MyStoreCredit Response

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

I'm posting this here to keep with AuctionBytes forum policies, but I'm responding to some questions about our service from here:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10641

I'm also thankful that Ina prompted me to post and for the interest of the AuctionBytes readers!

MyStoreCredit is the right answer for sellers that want to drive repeat sales. Our system is fully automated right up to the point that you, the seller, apply store credit on a repeat purchase.

Most sellers love our price point. It's $7.95 a year unlimited transactions. For that fee, at the end of each of your eBay sales, we will automatically establish a store credit amount for each of your buyers. They can only use this store credit amount when they return to buy from you again. You set the store credit amount based on how much the buyer originally spent with you in the first transaction. For example, if they pay $10.00 for the first item, you can offer $1.00 in store credit when they purchase a second item from you.

More importantly – we help you DRIVE that second purchase.

If your buyer opt’s-in with us and accepts the offered store credit, we automatically send them a periodic update e-mail for one year. The periodic update e-mails (1-2 per month) shows them your current eBay listings – the same listings where your buyer can use their open store credit.

There are two pricing options for the periodic update email. The first option is FREE, but along with your listings at the top of every email, we run ads at the bottom of the email promoting other seller's listings (you can block up to 3 competitors from ever running in these free emails). These ads subsidize the email and keep it free for sellers who choose this option.

Alternatively, if you don't want ANY ads to run in emails to your buyers, each email is $0.09.

ONLY opted-in buyers get emails -- we never -- ever---ever-- send SPAM. We meet the highest international and eBay rules on this. We absolutely do not violate this rule -- NO spam ever! Only opted-in buyers get our update emails.

If you'd like to learn more about us click to our FAQs:

https://www.mystorecredit.com/sellerfaq.php

I've probably written too much already, but let me know if I can answer any other questions.

Thanks so much,

Tabbatha
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.

martha baerreis · Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Posts: 194

Thanks Tabbatha,

It sounds so much saner than trying to remember to give a returning customer a discount!

Are you just working with ebay?

We will look it over, and think about it. Appreciate you bringing the info here, as I had "heard" about it, but had no idea how or where it worked!

Martha

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Baerreis Art Craft and Collectibles

BURIED TREASURES · Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 5:45 pm Post subject:

Tabatha,

I did browse your info page and the parts that showed the emails that customers get was so tiny I could not interpret it. You should have your people modify those so that it can be read by interested parties. Interesting concept and will consider it. Sincerely, John Leckrone John@hopkinsvilleantiques.com
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http://www.stores.ebay.com/buriedtreasuressterlingsilver?refid=store

http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=32

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Thanks for the comments and consideration.

Right now we are only on eBay. We probably will stay on eBay for awhile as the preponderance of sellers are clearly here.

But we hope to expand in the future.

Thanks again!
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.

kjp55 · Joined: 18 Aug 2001 Posts: 1972 Location: East of Rockies

Tabitha,

A couple quick questions on the following (from your site).....

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

KJP,

Thanks for the questions -- here's my answers and I'll be happy to clarify whatever you might need:

Question #1: How do I know, without going to check MyStoreCredit account after every auction, how much credit a buyer has coming? Does the email we receive contain the total credit available or just the credit for that auction? Which leads me to the next question..........

The email we send after a repeat purchase will have everything you need to fulfill the open store credit. If you don't get the email, the buyer doesn't qualify for using the store credit. For auctions, the email usually arrives almost immediately after the auction, but always within 30 minutes. On fixed store sales or BIN sales, we process those once a day (we are working with eBay to do those instantly as well). Only one store credit can be used per repeat purchase, and the amount is applied only to the purchase price (not shipping and handling) so each email says exactly what amount of store credit to apply to each sale. If a buyer has multiple open store credits, we apply the first store credit to each purchase.

Question #2: Is this an accumulating credit account for the buyer? Are they allowed to cash it all in after they've accumulated a credit stash or are they limited in any way as to how much they can spend on a given future auction purchase? Or is there any way the seller can set a limit in your program?

Each store credit remains independent and they are not cumulative. Buyers have to use each one at a time. The repeat purchase MUST be at least $10.00 or more (or 10.00 in the seller's currency -- Euros, Canadian/Australian dollars and UK Pound are all supported), so that is one limit. Additionally, the seller can set whatever amount of store credit they want to give based on the price the buyer pays. Remeber, store credit is given on all sales but is only USED if a buyer makes a repeat purchase of $10.00 or more. The minimum store credit you can give is $1.00 -- buyers told us anything less was not of interest.

