From the shop, via the upsell interstitial page and the name/address page, to the payment details page and finally the order confirmation page. I have written some new back-end PHP classes and am now rewriting all website pages based on those classes, making the pages more consistent, and more importantly, easier to maintain. Easy maintenance is essential, because I am tweaking these pages quite often.

I have already posted about my upsell interstitial page a while ago, which was the first page I based on the new back-end classes. This long Easter weekend I have completely rewritten the first page of the check-out, the shop page.

The Collectorz.com shop

This page has always been a challenge, because it easily becomes pretty complex. We have seven downloadable products, all with a Standard and a Pro edition. For 3 products we also have Mac editions. Plus we sell subscriptions for our 3 Connect web-apps.
Then there’s the Priority Support and CD-ROM delivery options. And of course we offer two types of barcode scanners (a third one will be added soon).

In fact, this page is so complex that for our recommended Buying Choices on our product pages, we skip this shop page, taking visitors directly to our upsell page. But a full shop page that shows everything we sell is a necessary evil, so I keep trying to make it as simple as possible.

What’s New?

Of course the rewrite was a perfect opportunity to implement further improvements. Let me give you an overview of the changes I made compared to the old page. The best way to see how it works is to play with the live Collectorz.com shop, but here’s a screenshot for easy reference:

The changes:

• Cleaner design, using white-space for separation, not borders.
• Both Windows and Mac programs are now visible. The old page showed just Mac OR Windows editions based on the browser agent, but that caused confusion.
• Better handling of empty carts. Now shows “- your cart is empty – ” and disables the Continue to Checkout button.
• Easier switching between Standard and Pro editions. Previously one had to remove the Pro edition from the cart, then add the Standard edition.
• It’s now easier to remove items from the cart (people missed the little red X-buttons in the cart). You can now remove on the left side too.
• Added our iPhone apps, even though they cannot be purchased through our shop, just linking them to the iTunes App Store.
• Prominent random (but recent) testimonial.
• Added images of most important payment methods.
• Prominent 90-day money back guarantee
• Several question-mark icons that open small explanation popups (created with Thickbox). The old page had some “more info” links too, but these linked to other pages on the website, taking people away from the Shop page.
  The new page has popups for:
  • Standard vs Pro
  • Priority Support
  • Barcode scanner comparison
  • Shipping and handling (about delivery times)
  • Coupon Code (with the hint: “Don’t have a coupon code? Google is your friend!” )

What’s next?

Currently, the Shop and the subsequent Up-sell pages are consistent in look and feel. Next up is a rewrite of the other pages, the name/address page, the payment details page and the order confirmation (or “thank you” page). I am planning to make the look of all these pages fully consistent, then add some kind of “Step 2 of 5″ indicator at the top, showing the buyer where he is in the check-out process.
The payment details page is going to require some creative programming (read “hacking”), because that step does not happen within our site, but on the RBS server.

Oh, before I forget, all feedback on the Shop is very very welcome.
Just post below. Thanks!

You see, all our coupons are always published written in all uppercase, e.g. “CLZTWEETZ”, “GETORGANIZED”, “GOOGLER”, etc… But our order tracking system stores the coupons exactly as entered. And scrolling through this list, I found that for most coupons, users enter them in all lowercase (e.g. as “clztweetz”), indicating that they typed them manually (as opposed to copying/pasting from our emails).

With one exception: the coupon we give to all our trial users: ITRYB4IBUY

(“I try before I buy”, get it?). This one always shows up in all UPPERCASE, never like “itryb4ibuy”. Users are obviously copying/pasting this one.

What’s the problem here? Is it that my users just don’t “get” this coupon? Or is it too hard to enter manually, making them revert to the old Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V (or Cmd-C / Cmd-V for us Mac users). But isn’t copy/pasting always easier and quicker, even for the simple coupons like CLZTWEETZ or GETORGANIZED? I would think so.

