Giving the Gift of Increased Order Size to Yourself

I was recently reading another great FutureNow post by Bryan Eisenberg on their 2007 Retail Customer Experience Study. The study surveyed leading online retail sites on factors of customer experience such as quality of product copy, quality of product images, presence of return policy, and so on. Towards the bottom of the post you can see which sites are considered leaders in customer experience.

I noticed one of my favorite stores, SurlaTable.com, listed as the leader in the Food category. Now I love Sur la Table, so I’ll admit I was somewhat biased in looking at their site for some best practices. One immediate striking thing about the site is how completely it is geared up for the holidays.

The majority of the home page serves to guide visitors into 4 main sections and calling out “gifts with free shipping” is a smart way to get click thrus from shoppers who may be looking for a deal. The side navigation is also made over for the holidays with main sections for holiday foods and holiday gifts.

What caught my eye though on the home page were the gift sets. Looking at this page, the clever marketers at Sur la Table have really packaged existing products in such a way to make them into a gift set or ensemble. So why is this so great you ask? Now shoppers don’t have to hunt for the perfect gift in a sea of products—they only have to know what the person may like, what type of person they are, what their personality is—an easier prospect likely. Sur la Table has grouped many of these sets around celebrity chefs. Needless to say, gift sets are also a very smart way to increase average order value.

Gifts sets from Sur la Table.

While browsing the gift sets, I remembered a Yahoo! merchant I had visited some time back, Lawrence Ames, who was doing much the same thing on his Yahoo! store. In the hopes of passing along some of his experience to other merchants, I asked him some questions around how this works on his site HonestFoods.com.

Gifts sets from Honest Foods.

How long have you been selling online and with Yahoo!? How would you describe the products that you sell?

We’ve been with Yahoo! Store since the beginning. We started with Viamall as a beta test site when they started (1996), and stayed with Yahoo! after Yahoo! acquired Viamall, in 1999.

At HonestFoods, we sell all natural gourmet foods and gourmet gifts. We primarily sell the foods we love or foods we make. As foodies, we source out small artisinal manufacturers and try to get to market things that otherwise you wouldn’t find. Good examples of some very strange items include our Creole Pepper Sauce, which won First Place as Best Louisiana Style Pepper Sauce, but has very limited distribution.

How long have you been doing gift sets?

We’ve been doing Gift Sets since we opened, before the online world began, in 1982.

How do you come up with ideas for what to sell together?

Items are grouped by themes, generally. For example, our Beer Lover Gift Set has ten items made with beer. We have a Grill Master Gift Set for the Grill Master Guy! Lots of fun combinations!

I see you ship in “holiday” gift boxes. Do you think this helps sales vs. just using a regular box?

I think it is nice to offer the Holiday gift box during the holidays, but they really only sell at Christmas. The Holiday boxes are from $1.55 - $3.75 delivered.

I think that the cost is easily recovered, because you have to compare it to “no gift box” which isn’t fun to open, or “gift wrapping” which takes time and materials, and when not done well, can look less than professional. I firmly believe that when we sell products online, we are not so much in the product sales business than in the customer service business. Sure, we can sell ABC widget, but the customer is looking for something more. That something may be convenience, fast service, etc, but is isn’t just about acquiring an item. We need to provide that “something extra”. A lot of times, I think they just want to feel as if someone is paying attention to them, which is why those confirmation emails, your product has shipped emails, etc. are SO important.

Where do you get the boxes?

Two sources: We custom make our box for some of the gifts. We use our Packaging Distributor for other ones. They stock them. Most good packaging distributors have in-house stock of holiday gift boxes.

Do you include anything inside the gift box to encourage the recipient to become a customer?

But of course! Our Mardi Gras In A Box comes complete with Mardi Gras beads and a complete menu for a Mardi Gras feast, including appetizer, main courses, and dessert!

Do you find these gift sets sell throughout the year and not just the holidays?

Yes, they are good sellers all year round, but the Holidays are really the best!

Thanks Lawrence for sharing. So while gift sets may not work in for all merchants, a quick check of some sites I know showed some merchants taking advantage of this tactic:

• baby blankets, apparel, and other gift sets at Flying Peas
• sports team and political cufflink gift sets at Cuffflinks.com

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business