Selling Points: Optimizing E-Commerce

Even though coupons can significantly boost online sales, they often have a reputation for delivering low-quality customers. This is most likely because online retailers predominantly distribute them through coupon and deal sites, which attract bargain-hunting shoppers with low lifetime values. With a little re-thinking on distribution, though, you can use coupons to attract targeted, high-quality customers. How? By presenting one-time use coupons to customers who have just completed a complementary transaction from another merchant’s site. [caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="In this example, a shopper who just purchased anti-virus software is presented with a coupon from an identity theft protection company. Shoppers who want to protect their computers would likely be interested in protecting their identities as well. "][/caption] By presenting coupons post-transactionally, you can attract high-quality customers (i.e. those who just made an online purchase). And by distributing your coupon to a complementary merchant’s traffic, you can expose your brand to a targeted audience that is likely to have an affinity for your product or service. It’s important to ensure that these types of coupons each contain a unique code to avoid mass re-posting on the hundreds of coupon and deal sites on the Web. Otherwise, every time someone searches for your brand, he or she will come across a coupon—meaning you will discount your product and pay an affiliate fee for customers who would have gladly paid full price.

Restaurant.com: Best Post-Transactional Placement

Welcome to TrialPay’s Best Of Web (BOW) Awards, where we recognize the savvy online merchants that best utilize TrialPay’s e-commerce solutions. This month we’re honoring Restaurant.com for their highly effective post-transactional placement, pictured at the bottom of the confirmation e-mail below.

Many online merchants utilize TrialPay’s Get It Free model (which helps turn browsers into buyers by letting shoppers get a product for free when they try or buy something else) to increase conversions from non-paying users. But Restaurant.com uses a post-transactional placement of a Get It Free offer to increase conversions from their current customers.

In the confirmation e-mail pictured above, Restaurant.com offers its customers a chance to get an additional $25 gift certificate for free through TrialPay after they’ve already completed a purchase. This post-transactional placement helps Restaurant.com boost customer loyalty by offering a great deal, and helps encourage repeat customers by providing an affordable way for shoppers to make an additional purchase. By including this offer along with important confirmation information that customers need to access their initial purchase, Restaurant.com ensures that the offer is presented to 100% of their customers.

Any online seller can follow the best practices displayed here by Restaurant.com by incorporating a post-transactional TrialPay offer to any order confirmation page, confirmation e-mail, or even as a free version of your product completes its download. Log in to your merchant account or e-mail your account manager to get started.

It’s no surprise that offering alternative ways to pay online increases a shopper’s willingness to purchase an item. But what retailers might not know is that more than half of online shoppers actively look for alternative payment methods when shopping online.

In our 2008 Alternative Payments Survey, we found that 75% of online shoppers have used an alternative payment method, such as Google Checkout, PayPal, Bill Me Later, and TrialPay, to purchase an item online. And 59% of online shoppers say they are more likely to make a purchase online if there is an alternative payment method available.

Giving Consumers a Reason to Purchase
Nearly 80% of our survey responders agreed that they are more likely to purchase an item online if there is an incentive associated with that purchase. And 40% admit to having already taken advantage of such offers that are presented at checkout while shopping online, such as “Get the item you're buying for free just by trying one of these other offers.”

The Way People Purchase Software Online is Changing
The 2008 Alternative Payments Survey found that 61% of online shoppers have downloaded trial or free versions of software. Of this 61%, only 10% said they “often” or “always” buy the full version – meaning 90% will never pay for the premium version of the software. However, when asked if they could receive a free upgrade to a premium or full version by purchasing something else from another merchant:

• 11% said “Yes, without a doubt”
• 59% said “Yes, if the ‘other merchant’ had something I needed, or if it was a store that I shop with regularly”
• 5% said “No, I’d rather pay full price”
• 25% said “No, I’d stick with the free version or not purchase at all”

That means 70% of consumers would purchase a premium version if an incentive was offered at time of checkout/download.

A Research Brief providing detailed information on our findings is available here.

In a previous post, we discussed how offer completions can help game publishers monetize virtual currency. But game publishers don’t need virtual economies to benefit from offer completions. Ad-supported alternative payment platforms can help any game publisher effectively combat downward pricing pressure from users hesitant to directly pay for games. Preserve Your Retail Price When faced with downward pricing pressure, many publishers of downloadable games will discount their prices across the board. While this might increase conversions among users who aren’t willing to pay the full retail price, this also diminishes revenues from those who are. Instead of discounting your game, give non-paying users alternative ways to pay. Convert “Bad” Customers Through high-quality advertiser offers, you can still generate significant revenue on every sale because a weak customer for your brand might be a great customer for another. Ad-supported payment platforms allow users to pay for your games by purchasing something else they need. For example, users who have a tight budget for games might have a larger budget for clothing, food, online subscriptions or gifts. Make More Per Transaction When a customer completes an advertiser offer in lieu of paying directly for your game, you can earn more per transaction because the payout from an advertiser may greatly exceed your regular price. For example, even if your game regularly sells for $20, you might make $50+ every time a customer completes an offer from a credit card company.