized content is much more likely to influence the customer, so purchase reminders should be based on the key metrics concerning Recency and Frequency.
• Rewards and cross-selling. If you have a rewards program, it’s vital to inform your customers that it exists, and to describe its benefits. Emails that focus on rewards and cross selling indicate that the customer is already recurring, if not loyal. Customers enjoy a great deal. So the more your emails focus on the benefits of your rewards program such as how much they’ve saved, the more likely they will be to purchase from your brand.

Posted by Jaime Brugueras on http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3901-Using-Sales-Data-to-Automate-Email-Marketing

In competitive markets, the emphasis you place on service can make all the difference. That’s what Trueshopping Ltd – a UK based online retailer specialising in home & lifestyle products – has realised. After collecting and sharing online reviews actively, they have seen remarkable results across the majority of their 18 different websites. That includes an 8.33% overall website conversion rate and a huge increase in the number of brand searches after achieving Seller Rating Extensions on their Google ads.

“People expect to see reviews these days”

It all started with the need to give their potential customers the information they are really looking for.

Peter Lilley, Director at Trueshopping Ltd says:

“People now expect to see reviews. Simply publishing reviews on the websites leaves a positive impression and increases overall trust. We’re confident in our service offering and are happy to share our reviews, which is why we started collecting reviews. Trustpilot Business really stood out when we were researching for a vendor for our online reviews back in 2011, and this solution seemed to tie in with Google really well.”

Top ratings on six websites

Getting up and running with Trustpilot Business happened quickly. Trueshopping Ltd used Kickstart Credits to get started and they received their first reviews within a few days. That proved the concept, so they began collecting reviews across several of their websites. Today, they are working with fixed goals for all the sites they are collecting reviews for. They aim for a TrustScore of 9 on all their sites, which is the equivalent to a five-star rating. So far, they enjoy five-star ratings on six of their websites, and they’re still going strong.

However, the most remarkable results come from distributing their online reviews.

“We have added the TrustBox displaying reviews on our websites and on our Facebook pages. We are proud of our reviews, so we share them wherever we can,”

Peter Lilley says.

Shared reviews almost doubles brand searches

Trustpilot has a licensing agreement with Google, so reviews may appear in Google Shopping Merchant Reviews and Google AdWords Merchant Reviews, which adds a star rating next to the ad. Trueshopping Ltd achieved those star ratings – also known as Google Seller Rating Extensions – and saw results on their AdWords campaigns improve the following ways:

• The overall CTR on their ads improved by 3.85 %
• Organic brand searches almost doubled (went from 4.8% to 7.96%)

Ultimately that means more business for Trueshopping Ltd:

Peter Lilley
Director, Trueshopping Ltd

“After implementing widgets displaying the most recent reviews directly on our websites, we achieved a remarkable result: Overall website conversion rate increased by 8.33%”

Reviews make the company more customer-focused

At Trueshopping Ltd, Trustpilot reviews fall under the jurisdiction of both the Marketing and Customer Service departments. Daily management of reviews is handled by Customer Service, while Marketing ensures that reviews are shared in the right places. One of the upsides of this arrangement is that the company becomes more customer-focused.

“I do enjoy using Trustpilot – the fact that all of our customers are given the opportunity to give us ‘no holds barred’ feedback is definitely a very positive thing in my opinion. I love the transparency it gives to our business, and we are very concerned about maintaining the ‘shop window’ for the business and putting things right when customers have told us something’s wrong. The fact that we generally have good scores across our sites is something that makes me very proud,”

Peter Lilley, Director, says while stressing another benefit:

“Being a pure play online retailer makes it more challenging to engage with your customers directly. By getting reviews in every day, you are continuously reminded what your customers need and what you are in business for in the first place.”

Posted on http://business.trustpilot.com/customers/case-studies/trueshopping/

Why Email Marketing for Ecommerce Merchants?

Here are 13 reasons.