Question #3: If a buyer does sign up for the email notification and receives credit for one of my auctions, how long does the process take before the credit becomes available to them? Are the buyers required to let the seller know if they have credit they'd like to use? Many buyers may bid on multiple auctions from a single seller, which could cause some confusion for the seller when it comes to redeeming credit.

Once the buyer accepts the rules (we ask them to confirm they read the rules and understand they are opting in for emails), the store credit is immediately available and our system would immediately notify buyer and seller if a store credit should be used. Also, buyers only have to opt-in once and their store credit is available immediately on any future transactions. The buyers do not have to let sellers know they are using store credit -- we handle that. W don't ask buyers to track coupon codes or send in rebates. Of course, you as the seller can EXCLUDE listings where you don't want to apply store credit. You can do that by saying: "Open store credit from MyStoreCredit does not apply to this purchase" in the listing and also placing an image file we send you on that listing (the image file marks the listing so we don't apply store credit to that sale). We reserve the right to cancel an account if a seller lists more than 10% of listings with this exclusion.

Your point about multiple buying right in a row is somewhat of a tracking challenge for a seller. If someone buys 10 items in say an hour, they'll get 10 store credits but they probably won't have opted-in yet, so the store credits won't be available to use. Of course, you probably offer shipping discounts for multiple purchases anyway. We are designing an option to handle these multiple immediate purchases.

Question #4: How soon is the seller required to allow a buyer to use his/her credit? Reason I ask is "what if there is an instance of a negative feedback given by the buyer for an auction after he/she has already been given credit towards payment on a second auction purchase?" Is there a way to eliminate this risk by requiring a satisfactory completion of an auction by both parties before credit is issued?

To some extent, this one is up to you. We leave the fulfillment of the store credit to the seller and buyer. Our role is to track store credits, so once a store credit is to be applied and we've notified you as the seller -- it is up to you to fulfill the store credit through the three options.

At this point, we do not insert ourselves between you and your buyer to fulfill the store credit. Some sellers -- especially the really high volume sellers -- have asked us to create an automated way to handle fulfillment, and we are working on that.

So, in the end, you may choose to wait for positive feedback before fulfilling the store credit, but really, that isn't fair to your buyer. If they pay you and they've made the repeat purchase, they've lived up to their end of the deal and they should get the store credit either off the invoice or sent as a paypal refund or issued as a check. I would guess that your more likely to get negative feedback if you wait too long to fulfill your store credit.

Hope the above answers your questions -- thanks! They are great questions and this tells me you are really reading our stuff!

Tab
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.

kjp55 · Joined: 18 Aug 2001 Posts: 1972 Location: East of Rockies

Thanks Tabitha,

That makes everything much clearer.

The thing that was really bothering me was the 'accumulating credit' question. Glad you cleared that up, as that is what I was hoping your answer would be.

As for the negative feedback question, you're right. I was just thinking of all of the worst scenarios (overly cautious, I guess).

kjp55 · Joined: 18 Aug 2001 Posts: 1972 Location: East of Rockies

Tabitha,

One more thing has been bothering me. Where did you come up with the 'Suggested Credit' amounts? Most sellers are usually working on a tight margin, even when it comes to selling items for over $500. Giving someone a $50 credit on the next auction could mean giving things away. Especially since all they need to do is buy something for $10 or more.

Is there a way to set purchase levels to be attained before they can use different valuations of the credit vouchers? Something like 'Level 6-$50 credit is only to be applied to auctions where final bid is more than $300, for instance. I mean, you really wouldn't want to give them the opportunity to use that $50 credit voucher on a $50 item, would you?

Just curious.

martha baerreis · Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Posts: 194

While you are at it, and maybe I missed this, but could you please tell me if we can select specific items to "earn" a store credit, and specific items on which to "spend" a store credit?

Also, what about our old customers (some of whom really deserve a "store credit")... can we add them or send them a "gratis" credit for all their good business?

martha

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Baerreis Art Craft and Collectibles

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Martha,

The design of MyStoreCredit is to give EVERY buyer a future store credit. Since they can only use the store credit on a repeat purchase, there is almost no reason we can think of why you wouldn't want to give a buyer a future store credit after every sale.

Giving a future store credit doesn't cost anything on the first sale. There is a "redemption" cost when they use it -- but when they use it you are 100% certain they made a qualifying repeat sale (e.g. over $10.00).

Having said that, this is "your store credit" program and you can do what you asked.

Specifically, when you register you will receive two image files. One is the usual image which you put on all your auctions. When our system "sees" that image we create a store credit. The other image is when you want to NOT give a store credit. When our system sees that image file we won't give a store credit at the end of a sale BUT if the buyer had an open store credit with you -- we can still apply the store credit to that repeat purchase.

