Getting started 10: What customers will do

Chapter 10 of 15 of Getting Started with Trinity, by Brad Bussell, 2AData. Also on the web at www.2adata.com/getting-started.

Our support inbox answers hundreds of customer emails a week for our own store. Here is what they ask, with the numbers on how often each turns into money.

"Do you have a discount code?"

Constant. The same shopper will ask for a code, then for $50 off, then complain about a card fee, then ask you to honor the price he saw yesterday. Our standing answer: our prices are set as low as we can go and still stay in business, and the price on the site is the price. Concessions are the owner's call, never a reply template's. A shopper who was going to buy usually buys anyway.

Email for price and offers

On MAP brands that require it, the product page says "Email for price". The customer enters an email, and the store sends a private quote with a one time code that loads the cart at that price. On our own store 2,297 requests for a price or offers came in over 90 days from about 1,200 shoppers, and 87 of those requests turned into an order (3.8 percent). On the firearms only dealer, 2,266 asked and 147 bought (6.5 percent). On two smaller stores it was 8 and 10 percent. It is a small number of real buyers, and it costs nothing.

The product page also takes offers. An offer at or above the price your markup set for the item (the price MAP keeps off the page) goes into the cart at that price; a lower one is declined, and only accepted offers show on the Price Requests page. On our own store 352 offers got a price in 90 days.

Abandoned carts

When a shopper types an email at checkout and leaves, the store sends a recovery email, then a second one. Our own store emailed 509 abandoned carts in 90 days and 412 of them got the second email; 19 came back and ordered (3.7 percent). The dealer with the most traffic switched recovery on in mid October and emailed 637 carts in its first five days; 9 came back and ordered. Most shoppers who leave never typed an email, so the real fix is upstream: price and shipping. The timing and wording of the recovery emails live under Cart Recovery.

The FFL step

On our own store nearly half of website orders need a transfer; on three other full catalog stores it is 16 to 33 percent. The customer picks a dealer at checkout from the ATF's list of licensed dealers, or skips the step and you sort the dealer out with them after checkout. The customer gets an email with a secure link to upload the license, and so does their dealer when we have the dealer's address. It lands in FFL Uploads in your admin for a quick look, or you attach it on the order page yourself. Until it is on file the order shows Awaiting FFL. If the license is already on file when the order goes to the distributor, the license goes with the order. Firearms only dealers see this on every order; it is routine.

Do not wait for the license to secure the gun. A paid order goes to the distributor right away, before the customer's FFL copy arrives. One exception: a distributor refuses the order when the customer's dealer is not yet set up on its books. If another distributor stocks the gun, the platform tries there next; if none does, nothing is ordered, the order shows Needs Human Review, and your rep needs the dealer's license to add the dealer and place the order on their side (the order note says whether it went out or you need to send it). Every other paid order is on hold for you at the distributor while the gun is still in stock. That matters: a popular gun can sell out at the distributor in the hours it takes a transfer dealer to answer an email. The distributor holds it until the license is on file. When the license arrives after the order was placed, send it to your rep against that order number; your rep will usually email you if they are waiting on it. If the license never comes, you cancel the order with the distributor and refund the customer. Never place a second order for the same gun because the first one is waiting on paperwork: that buys a gun you did not sell.

Cancellations and refunds

On the two busiest stores, about 10 to 12 percent of website orders end up cancelled or refunded: cards declined after the fact, customers who change their mind, an item that sold out between the order and the pull, a transfer dealer who will not accept the gun. Card refunds take a few days to show. A firearm that has been transferred is final; the customer deals with the manufacturer.

Phones

Six of ten visitors from the comparison sites are on a phone. Test your own checkout on a phone before you launch and every time you change it.

Previous: GunBroker, Guns.com, eBay and Walmart. Next: Running the store day to day.

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