So now I am wondering, could it be that many of my users simply don’t know how to copy/paste? Or maybe they’re not proficient enough with it and thus are more likely to opt for manual entry for short codes like this? And could it be that they are they trying to manually enter my ITRYB4IBUY code and failing to get it work? Scary…

Whatever the reason, I am changing my ITRYB4IBUY coupon to CLZTRIAL today.

Well, in short, RebateDelivery is a new system for offering Mail-In Rebates for online software purchases. Let’s look at the details of how it works and how to use it to improve sales. Oh, and of course I am running a new A/B split test to find out if it indeed helps to sell more software

What is RebateDelivery?

Well, here’s a quote from their FAQ:

RebateDelivery is a patent-pending service enabling software, game, and e-commerce firms to offer real mail-in rebates to consumers purchasing software and games online.

In case you’re not familiar with the concept of a mail-in rebate: A Mail-In Rebate gives the customer part of their money back, after the purchase. They pay the regular price for the product first. Then after the purchase, they can send in a card or form by regular mail to get the rebate amount back, either by check or bank transfer.

Of course, the idea is to increase conversion rates, to get more people to buy. If in the end the extra profits outweigh the amount of paid out rebates, we make more money. According to the RebateDelivery FAQ, less than 40% of customers actually claim their rebate, which increases the chances of increasing profit margins.

Mail-In Rebates are heavily used in retail, especially in the US, but not online. The RebateDelivery system now lets vendors offer rebates to their customers for online purchases. Here’s how that works:

After their purchase, customers receive a link to the GetMyRebate website. On that website they can print a form, fill it out and mail it in to an address near them. RebateDelivery then handles the pay-out of the rebate amount.

Plus, RebateDelivery has added to the mail-in rebate concept by allowing vendors to provide several “alternative offers”. With these alternative offers in place, people coming to the GetMyRebate website are offered one or more alternative ways to claim their rebate, e.g. by opting for a free software product (usually having a value higher than the rebate amount). This helps to further reduce the percentage of rebates that are actually paid out.

How to use Mail-In Rebates for software sales?

Having listened to Jason and Steven explain the system, it took me a while to really understand how I would be able to apply this to my business. I mean, is this an alternative or replacement for using discount coupons? What’s the difference exactly? Or should this be used in a completely different way?

Rebates vs Discount Coupons

First, some “technical” differences:

Of course, the obvious difference is that when using a coupon, the discount is immediate, that is, the customer only pays the discounted amount. Whereas with a rebate he pays full price and *can* get the rebate amount back later.

Another important difference is that with coupons you can give a specific discount to specific parts of your audience. For example, at Collectorz.com we give $5 coupons to everyone who signs up for the free trial, and $10 coupons to existing customers. Also the coupon system is built into your regular checkout process: Everyone who has a coupon enters it into the special box and gets the discount. Everyone who doesn’t have one pays full price.
With a rebate this is more difficult. There is no built-in way to give the rebate to specific customers. You just sent out the “get my rebate” link to everyone who completes a transaction. The only way to give the rebate to specific customers would be to create specific check-out pages.

Rebates are for all customers, especially *new* customers

The above two differences mean that rebates should be used in a way that is completely different from how you would normally use discount coupons.

First, if you have one shopping cart / check-out page, the rebate is given to everyone who buys. So rebates are more suited to do promotions to all your customers, as a way to increase your overall conversion rate. Then, the fact that is not an immediate discount means that is less suitable for special offers to specific customers anyway, especially if they are existing, loyal customers. IMO, it’s not a good idea to make your loyal users jump through the hoops of printing a form and sending it in by regular mail, just to make use of your special offer.

So rebates should be given to all customers, especially new customers who are buying their first product from you. And if we are going to give the rebate to everyone, we might as well make sure everyone knows about it, and as early as possible, preferably on the landing page. This way we can maximize the positive effects on the conversion rate.

