So, you have already realized the power of ecommerce and now you are actively engaged in the development of your online store. And, sure enough, you are interested in increasing the sales and expanding your business. If so, I guess it will be interesting for you to learn more about such ecommerce marketing tools as “pre-order” and “waiting list”.
What is pre-order and how it increases the sales of your online store
The main idea behind pre-order is to give your customer an opportunity to order and pay for new, hard-to-find and/or very popular products before it actually goes on sale.
New product. Customers love new stuff and often want to be the first to purchase them, especially if warm them up beforehand with previews, teasers and other interesting information about a product. For this purpose, you can use email newsletter, social networks, bloggers and other marketing channels.
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High demand for a certain product is often socially created. This happens when a product is widely talked about and receives a lot of positive feedback. Such excitement can be created both artificially by using certain marketing tools and naturally, when buyers are truly delighted by the product and share their positive experience with others, thus warming up the interest. You can track such products in your store, based on the interest, sales, and positive customer feedback.
The creation of a deficit effect often plays a crucial role in pre-ordering and selling such goods. For example, by using phrases like: “Order right now …”, “The last chance to order …”, “Just one day left to order at a special price,” etc., you can produce an energizing effect on your customers. The rule of thumb in these sentences — they must be true. If you say that the current discount for pre-order is valid only for today, you’d better stick to your word.
Another useful function of pre-order is the ability to track the demand for a particular product. Having collected the data on the pre-ordered products, you will have an idea of the amount to be ordered from your suppliers or produced, if you have your own production line. Thus you will be certain about the amount you are going to sell and avoid cluttering up the warehouse.
How to set prices for pre-ordered goods
Here you can choose from two options:
- You can set a higher price for a rare commodity, thereby increasing your profit. Hard-to-reach products will have higher demand among consumers. Just remember to check the supply of the product on the market.
- If the supply for the pre-order of this product will be higher than you expected, it is worth thinking about a unique price or bonuses for your customers. Even by simply lowering the prices in relation to the prices of competitors, you will still increase the sales of your store. This will happen due to an increase in the number of sales and buyers, which are likely to become your loyal customers in the future. The main thing to remember is that you need to inform your visitors in advance about a special offer for a pre-ordered product.
Things to pay attention to
Customers typically have all sorts of fears about pre-ordering products, especially if they have never done it in your store before. Usually, it is something like: “What if they won’t deliver the product?”, “And what if they will deliver a wrong one?”, “What if they won’t deliver it in time?”, etc. All you need to do in this situation is to let your customers know why they can trust you. Show that your store is well-functioning and reliable. You can do it by publishing positive reviews and demonstrating your certificates and rewards (if you have any). Let the customer contact you and clarify the details in the most convenient way — via an online phone call. Create a feeling of comfort and remember that people do not like to be sold something, they like to purchase themselves.
What is waiting list and how it can add to the sales
Waiting list helps to inform users about new arrivals. When a customer puts a product in the waiting list, it means that he is 70% ready for his purchase, and the only reason why he has not completed it is the fact that the product was out of stock. Your task as a merchant is to react to this request as quickly as possible and satisfy customer demand before it gets too late. You can tell your customers the time when the product is due to arrive, and offer a discount or a gift as a thank-you bonus so that they could have all the reasons to wait for the product and buy it exactly from you.
Technical implementation of pre-order and waiting list tools on a webstore
As for the technical implementation of these tools, everything depends on the platform your webstore is based on.
If your store is based on a special ecommerce platform, such as Magento, Prestashop, Shopify, etc., then you can simply purchase modules and extensions that will be integrated into your store.
If this option does not suit you or you have difficulties implementing it, you can always contact a development company that specializes in ecommerce and let them help you add the pre-order and waiting list functions.
Having these functions on board of your online store, you will always be one step ahead, since you will be able to track the demand for the goods, thus increasing your sales and winning the customer loyalty.
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