7 marketing tactics: lessons from baby.steals.com
DESCRIPTION
What would you do with $5,000, online marketing smarts, and a dream? Jana Francis and Rett Clevenger founded a company. They named it Steals.com, worked hard, and created a multi-million dollar company within five years. The concept of Steals.com is based on the motto “we send joy”. It sells two quality items a day in each of their four niche stores, at up to 80% off. The products are introduced at 9am and 9pm MT and are available until they are sold out. Steals.com began in 2008, before the rise of group coupon sites like groupon. It is really comprised of four distinct online stores, each catering to communities of women shoppers on the web. The niche online sites are: BabySteals.com, ScrapbookSteals.com, KidSteals.com, and SheSteals.com. They offer great quality products, and great discounts, with incredible customer service and fast shipping. It’s no wonder Steals.com is on the internet retailer’s hot 100 e-retailers of 2013. There are so many brilliant tactics Rett Clevenger, Jana Francis and the team at Steals.com successfully execute. In this slideshare, we’ve chosen 7 tips, and show you how you can apply them to your e-retail business too...TRANSCRIPT
Table of Contents
1 Give great deals on quality products
Make the purchasing experience easy, with options for payment and shipping2
3 Make your site easy to navigate, with separate platforms for multiple niche markets
7 Provide great customer service - for your vendors too
4 Personalize the shopping experience
6 Create great visuals, and lots of them, with relatable product descriptions
5Build relationships and trust with your customers through personal interactions
Give great deals on quality products
● Steals.com and its targeted network of websites is known for delivering great deals on top quality merchandise.
● Everyday at specific times, a new deeply discounted product deal is introduced.
● The products sold on each site are specific to the niche sites.
● The deals are very appealing to their target market of new and soon-to-be moms.
● Consistent times of introducing the new products, their regular customers know when the deals start and can act quickly to get the deal before it runs out.
● The limited product aspect creates a sense of urgency.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Provide good quality products for your customers.
2 Create innovative ways to promote your discounted items, and be consistent with your offerings.
3Have product discounts with a limited number of stock. Once the stock runs out, the deal is over. This creates a sense of urgency, and quick call to action for your customer.
4Use Wishpond's easy to use group offers to entice fans to claim a coupon or special offer for your products and services.
Make the purchasing experience easy, with options for payment and shipping
● The goal of an online retail store is the same as a bricks and mortar store: to sell merchandise.
● The easier it is to purchase product from a site, the happier your customers will be.
● Steals.com makes it very easy for their consumers.
● It is easy to sign up on the site. A deal-seeking consumer just needs to submit their email, and create a password, click on the product of the day and select specifications.
● She is then offered easy payment options: credit card or paypal.
● She can choose options for shipping, including free, if it is picked up in Utah. The site promotes same day shipping.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Make your online sales funnel easy to navigate.
2 Provide fast and reliable shipping options.
3 Make the payment process easy, clear and simple to use.
Make your site easy to navigate, with separate platforms for multiple niche markets
3
Make your site easy to navigate, with separate platforms for multiple niche markets
● The StealNetwork is segmented into 4 distinct online communities of women.
● BabySteals.com, ScrapbookSteals.com, KidSteals.com, and SheSteals.com
● Each of the sites are related, but different. Each store appeals to a slightly different niche market.
● Cearly separating the stores allows for the consumer to shop for exactly the deal of the day she wants.
● By clicking into one store, the woman is directly on that store’s site.
● Once on the store site, the consumer can link directly to that store’s social media sites.
●● The consumer can chose the store, and social
sites she most likes, and then deepen the connection by interacting on the social sites.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 With multiple products targeting multiple niche markets, set up specific social platforms to interact with your audience.
2 Give your market a clear distinction between your stores, if you have more than one.
3Make your social platforms reflect the brand of each of your stores, and let your market choose where they most like to interact with you. Just be sure you have the staffing capacity to monitor all of your sites.
Personalize the shopping experience
● Just as in an offline bricks and mortar store, most shoppers want a personal connection.
● StealNetwork does a superb job at personalizing the shopping experience.
● Although there is only one product offered at a time for each site, the products almost always have a variety of options for colors, sizes, and styles.
● The products are directly targeted to the needs and wants of their consumer.
● StealNetwork speaks with their consumer on social sites.
● By posting about their deals, as well as sharing personal stories, great tips, humour, nursery decorating ideas and more, they create a bit of a hub for their consumers.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Keep the lifestyle of your consumer in mind when you are promoting products.
2 Give your consumer choices to get more personalized merchandise.
3 Post about related tips and questions to create an interactive community for each of your niche markets.
4 Make your social site the hub to be for your market.
Build relationships and trust with your customers through personal interactions
5
Build relationships and trust with your customers through personal interactions
● Rett Clevenger and Jana Francis, CEO and founder of Steals.com, clearly understand the importance of relationship building, and personal interactions in the digital world.
● They show themselves, and their entire team, in a real and sometimes quirky light.
● Handheld videos are are their site, with a tour of the company team and warehouse.
● Storytelling is one of the most important things businesses can do as they seek to engage customers online.
● The more a consumer feels uniquely connected to the StealNetwork team, the more likely they will feel trust and comfort to buy again from any of the StealNetwork stores.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Social online, with sites like Facebook, is about connecting with friends. Show your company with a personality, and let your customers feel like they are your friends.
2 As a CEO, don’t shy away from showing your personality. Your customers want to know you.
3Just like in a bricks and mortar store, the more your customer gets to know your team, the more they are likely to shop at your store again.
The same is true online.
Create great visuals, and lots of them, with relatable product descriptions
● Often in a bricks and mortar store, a sale is made when a retailer takes the time to relate the product to the consumer. Steals.com does this very well online.
● In addition to hand selecting each product for the each site for each deal of the day, Steals.com has a photographer on their team, so they can choose how they want to showcase each of their products.
● Their products are often shown with real babies or kids, with a focus on faces. Their deal of the day products are shown in every color, and every variation available.
● They personally write out descriptions of their products too.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Products that look good will sell better - when posting to your site and social platforms, make your products look good.
2 Describe your product in a relatable way to your consumer.
3Post your visual content on your social sites. On Facebook, for example, photos are the most liked updates.
Provide great customer service - for your vendors too
● As a retail outlet, connecting with your suppliers is an important part of your business too.
● Steals.com makes it easy for vendors to connect with them, so that they can offer great new products to their customers.
● They have an easy to fill in Product Submission Form directly on their ‘get featured’ pages.
● Additionally, they include straightforward information for the supplier about what they do, how it works, and what they do for the vendor.
● A vendor with good quality merchandise can be a happy supplier, if you treat them well.
What can retailers learn from this?
1 Educate your customers about your product by having easily accessible information on your site.
2 Make simple how-to videos about your products. You can embed these on your online store site, as well as social sites.
3 Include specifications about your product, so that the consumer can choose which product is right for them.
Thank you for viewing!
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Written by:Krista BunskoekPR & Content Marketing ManagerWishpond@wishpond