 Developing
a Customer Mailing List
A guest essay from Glenda Polak of CapriceWest
Glenda Polak owns CapriceWest,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her intro: I
purchased an existing ladies consignment store. When I purchased Caprice
it was well established and had a good reputation. The store
continues to grow and thrive. Sales have increased substantially and
I credit a lot of the success to all of Kate's publications that
I've purchased, the Sharing Board and the NARTS conferences. I'm
very passionate about the store and have the philosophy that life is
short, so have fun with it!
Note: Kate has put in red
italics the things she really wants you to
note in Glenda's essays! (Not that every word isn't important,
but Kate wants you NOT
to miss some specific info.)
Caprice had a mailing list for consignors but did not have one
for customers. After reading the benefits of having a customer
mailing list on TGtbT Sharing
I decided to start one by forming a free shopping club
called ‘Consigning Women’. We have posters
and flyers promoting the club throughout the store.
BENEFITS to the customers:
* Free to join.
* Advance notice of sales and promotions
* Invitations to our monthly shopping parties
* Discount during their birthday month, we send them a hand-written
birthday card along with a ‘just for you discount card’.
* With every $500 spent they receive a $25 credit towards purchase
* Opportunity to host their own private
shopping party
* The store keeps track of their purchases, they don’t need to
carry a card around
BENEFITS to Caprice:
* We develop a mailing/e-mail list of our
customers
* We learn more about our customers and
staff is able to recognize and call customers by name.
* We can track who is spending what and how frequently.
* We always know who the top 20% shoppers are and run monthly
reports because it changes monthly. At Christmas Caprice
called the top 20 shoppers (top 4%) and told them that Santa had
dropped off a little gift at the store for them. Every
single
one of them came in for it and besides being thrilled to receive
the gift also purchased quite a bit more.
* We can see where our customers are coming from.
* It helps to build loyalty with our customers, a lot of them think
of Caprice as ‘their’ store.
* A $25 credit towards store purchase on $500 spent is only a 5%
discount yet customers are thrilled with it.
‘Consigning Women’ continues to grow. Many customers have
reached multiple $25 credits and usually get so excited when
they hear that they receive $25 off their purchase that they decide to
purchase something else with their ‘gift’ money. I had been doing
monthly mail-outs to customers but with postage at .50 and the cost of
printing flyers I’ve started doing more e-mails and have
had equal success with that.
Certainly I am not a pioneer in this, but the results have been so amazing that I
would strongly encourage any store owners who do not have a customer
mailing list to start one.
--Glenda
|
Resources
A
"Have Lunch with Kate" Mini-Product for just $2.39:
The 15-Step
Approach to PROFIT
On Auntie Kate The Blog:
More
than just email is needed.
Have
THEY got a mailing list?
An
industry that SHOULD use mailing lists
Grow your Business Products
(Need a Mailing List Layout Kit and
something to mail?)
All Products for the Professional Resaler
Not sure how to word your offer? Words
that Sell can help.
Thriving Business Products
All Products for the Professional Resaler
Read our current articles to help your resale or consignment
shop Thrive | Build
| Grow
And don't miss
Things I must do NOW
Help!
Copyright 2009 Kate
Holmes, TGtbT.com.
All rights reserved and enforced. 
|
© 1996- 2010 Too Good to be Threw | Products
for the Professional Resaler