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

Playing Cupid, 50 Times a Minute

Vermont Teddy Bear’s Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Hosted Website Braces for Record Valentine’s Day

With about 30% of its year’s business riding on the brief Valentine’s Day holiday, Vermont Teddy Bear predicts its most intense “peak” season in the company’s 26-year history.

“We market mostly to male last-minute shoppers, and because Valentine’s Day falls on a Wednesday, we have a sort of ‘perfect storm’ that means the vast majority of our orders will be taken in just a handful of hours on two very busy days,” says Vermont Teddy Bear Company CEO Elisabeth Robert.

The company reaches its target customer (whom Vermont Teddy Bear refers to internally as “Late Jack”) through thousands of live radio spots, television commercials, online ads, emails and direct-mail catalogs. The company’s Valentine’s Day teddy bears, like “Loverboy” with a heart-shaped tattoo, or “Bear Naked” wearing nothing but a fig leaf, are hand-made in Vermont and are a popular alternative to flowers.

Since first venturing online in 1997, Vermont Teddy Bear has continuously been hosted on the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions ecommerce platform.

“We’ve asked Yahoo engineers to brace themselves for a top pace of about 1,500 orders per website per hour,” says Robert. That’s about 50 orders per minute, combined.

“With the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions e-commerce platform, Vermont Teddy Bear will have a worry-free peak Valentine’s season. Supported by Yahoo!’s world class network, Merchant Solutions is reliable and scalable, and handles billions of dollars in transactions each year, including busy holiday and event-based sales spikes,” said Jimmy Duvall, director of e-commerce, Yahoo! Small Business. “Yahoo!’s e-commerce solution is designed to easily accommodate surges of last-minute shoppers.”

In February the company’s staff temporarily swells from about 250 people to over 1,250 to handle the expected Valentine’s Day volume. Extra UPS trailers line the long driveway at Vermont Teddy Bear’s Shelburne, Vermont, headquarters, waiting to be loaded.

Customers can order any time and have their package held to arrive precisely on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. But in a quarter century selling Valentine’s gifts to men, the company has learned many guys put off gift buying to the very last moment. In recent years Vermont Teddy Bear has stretched operations to the limit to satisfy that last-minute demand - - accepting orders as late as 10 pm Eastern the night before, for guaranteed arrival on Valentine’s Day.

Peak season is complicated by the fact that one of the company’s sister brands, PajamaGram.com, launched in 2002 and also hosted by Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, is now the Vermont Teddy Bear Company’s fastest-growing line of business. This year, for the first time, PajamaGram eclipsed parent company Vermont Teddy Bear in annual sales transacted online. Between all its brands, over 67% of the company’s sales come in across the web.

“The amount of business we transact online has grown more than thirty-fold since we launched our first website a decade ago,” says Robert, “Yahoo! has always been there to make sure our sites are up and performing well. This Valentine’s Day, we’ll sell more gifts online in a couple hours than we used to in the entire month of February. And if we can make a few hundred thousand sweethearts happy on Valentine’s Day, then we’re happy.”

About the Vermont Teddy Bear Company

Each Vermont Teddy Bear Company Bear-Gram gift includes a customized Vermont Teddy Bear accompanied by a personal greeting card and candy treat, all packaged in a colorful gift box with an air hole. Orders are placed by calling 1-800-829-BEAR or by shopping at VermontTeddyBear.com

The company’s fast-growing PajamaGram brand is a gift delivery service where customers can pamper their loved ones by sending pajamas and spa products in luxurious packaging by calling 1-800-GIVE-PJS or shopping at PajamaGram.com.

The company also offers floral gifts from Calyx Flowers, gourmet foods and sweets from the TastyGram Company, and handbags and accessories from Gift Bag Boutique.

12 Posts of Christmas: Tip 12—New Year’s Resolutions

I recently had an opportunity to visit with two local long-time Yahoo! Store merchants—Lawrence Ames of Golden West Specialty Foods (check out his wide assortment of BBQ sauces, hot sauces, chocolate poker chips, and other delectable gourmet products) and Shirley Tan of American Bridal (your one-stop shop for wedding favors and bridal gifts). Both offered tons of insight and advice into online retailing that I hope to share over the coming weeks. One observation that I had, is that both are pressed for time. Both Lawrence and Shirley consistently answered “I do that myself” when we asked who does various things around the business. Both had full-time employees to help, but like many of you, there is seemingly too much to be done, especially around the holidays.

