[Hidden-tech] Referral Commissions...

[Shel Horowitz]

At 7:23 PM -0400 10/26/06, Dan Green wrote:
>Hey Shel, Hello Marcia
>
>If at all possible within your budgets please simplify the carts, certainly
>unify them. Customers expectations are much higher than in the past.
>
>Shel, as a fan of yours you know I would navigate to extremes to get to your
>products.  Marcia, I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting you.

She's worth meeting. One of the smartest and most ethical marketers 
on the planet.

>
>But while the solopreneur business model may attract shoppers more dedicated
>to purchase your products than say a product shopper at TigerDirect, why
>frustrate them? If one is public ally upset, more than likely 7-9 others
>ones are too-but silently.

I don't think the process is all-that difficult. It seems for the 
most part that e-book and p-book buyers are two different types. I 
get about 3 a year who fill both out, and I say right upfront,

"Please read if you are ordering both print and electronic products:
In order to allow instant downloads of electronic products and still 
maintain certain other functionality, we use two different shopping 
carts. E-books are processed via Paypal, and printed books/services 
are processed manually. In our experience, only a few customers will 
need to fill out both order forms. If you are one of those, we 
apologize for the inconvenience, and we want to make it up to you by 
offering your choice of either of our special reports at no extra 
charge. Simply email [my assistant] with both of your order numbers 
and which report you'd like."

But you raise a valid point--of the fairly few orders we receive that 
use both carts, most don't ask for the bonus. So we flag them, 
manually contact them, and tell them that since they had to fill out 
both carts, they get the bonus. Needless to say they are delighted. 
It is possible that others are discouraged and we don't hear from 
them, for which reason I'm copying my assistant so she and I can 
brainstorm about how to make this smoother.

>
>There are 7 reasons that explain the majority of reasons customer's abandon
>carts.  Difficulty in use and checkout is number 6, accounting for 15% of
>abandoned carts. (Not wanting to pay shipping is #1. The other five will
>cost a cup of coffee.)

That would certainly be worth my buying you a cup of coffee. I've 
enjoyed our meetings at both Esselon and Amherst. I'll call you to 
schedule.

>
>A common mistake by online merchants that leads to frustrated customers and
>poor shopping experiences is that the carts are hard to use. They are not
>easy to navigate, to edit, or to query for more information.

If you feel up to it, I'd love you to walk through mine at 
http://www.frugalmarketing.com/shop.html and give me a quick read on 
the user experience. I may be too close to it.

>
>Not only is this frustrating, but it interferes with the flow of moving the
>customer through checkout. But there are ways you can avoid these problems
>and make the shopping cart a customer's friend, not a distracting enemy.
>
>We've developed an e-commerce solution and shopping cart that has
>incorporated years of online best practices that we can customize
>appropriately depending on the particular business model. 
>
>These practices have proven to decrease abandonment rates and actually
>increase average sales for smaller professional service companies as well as
>some of our larger national accounts.
>
>I'd e happy to discuss some of the strategy offline.
>
>Dan Green
>www.hampdencounty.truepresence.com
>498 South Gulf Road
>Belchertown, MA  01007
>(413) 253-3400

-- 
_________________________________________________
Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel at frugalfun.com
-->Join the Business Ethics Pledge - Ten Years to Change the World,
One Signature at a Time  (please tell your friends)
<http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org>
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How to market ethically/effectively: http://www.frugalmarketing.com
Ethics Blog:  http://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/
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