[Hidden-tech] Referral Commissions...

[Dan Green]

Shel,

I'll be happy to go through your cart again.  The holidays are coming and
your books would make great gifts for some of my colleagues.  I'll get in
touch shortly after.

 

  _____  

From: Shel Horowitz [mailto:shel at frugalfun.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 9:25 PM
To: Dan Green; 'Marcia Yudkin'; Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Cc: Michele Franck Blake
Subject: RE: [Hidden-tech] Referral Commissions...

 

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>
Marketing consulting * copywriting * publishing assistance * speaking

How to market ethically/effectively: http://www.frugalmarketing.com
Ethics Blog:  http://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/
Books: http://www.frugalmarketing.com/shop.html
_________________________________________________

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