Incentives: getting people to register.

[Eleanor]

Hi all.

What incentives have you used to get people to register with your e-commerce stores?

I offer a discount for people who register via myspace and deviantart and have also teamed up with a photography studio in london and offered an exclusive (higher) discount for their customers.

I am getting commissions quite regularly but via word of mouth, and as they are bespoke commissions usually they don't come via the website but via the phone or email.

Would you suggest any of the following:

A competition where they can win a garment of their choice in their size?
A free gift or gift voucher? If so, what?
Offering customer loyalty points, which could in effect allow them to purchase something for considerably cheaper in the future.
Any ideas appreciated! And much needed!

[MartCactus]

I'd avoid free gifts unless they are tied to the purchase of other products.

We've seen a few clients offer free samples - stuff that isn't really very useful, like a free sample of wedding stationary etc - and someone has then posted the link on a "free stuff" website and they've been snowed under with requests... it appears some people out there will sign up to anything that is free.

I guess discounts and competitions are fine.

What advantage is there to you when they are members - is it that they subscribe to your newsletter/mailings?

[Eleanor]

Yes they will get newsletters (I think thats optional though). It would mainly make me feel as though I'm reaching my audience and people areviewing my site.

Mainly, they view it and leave and I know I should be looking into why this is...

[fisicx]

Mainly, they view it and leave and I know I should be looking into why this is...

You've sort of answered your own question there. You don't actually want more people registering, you just want them to buy more stuff.

What you need to investigate is why they are leaving and provide an incentive for them to stay for longer. This is problably the hardest part of running a website because you don't know why they are leaving. It could be something as simple as a font that's too small or the colour of a link or it could be something major like they block cookes and can't get to the checkout.

[Eleanor]

It could be any number of reasons that I don't know about, which is exactly why I can't change it.

Do any of you have any feedback as to why it could be?

Maybe the men could look at my site as if they were a customer buying for their girlfriend and the women could look at my site as though they were buying for themselves. If I could get honest feedback, the type that isn't caramelised for the sake of feelings, that would help.

Immensely.

[fisicx]

Use your site statisitcs to analyse what your visitors are doing.

Track each person and see where they cam from, where that landed, what they clicked on and where they left.

Looking at your site code I don't think you are collecting this information. The common solution is to sign up for google analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) and with 24 hours you will be able to what all your visitors are doing.

[Akbar]

I would go for discount or a very good competition

[IainW]

Hi,

We have a good "register" sign up ratio.

On our site we have a page detailing the benefits of registering, once they have registered the conversion rate is pretty good as well. Below is a copy of our "why Register page" i know it will be slightly different to what you will offer but you can get the jist.

Firstly, you don't need to register before booking a holiday, you will automatically be registered at the time of your first booking.

So why register before booking and what are the benefits?

The main reason is that booking a holiday is a lot quicker, no need to enter your details ever again.
You can save your favourite holiday parks on a wishlist and return to view them anytime.
Pay any amount off your outstanding balance whenever you want, all online
Receive money off coupons or vouchers
You can forward to a friend a specific park that you feel they may be interested in.
Automatic subscription to our newsletter list.
Early notification of special offers and park promotions.
Automatic entry into our "double your holiday points weekends"
Receive free Williams Holidays merchandise.
Hope this helps.

[Moonpoppy]

Why Register page ... what a super idea.

Its devilishly difficult to figure out what kind of incentive to offer to get people to sign-up - free gifts are not so great, because it dips into the "moneypot" so I prefer the idea of discounts (great for my VA site, 'tho I would probably not offer discounts on my therapist site because its a horse of a totally different colour).

Eleanor, I also really like the idea of customer loyalty points - but that would need a write-up of some kind to explain it, and may be a little bit "too much out there" or complicated for a small section of online shoppers who just want to hit your site, grab a great item and then swing off again. Great idea of pulling in good-size repeat orders 'tho :D

[TestAPlug]

Hi, I think customer loyalty points are a great way to retain business. Tescos clubcard or the nectar points system proves this on a mass scale. But as a new customer to your site, I would be interested in a one off purchase and possible future purchases. To really grab their attention and retain it, competitions would probably be the way forward. In this time of technology boost, I would suggest buying some high spec commonly known electronic goods (import from abroad to keep costs low- you could even ask for a small sample) to really boost sales, I think monthly competitions would be great and also photos of previous winners to really drive home the message that people do win! KEV

[IainW]

Another encouragement facility we offer is holiday points, you can get this set up on your CMS, it could be the difference between a sale and no sale.

What happens is when a customer books one of our holidays online the customer automatically accrues holidays points, these points have a financial value which go towards money off future holidays.
The more days booked means more money off.

We also offer a Introduce a friend scheme, when the customer introduces a friend we'll give them £30 worth of holiday points absolutely FREE and the new customer will receive a first time voucher.

When competition is so fierce this could just swing it your way.

[DesignsOnline]

You could build it so that they are automatically registered whenever they make a purchase as a part of the process. Then have an opt in/out newsletter that is sent out to all who are registered. If you advertise the newsletter on the website seperately too, people will likely subscribe to it.

You can then build a newsletter system that is linked to your special offers, or featured items and automatically adds them to the newsletter each time you send one...

If you have a discount code system built in too, then you can send special promotional discount codes out via the newsletter to draw people back to the site and generate repeat custom.