Technical Implementation

What does it take to implement RebateDelivery for your site and shopping cart? Basically, there’s five parts to that:

• Setting up your rebates and alternative offers: Use the RebateDelivery vendor system to define your rebates and your alternative offers, including descriptions, amounts, etc…
• Displaying the rebate: You won’t get a positive effect on conversions if your visitors don’t know about the rebate. So you should display the rebate on your website and during checkout.
• Notifiying RebateDelivery of orders: The RebateDelivery system has to know about all orders that are processed successfully, so that they can handle the claiming of rebates. You can notify them using a SOAP interface or a simple HTTP POST.
• Giving your customers the GetMyRebate link: You can give them their personal link (including a unique transaction id) on your “thank you” page or in their order confirmation email (or both).
• Handling alternative offers: When a user opts for one of your alternative offers, you have to make sure they actually get it. RebateDelivery can notify you by email or using an HTTP POST (or both).

Testing RebateDelivery on Collectorz.com

Giving rebates to everyone sounds scary, doesn’t it? Ok sure, not every customer will claim their rebate, but a lot of them will, costing you money. Will your conversion rate increase enough to pay for those rebates and, preferably, result in some extra profits?

Well, there’s only one way to find out… just test it and track the results. So that’s what I am doing at the moment. I am currently running an A/B split test, where all B-visitors get the rebates and all A-visitors don’t.

For that B-group, I have defined three different rebates:

• A $10 rebate for everyone who buys a Pro edition of our software.
• A $15 rebate for customers buying a Pro edition plus a CueCat barcode scanner.
• A $20 rebate for people who opt for Pro software with the expensive Opticon barcode scanner.

The rebates are displayed prominently on my landing pages, in the “buying choices” panel on the right, like so:

During check-out, the shopping cart uses similar “Price after Rebate” terminology:

In both places I added a little question mark thingie, that when clicked shows the following explanation in a pop-up window:

What is a Mail-In Rebate?
A Mail-In Rebate gives you part of your money back, after the purchase.

You pay full price for the products you buy, but as soon as you have completed your purchase, you will receive a link to our “Get My Rebate” website.

On this website, you can print your personal rebate form. Return that form by regular mail to receive the rebate amount back, either by check or bank transfer.

Currently I am not allowing coupons to be used in combination with a rebate. When a customer uses a discount coupon, the rebate automatically disappears. I am not sure if that is the best way to do it. Maybe I should do a further split test later, to find out.

Generally speaking, I expect that it will take some experimentation to optimize results, maybe even to just get it to work at all. I saw the same when I started using TrialPay and also with McAfeeSecure. This is not something you can just implement and be done. It’ll take time to find the best ways to use it, to optimize the rebate amounts, the alternative offers, the presentation on your website, etc…

Coming soon: the results of the A/B split test

I started my RebateDelivery A/B split test on September 4, so it has been running for 10 days now.
I am planning to let it run for at least 14 days, maybe longer. The full results of this test will be posted here later. For now, I can tell you that preliminary results are promising

To answer these questions, let’s first go back a more basic question:

Why discount coupons?

Do you give a discount to a specific user because he is such a nice guy? Or maybe because you are such a nice guy?
Or because he is “entitled” to the get the discount?

None of the above.

We give a discount to pull in the sale, *now*.
The only goal of discount coupons is to increase conversions, to convince users to buy, especially users who wouldn’t have purchased otherwise.
Remember that by giving a discount, you are making less money on the sale, so you have to compensate for that loss by making extra sales.

To put it a little more blunt: If you are giving discounts to too many people that would have purchased for full price anyway, you are losing money.

(Of course, if you have multiple products and add-ons to sell, it may make sense to loose some money on the first sale. As long as you start making money on the back end).

Discount amounts

Consider the above when deciding on how much discount you give. The higher the discount is, the better it will persuade people to buy.
But of course, you will make less on each sale too, so you will need to make up for that in extra sales.

A small discount can be enough to get the desired effect of pulling in a sale.
For example a $5 discount is often sufficient for consumer type products that cost less than $50. Or ten dollars off for $99.95 products.
In general, a 10% discount seems to do well, especially for attracting new, first time customers.

If you want to give a discount to existing customers, to get them to buy more stuff from you, I would suggest a higher discount, up to 20%, anything less looks a bit cheap.

