Wix eCommerce | Finish the Holiday Sales Season Strong: Gift Cards, Subscriptions & Loyalty Programs

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Hi everybody. Welcome to this week's WIX E Commerce Workshop. I'm Liat. I'll be your host this evening. I lead e commerce marketing at wix. And joining me today I have my favorite co host, Asaf. Asaf, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi everyone, I'm Assaf. I'm part of the ads team team in WIX E Commerce Marketing and we have an exciting workshop today filled with a lot of good stuff.

Yeah, we're really excited to talk to you guys about how you wrap up this holiday season sales strong. We have a bunch of different features and recommendations for you to be thinking about as you're heading into the final rounds of holiday sales. So we hope you're all ready for that today. And please remember to join our WIX E Commerce Insiders Facebook group where you can get to meet each other and interact more and also get exciting news from the team on a regular basis. So without further ado, I'm going to share my screen and we can get started. So as I said, welcome to today's Ecommerce workshop. We're going to be talking about how you finish holiday sales season strong and we're going to be touching on gift cards. Yes, you heard me right. Gift cards, subscriptions and loyalty programs. So with that spoiler alert, let's talk about today's agenda. We're going to talk about what you can be thinking about as you're wrapping up your holiday season sales. We're going to talk about getting in those last minute holiday sales using gift cards. We're also going to think about how you're leveraging any late holiday shoppers for recurring revenue next year with subscriptions. And also making sure you're turning all of your new holiday shoppers into loyal customers by setting up a great loyalty program or reward program. So let's dive in. I think we say this often. It's definitely a mantra for Assaf and I and our team. But your customers rarely are your greatest effort. So I think the main thing that we want to talk about today is make sure that as you're investing in acquiring those new customers, you remember that in the end the real reward is not just closing a sale now, it's the potential you have to continue earning from those customers for a lifetime. So we want to make sure we're setting up everything right so that you and that customer build a relationship and that they continue to shop from your business for a long time to come. So why does customer retention matter? I'm sure you guys hear the statement a lot. But what is it all about? So essentially we're talking about getting customers to commit to your brand. A one time shopper is great. Any sale is great for an E commerce business, but what we really want are customers who return time and time again. So how are you turning those customers into repeat shoppers? And finally, if customers are interested in your kind of product, we definitely want to make sure that we're not losing them to any potential competitors. So we have some great stats here from our partners at Smile IO. They offer a rewards program app in the WIX app market and we will be touching on them later today. But based on their data, loyal customers actually account for up to 41% of the of store revenue and they are nine times more likely to convert more than that. They spend five times the amount that your average customer spends and they're also twice as likely to recommend your brand to others. So there are tons of benefits for you as an E commerce brand in investing in creating those loyal customers. So let's start on our journey here and talk about how we're getting those last minute holiday sales with gift cards. So first of all the news. I know this has been long awaited and we're really happy to say that gift cards are here. Our gifted app is live in the WIX app market and anyone selling in US Dollars is able to use the gifted app on their online store. So what's the big deal about gift cards? Well, gift cards first of all are a great way to increase your overall revenues. So based on Gifted's data, customers typically spend 38% more than a gift card value. So you're essentially selling twice. You sell the value of the gift card and then you get additional sales when those customers come to shop at your online store. So here are some of the benefits that you can that you'll be able to see by selling gift cards. First of all, of course now as we're in the peak of holiday season sales and getting into that window of fulfillment before the holidays arrive, you're able to get more of those last minute checkers. When somebody buys a digital gift card from your online store, you just email that gift card over to them or to their friend or family member who they're gifting. So it means you have immediate fulfillment. People can be shopping all the way up to the holiday eve and making sure that they're getting gifts for friends and family. On top of that, they are super easy to manage and distribute. There is no physical fulfillment required, so no shipping to worry about and no Tracking and none of that, it goes straight from you to your customer's inbox. Gift cards are also a really great way for you to improve your cash flow and generate immediate revenue. Because essentially you sell to customers now the gift card with the promise that they can redeem the product at a later date. And you're setting those gift cards regardless if they actually end up being used or not. They're also a really great way for you to be able to promote brand awareness and reach new customers because you sell gift cards to your shopper or your loyal customer and they give that gift card to their mom, their friend, their colleague at work, and essentially they do your word of mouth marketing for you. And finally, as we mentioned before, typically you're able to generate larger purchases because. Because people do tend to spend more than the value of the gift card itself. So once you've made your beautiful digital gift card, which Asaf is going to show us in just a minute, let's talk about how you're going to promote that gift card. So first of all, the basics. Make sure you're promoting it on your website, right? You want to make sure that any shoppers or customers coming to your website know that you have gift cards available and that they're able to buy them. You need to think about your gift card product page as you would any other product page and rarely invest in it. So we speak about this a lot. Invest in the visual, invest in the description. Make sure that customers really understand the value that they're going to get from your gift card. And also you'll earn the SEO value off of that product page. You want to make sure that you are customizing your gift card design. Like anything else you're doing for your business and brand, it's a reflection and extension of your brand. So make sure it matches your branding well. And then think about when you're selling and who you're selling to. So, for example, we're in the holidays now. Maybe you want to have a festive holiday design on your gift cards, or if you're selling to specific audiences, then maybe you want to tailor it for them. And then think about how you're going to be promoting those gift cards. So really you're going to use all of your regular marketing channels. So whether that's social media, paid advertising, or emailing or SMSing, your existing customer base, use all of your existing channels to make sure that customers know that you have gift cards. And finally, you can also think about using your gift cards as rewards in your loyalty program, which we will talk about a little bit later in today's session. So now that we've covered the basics of gift cards Assaf, I think over to you and the much awaited demo of adding gift cards to your WIX online store.