The all-out battle for holiday sales is likely winding down now and you may be busy filling those last few overnight-shipping orders. Before you take some well-deserved time-off, make a point to do a “post-mortem” on your holiday sales season; this is especially true if, like many merchants, you make most of your revenue in the last quarter of the year, but the same is true of other high-selling seasons. Some things to consider:

• What worked well that you wish to do again? Email campaigns? Pay-per-click advertising? Special promotions such as free shipping or coupons for a percentage or dollar amount off?
• What didn’t work as well as expected? Did you offer free shipping but lost money on bulky items? Did your coupons help increase average order sizes or did you just break even? Consider how you can change these promotions with restrictions or small changes to make them really profitable for you.
• What did you not have enough of this season? Did you run out of products quicker than expected? Consider how you may wish to increase stocks or not offer slow-sellers during the high-season in order to stock more of your top-sellers if space is a premium. Did you run out of time before you ran out of orders? Consider hiring seasonal help or other ways you can increase your efficiency. Lawrence of Honest Foods had a great tip in switching all shipping options to UPS during the holidays as the ability for buyers to better track their shipping status helped reduce the flood of WISMO (Where is My Order?) calls he was getting.

After pondering these items, put your thoughts on paper and file it away until October of next year. The holidays can sneak up on you quicker than expected, especially when you are managing the day-to-day operations of your business. With your observations written down for handy reference, you’ll be in a much better place to put together your holiday sales plan for 07’. You can even set a reminder in Outlook® for October of next year, or whenever you kick off your holiday planning.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays to all,

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

12 Posts of Christmas: Tip 11–Don’t Pass on Service in the Holiday Rush

Today’s Y!Store blog is a guest column by retailer/developer Rob Snell of Snell Brothers. Rob posts somewhat regularly in his blog about Yahoo! Store stuff, is the author of Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies, and is conducting some more free Yahoo! Store marketing and SEO webinars beginning in early 2007 (or as soon as he gets done with his holiday shopping).

You’ve almost made it! The mad rush of the online holiday shopping and shipping season is almost over. Here are a few last minute tips to keep your spirits bright so you can cross that year-end finish line with your own holiday joy still intact!

Remember, anything you can do that the Big Boys can’t do is a critical advantage that may make the difference between making it and not making it! While customer service is probably the biggest intangible in retail, that warm, fuzzy feeling your customer gets from your outstanding customer service is a big, big deal to most small businesses.

These days seems like almost everything is impersonal, or some pre-recorded operator is paying lip service to how “your business is important to us!” It really means a lot to many shoppers to know that their order puts food on your table, puts shoes on your kids’ feet, and makes the mortgage payment.

I know you know this, and I’m just reminding you, but taking extra special care of your customers isn’t just good manners, it’s good for your bottom line, too! Cultivating repeat business is the cheapest way to get more sales, and you know how much it costs you in pay-per-click advertising to get a sale in the first place. Happy customers are repeat customers, and those repeat orders trickle in throughout the year when it’s so much easier to ship them!

Want to know one of the most popular things we’ve ever done to make our own customers feel more appreciated? Simply writing “Thanks for your order!” on the customer’s ship ticket / invoice and then signing the note has been a smash hit! We get more comments about hand written notes than anything! How many times have you gotten a hand-written note from anyone who shipped you anything? How easy would it be to add a note to every order?

And I know that you’re in a hurry, but when a customer emails you a question or a comment, a little social lubrication goes a long way, especially in these last stressful shopping days of December. I’m amazed at how many goof-ups I’ve personally gotten out of by being nice or by simply apologizing when I make a mistake. “Thanks for your question about our returns policy…” or “Sorry I screwed up the apartment number on your order, but I’m glad the UPS driver caught it,” or “Sorry I sent you the wrong size collar, just keep it. The replacement shipped out today…”.

Also, make sure your staff knows how important your customers are! Set a good example talking to customers, and not only on the phone and via email, but also talking to your own staff! I’ve always thought how you treat your employees is how your employees end up treating your customers when you’re not around, so be careful not to chew too hard on staff these last shipping days! I know it’s not easy!

OK. You’re all done after you ship those last minute express orders! Now all you have to do is finish your own holiday shopping, and then look forward to dealing with product returns, mis-shipped orders, and do all that end of year inventory and tax stuff. No wonder Christmas is stressful for so many merchants. Y’all have a holly, jolly one!

Rob Snell
guest blogger for Yahoo! Small Business