• Click through rates are still higher than online advertising. That’s 3.1 percent average click through in the U.S., according to a 2012 study by Silverpop, an email service provider. If you build a list of 10,000, then you’ll likely have 1,500 people open your mail and around 300 click to your promotion.
• Lists are easy to build. For online retailers, it’s easy to grow your email list by promoting it on your website and through your social media channels. Unsubscribe rates are typically low, so your list will almost always grow.
• You can deliver effective content to your customers. Don’t just send email promotions. Talk about your industry, trends, new products, even what you did on your summer vacation. Use emails as a way to connect more personally with your customers. You have more space than you do on Facebook or Twitter — take advantage of it.
• Lists are easily segmented for easy targeting. Subscribers can easily choose the lists they want to be on — by frequency, product or interest. Retailers can mine customer order histories to target specific products, with much success.

Amazon is a pioneer in sophisticated email segmentation. This email contains only items that the recipient purchased or viewed at Amazon.com.

• Conversion rates are high. Most online retailers find a much higher conversion rate from email promotions than other forms of promotion.
• A/B testing is easy. Split your list into segments and test different messaging and promotions on a subset. Then, use the one that was most effective for your campaign.
• It’s inexpensive. Subscription rates on MailChimp, Constant Contact, and other providers are less than $150 per month for 25,000 subscribers or even more.
• Email adapts well to mobile. People increasingly read email on their mobile devices. Even if you don’t have a mobile site, you can generate a mobile friendly email in many platforms.
• Builds brand and loyalty. Emails are a good way to build your brand and engender customer loyalty. Offer subscribers a special benefit they won’t get anywhere else. Just keeping your business name in front of your customers periodically will help them remember you when it’s time to buy.
• Templates are easy to build and customize. Need to feature three products this week instead of your usual five? Most email services offer flexible templates. Use a branded template of your own. You will still be able to change it in an HTML editor. Add seasonal flair by dropping in stock graphics or photos.
• Emails can be sent easily and quickly. Drop in your messaging, choose your list and sent it out. It will generate traffic to your site. Don’t abuse your permissions, but occasionally an impulse email promotion when things are slow is a good thing. In my previous ecommerce business, we typically experienced order activity within 15 minutes of sending out an email to our customer list.
• Easy to measure. You’ll see who clicked through, and how many times they visited. You can remarket only to people who opened and clicked. You can build a list of frequent clickers and market more aggressively to them, versus the ones who don’t click as often.
• No conversation to monitor. If you post a message on Twitter, it’s best to monitor it to see how it’s responded to or retweeted. There no need for that on email — unless recipients email you back — which makes it a low maintenance promotional tool.

Integration With Other Platforms

The best way to use email is to integrate with other tools and platforms. For example, when you send an email, use Facebook and Twitter posts to direct people to a copy of it. Or, use Twitter to solicit email subscribers by offering a benefit to sign up. Because Twitter is a viral platform, the offer to subscribe may reach hundreds of people that haven’t heard of you.

Use Pinterest as a landing page for a newsletter communication. It’s a good place to show off your products and build community. Send your email subscribers there to join the conversation.

Use a Facebook Sweepstakes to collect new email subscribers. I ran a successful Wildfire Sweepstakes on Facebook some time back. In addition to the 3,500 or so new Facebook Likes we received, we netted about 2,500 new email subscribers, for a total of investment of about $700. The subscribers were fully opted in. So that investment more than paid for itself over the ensuing months.

Social media is becoming less trendy, but more engrained in our daily activities and way of doing business. Email has been that way for about 15 years now. Don’t forget about that.

Posted by Dale Traxler on: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3875-Don-t-Forget-Email-Marketing-13-Reasons

For updating the free module please download the module on mailbeez.com.

For updating the premium module please use your download link you received from avangate.

Bugfix:

open

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find around line 55

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Background:

Previously the $fb_share_url needed to be urlencoded, now it MUST not be url encoded. The Variable $tw_share_url_real contains an “real” version of the sharepage URL.