The final scenario is where you neither want to give a store credit nor want to allow someone to use a store credit. In that case you don't but either of our images on your auction -- and you put a line in clear (fully disclosed) text that says: "MyStoreCredit does not apply to this auction."

To avoid abuse, our system will monitor your auctions to ensure that you do not use this excessively. We don't want you to give a lot of store credit, and then only allow someone to use it on 1 out of 10 items you sell. We would consider that unfair and it would violate the rules.

Again, the real objective for MyStoreCredit is to help you establish a longer term relationship with your buyers and treating them fairly and giving them an incentive to return to your listings is the best way to drive repeat purchases. MyStoreCredit does that all automatically.

Hope you enjoy the service!

Tab
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.

martha baerreis · Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Posts: 194

Thanks Tabitha,

My question was posed because I sell new items I make on ebay, as well as some things which I sell one time (like old train stuff).

I want to give my hair stick and wood item customers incentives. That is my primary business. If I sell a $75.00 train piece for $10.00, I don't want to give that customer a store credit for another item I am selling below cost.

I also would like my old customers to receive a store credit. I send out "coupons" now, and have trouble remembering if they don't remind me.

I haven't been real active on ebay since last summer, but expect to restock and get it going this fall.

I appreciate your reply, and we are enthusiastic about your program.

(BTW) I see you are in Chapel Hill! We used to do the Apple Chill and Festifall until just a few years ago. You live in a great town!

martha
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Baerreis Art Craft and Collectibles

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Martha,

Sounds like an interesting mix of items you sell there!

We do love Chapel Hill. Hope this pending storm passes without another loss of electricity.

I've got four kids; starting at 8 and under -- so the Apple Chill and Festifall are well appreciated in our house.

Good luck to you and thank you for your positive comments on our program!

Tab
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.

sun818 · Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 597

I asked the important question of what is an appropriate discount structure while maximizing the percentage of return customers. For my category and items, it was more than what is initially suggested, but surprised it was not that much more to bump up the sign-up rate from about 12% to 20%+.

kjp55 · Joined: 18 Aug 2001 Posts: 1972 Location: East of Rockies

Tabitha, I think you forgot my question about the levels (see above)?

tab · Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 20 Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Kjp,

Sorry, I did miss that one -- glad you reminded me!

Here's what we found in talking to buyers about our service: Buyers see the future store credit as a "bonus." We heard them say that word over and over again. As you can imagine, they don't buy the first item to get the future store credit. But when they do get it, they see it as a really nice thing to get as a bonus.

By the way, they also told us they felt like it was a gimmick if they were given anything less than a dollar -- that's why we don't allow any amount less than a dollar.

We did test several different store credit levels and what we suggest during registration is the one that sounded "best" to most buyers. Besides the $1.00 minimum, the other surprising thing we found was that sellers didn't need to get more than $5-10 as a maximum -- so even on the higher end items, we suggest a modest future store credit amount.

Buyers consider the store credit amount when they decided to come back to look at your listings. By giving them a cash incentive, you create a reason to open the reminder emails so they see what they can buy using the store credit.

By the way, if you only sell refridgerators -- and if you give $100 future store credit -- I can pretty much tell you that no one is going to come back to buy a second refridgerator just to use the store credit. You probably won't ever get that buyer back for 15 years -- or until the first fridge dies!

The other way to think about the store credit is the total purchase vs. the amount of store credit. For instance, if the buyer makes a purchase of $10 and then comes back and makes a repeat purchase for say, $20, and they use a $2.00 store credit -- what you have really done is sell $30 worth of goods for a $2.00 discount. Continuing the logic, if you give the buyer another $2.00 store credit during the repeat sale -- and they come back to make a THIRD purchase for say $20, you end up selling them a total of $50.00 for a $4.00 discount. That's the best way to understand the store credit.

I'm sure, as sellers, you realize that you never want to let a customer leave you. The beauty of each "future" store credit amount isn't how "much" it is -- but that you gave something reasonable. Once you do, your buyer is far more apt to consider returning to make a purchase from you -- if you have products they will need in the future.

Frankly, given the size of eBay, if you don't give them a reason to come back and buy again directly from you -- why will they?

The net of all this is: MyStoreCredit is "your store credit" program -- you can set whatever amounts you would like and we encourage you to try different amounts to see what works best with the kinds of buyers you have and items you sell.

I'm sorry if I'm writing long answers. I just love hearing questions from sellers -- it helps make our business better.

Tab
_________________
Please visit MyStoreCredit.com for a free trial of our seller service.

MyStoreCredit helps you increase your bidding and drive repeat sales from your best customers.