Sales and Promotions Checklist

Everyone loves a sale, especially the merchants who gain additional traffic and visibility, leading to future sales and return customers. Here's a quick checklist of thing you can do to get started!

Set yourself up for success

Nothing is more frustrating than starting to checkout and running into an issue. Make sure your customers have a flawless experience- test it yourself!

• Can you find products and add them to your cart?
  Check from your store's homepage that you are able to navigate around your store and find some test items. 
  Can't find a product? Check our Troubleshooting Products Guide
  
  
• Can you access your account and cart?
  It should be easy and obvious for a customer to find how to checkout or set up an account to see past purchases. Try creating an account yourself! 
  You can not log in to the front end of your store using your admin or control panel log in. You'll need to create a customer account for yourself.
  
  
• Does your discount rule or sale apply as intended?
  Promotion rules can be tricky and we recommend making sure they work as you intend before the big sale! Check what happens when you add the items that are on sale to your cart, check what happens when you have more than that- less than that too. If your discount stops applying or if it is being applied to more than it should, it's time to go back and check your settings. 
  
  
• Are you able to choose a shipping method during checkout?
  As you begin checkout, you'll need to choose a way for the items to be delivered. Make sure you have a shipment method available with rates. 
  More information on shipping methods
  
  
• Is your payment method working so that you can pay for your order?
  Not only do you want to assure you have a payment gateway enabled, but that it works. Although the option may show on the front of store, credential errors might not present an issue until you're confirming your order. Proceed all the way through checkout and submit your order to check- you can then learn about refunds with Credit Memos.
  More information on payment methods

Get shoppers in the door

Bring customers to your Store by making them aware of your sales and special promotions.

• Reach out to your subscribers!
  You can create newsletters, marketing and promotional emails using MailChimp and Mandrill apps. If you haven't done yet, you can integrate your MailChimp or Mandrill account from within your Admin Panel > Apps.
  
  
• Review your SEO to assure your store is found.  
  Check out the “Crack the SEO Code” webinar and Best Practices guide to learn more about meta data, meta keywords and all the fields that are relevant for SEO.

Grab your visitor's attention

Now that you have potential customers on your site, make it obvious why they should start filling their cart!

• Remind shoppers of upcoming events- holidays and sales
  You can create holiday or sale banner(s) on your homepage with the new Design Tools. Checkout our webinar Introduction to the new Design Tools.
  
  
• Highlight your Best Sellers and Newest Products
  Make use of Featured Products and New Products blocks on your homepage.
  If you set up New Products make sure to add the time frame for when the products should appear as "new". Usually this is done under Products > Product List, click on the product you wish to edit and choose the "New From" and "New To" dates under "Options" 

 Keep customers on your store

Don't let shoppers get bored after the first page, keep them engaged throughout shopping with more features:

• Show shoppers other items they may like
  Use Up Sells, Cross Sells, and Related products to show upgraded products or suggestions to purchase other similar or related items.
  To learn more, check out the Up-sell & Cross sell tutorials or register for the “Custom Options, Up- and Cross Sells” webinar.
  
  
• Let me what you want, what you really really want
  Add a Wishlist block for customers to add all their favorites and share their list with “Santa” via email.
  
  
• Make it easy for users to find the perfect item
  Optimize your product search by enabling the Instant Search App.

Give your customers sales, promotions and free shipping

Sales are a great way to put a little urgency in to checking out- who knows if it will still be at this great price next time they visit? Maybe buying now is the best!

• Not sure where to begin or what you can offer?
  Check out the Promotions Guide and Webinar.
  
  
• Do you want easy to set up sale pricing for specific products?
  Set up Special Prices- you can even set start and end dates to limit how long this is offered.
  
  
• Offer Free Shipping! 
  Start with reviewing our Free shipping guide to get started with:
  
  • Free shipping Coupon for only customers in the know and given a special code to use.
  • Free shipping Coupon for customers who have met your specified conditions, such as "Buy a gift basket to receive free shipping on your order!"
  • Set free shipping for all orders over a certain subtotal- Free Shipping on orders over $50! You can also limit this by country to assure you aren't losing revenue on international orders.

• Improve your customer's trust 
  Enable YotPo and let customer reviews sell the product for you.
  
  
• Give them the power
  If your customers don't know what to get you can offer a Gift Card Product!
  
  
• Assure there's no issue with actually making the purchase!
  Make sure your customers can check out by placing test orders!

Entice your customers to buy more

We know "Quality over Quantity", but who says you can't have both?

• Buy more and save
  Offer tiered pricing- The more you buy the lower the price per item!
  
  
• Why not a matching set?
  Offer BOGO (Buy one get one) coupon codes and promotions!

Treat them like VIPs

Everyone enjoys a little preferential treatment and when it comes to choosing where to shop, wouldn't you go to the store that treats you the best?

• Tailor pricing and sales specifically to them
  On select Zoey plans, you can create specific customer groups, such as for frequent buyers or returning customers.
  You can set up Group or Tiered pricing for a customer group, as well as Coupon codes & Sales.

Reel them back in with post purchase offers

Reach out to past customers and convert them into returning customers- reward them for shopping with you again.

• Reach out to alert past customers of upcoming events
  Remind them of your specials through an email sent by MailChimp or Mandrill.
  
  
• Thank them for their business
  Email coupon codes or gift cards to recent customers.
  
  

There are hundreds of ways to get started on gaining more customers via promotions, sales, social media, and more- there's no limit to what you can do to increase your visitors and sales!