Fixed amount or percentage?

Judging from the above, you could conclude that it makes sense to use “10% off” or “20% off” coupons. But personally, I prefer using fixed amount coupons (like “$10 off”).

A “$10 coupon” is just more like “real money”. Not using the coupon almost feels like loosing 10 dollars. That effect is not as strong for a percentage coupon. A “10% off” coupon doesn’t represent any value until you actually use it.

Also, a fixed amount coupon gives me more control on the amount of money I “spend” to get the sale. A percentage discount can get ugly on large purchases (e.g. a 20% discount on a $199.95 purchase) and at the same time can feel tiny on small purchases (like a 10% discount on a $9.95 product).
Plus, if you sell hardware or other products that include a large cost factor, a percentage discount could eat away your entire margin. For example, we sell a $139.95 barcode scanner. I wouldn’t want to give a 20% discount on that one

How do buyers use their coupon?

This may seem obvious, just add a “Discount Coupon” entry box to your order page. But there’s more to it.

First, if you give away discount coupons, even if only to a very select part of your audience, then there must be a clear and obvious way to use it.
You won’t believe how often we get emails from people who feel scammed because they had a coupon and “there was no place to enter it”.
The entry box must be easy to find, no matter how people proceed through your checkout steps.

A while ago at Collectorz.com, in an attempt to shorten the checkout process, we decide to skip our regular “shop” page for the special bundle options we offer on our product home pages (in the panel on the right). Having them proceed to our “enter your name and address” page right away. Which was a good idea in itself, but we forgot that the coupon entry box was on the shop page only. Ouch…

In general, I think it is a good idea to let people apply their coupon as early as possible. Preferably while selecting the product they want to buy. It gives them immediate feedback on the total amount they will need to pay. Seeing the discount applied on that amount may even entice them to add an extra product, service or add-on to their order.

For example, take a look at our Collectorz.com “upsell interstitial page” here:

http://www.collectorz.com/shop/extras.php?moviepro=1

Try entering the coupon CLZAHBLOG and see what happens. It shows the coupon being applied, while staying on the upsell page.
Now try to resist adding the CueCat scanner to your order. You can’t, can you? Ok, go ahead and just add it. Now watch how the “recommended products” list changes.
(BTW: that is a real coupon, feel free to use it or give it to anyone who may be interested)

So far for the obvious part: people who have a coupon must be able to enter it easily.

But what about users who do not have a coupon? You just did your best making sure no one can miss the coupon box, so the empty coupon box is staring them right in the face.
And I don’t know about you, but if that happens to me I always feel like I am missing out on some deal. It makes me feel like I am paying too much.
If anything, it makes me hesitate for a moment. Sometimes I even try googling for a coupon. It happened to me last week when I purchased Camtasia, couldn’t find a coupon on Google, purchased it anyway. But the presence of the coupon box did postpone my purchase for a minute or two.

So is making the box super easy to find really the best way to go?
That depends on how many of your buyers actually have a coupon. If you only give out coupons to specific customers, it may be a good idea to hide the box a bit more and give those customers specific instructions on how to use the coupon. You could give the box a more generic name like “Referal Code”.
Or you could remove the box completely and allow the coupon to be passed to the url of your shop, like so:

http://www.collectorz.com/shop/extras.php?bookpro=1&coupon=CLZAHBLOG

For Collectorz.com, I have made the coupon box as easy to find as possible, placing it right beneath the “Your Shopping Cart” summary and total price. Plus, I try to make sure most buyers have a coupon, if only a small $5 coupon.

Everyone who signs up for our free trial edition gets a coupon. All existing customers have a coupon. Everyone who emails us asking for a discount or complaining about our pricing gets a coupon. We have specials coupons that happy customers get to send to their friends and family. The followers of my Collectorz.com Twitter account get a special coupon.
I even created a special Google ad with a coupon for people who try and search google for “collectorz coupon“.

And now, my AlwinHoogerdijk.com readers have their own special coupon too