Using Giveaways To Increase Sales
As most of you know it’s normally harder to get new customers than to keep you existing ones. However, some entrepreneurs have recently come up with some creative marketing ideas. One good example of this is the company "Ipsy".
Ipsy sells makeup and associated products over the Internet. Most of their new customers are referred to their site solely by word of mouth, and they routinely have people clamoring to get on their waiting list. The initial 2011 start-up involved customers signing-up for a $10/Month subscription. For that monthly fee the subscriber is sent a "Glam Bag" which contains a large sample of beauty items that are tailored to the
particular subscribers tastes. Additional things that are included are informational links to beauty videos, coupons, music, and offers to buy full-sized containers of the sample products and additional associated products and beauty lines that were not in the Glam Bag.
In April of 2014, Ipsy is on track to ship 1 million Glam Bags in that month. This represents an increase of 300,000 subscribers since October of 2014. Assuming that current subscribers stay on the auto-ship program for a full 12 months, this translates to a $120 million dollar revenue stream annually based solely on current subscribers, and this regardless of whether they purchase anything else or not. If even a small portion of the subscribers purchase up-sell items, these annual sales numbers could easily skyrocket.
Even if you aren’t planning on offering products or services with some sort of subscription, there are some other things that you can with your NCR Counterpoint system using the NCR Customer Connect feature such as:
- Tailoring auto-send emails to customers based on their personal preferences. – Example – An automotive accessories retailer sending coupons to owners of specific makes an models of vehicles.
- Offering discounts or coupons to customers who bought specific items or items in a specific product category over a specific time frame – Example – An electronics retailer offering a sound system add-on to all customers who purchase a wide screen TV within the last 30 days.
- A Delicatessen sending out lunch special coupons.
- A pet food retailer offering free pet treats with the next purchase of a particular brand or size of pet food.
If you would like more information on linking NCR Counterpoint and Customer Connect to your customers, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Sales Department.
– John