Thanks Liat. So over or back to our famous toy store? The first thing you mentioned, gat is how to promote it on your online store. So we added a couple of entry points. One is to the actual nav bar we added the gift card, you can see it here. And the other we also added a hello bar with some animation on it so people know it's important. Obviously for everything that you do on the store, you should definitely do it and make sure it's mobile friendly. Most of your purchases will come from mobile. For the sake of this demo, we'll do it from desktop. But no doubt, don't forget which is more important. And this is the gift card that I've designed yet.

I think your design never ceases to amaze me. Asaf, you outdo yourself every time, every time, every time.

Whilst it could be argued that better design is possible, I do think it provides. It's very clear what it is and it's very easy to use. Which are the things that, the only things that I see well and of course if you guys have a more keen sense of design, you can do it and invest the time. I think it's worth it for the sake of this demo. I think this will do enough. And as you can see, the, the amount here for the gift card is customizable. So in essence, I can put $1,000 worth of gift card continue to the purchase process. I do want to show my holiday gift. I wouldn't go so cheap on you, you know that. And let's, let's customize a couple of the things that I think are worthwhile. So in order to customize them, let's go to the editor in here, let's choose the gift card pa, Give it a sec to load. And here in the component, let's click and go to Settings. This will open the gift card widget and now we'll be redirected to gifted. This is where you'll set up your gift card when you initially connect this app. Since we've already done it and it doesn't take long, let's customize it. So a couple of the things that I want you guys to think about. One, is it a custom value, which means the shoppers can decide how big of a gift they want to hand out or do you want to Give them only set values which are more in line with your pricing and your products. So for example, if I wanted to change it, I'll go with 2550. And since our products cost around 40 $50, let's give them 100 and 250. So there are some jumps there that provide options. Again I think some options are good. Don't go with like 80 options because if you prefer that way just go with a custom body. And one more thing is let's add some fear of missing out the fomo. I don't like to have gift cards running around in the world with open ended. So I prefer to put some expiration date. I think 365 days is a good amount of time. Let's save the changes and go back to our store, refresh it. We should be able to see it in a second. Riyadh, what's your opinion on having gift cards expiration date?

I think I'm with you. So I think like a year is a really fair time. You obviously want to give potential shoppers time to take advantage of that gift card and a good window. But on the business side, I always like to have an end date in mind. Like I don't want to be beholden to a product for the rest of eternity. So you know, be fair, give people a good window but then also make sure that you have other options for your business moving forward.

Right. And also know the fine print. Some countries have different laws for this, so be minded that they exist. Back to our gift card page. You can see that the offering has changed a little bit. Now you can only select a specific amount and when people make that purchase you'll see an order on your dashboard and again when people redeem it, you, you will see the redemption again appears as an order and then it's a fulfillment process. One more cool thing about digital gift cards, and again this is not something that is physical. You don't get like that small plastic card that we all love. But the nice thing about digital ones is that they never get lost. So you can always find them in your email or wherever you send it. The Internet has a better memory than where you left it in your purse.

Absolutely. So I think that's like a huge advantage for our users this holiday season. Obviously we're seeing a lot of fulfillment challenges as different areas again deal with different levels of COVID restrictions and social distancing. So a gift card is a really great way to make sure that you get that gift straight over to whoever you want to send it to without worrying about any fulfillment or delivery along the way. So before I move on to the next section, we did have a couple questions here from our audience that I'd like to ask you. So the first question is this is a good one. Are you ready? Are gift cards only available for the holiday season?

So we're happy to say that no, this is a new app that is now going to be with us and we hope more are coming. Definitely more currencies are coming in the next coming weeks, but this is now for you guys to use and help your stores sell more, expand like I mentioned before, grow your brand and have fun with it.

So I hope you guys caught that spoiler alert there that ASAF just gave you. More currencies are coming in the coming weeks. The team will drop the link to our Facebook group. Please go ahead and join there because you will get all the latest updates and early news there. And of course we do all of our regular communication at wix. So a couple other questions are staff on gift cards? People want to know if you're able to sell gift cards when using other payment providers. So not WIX payments, but for example if you are using a stripe or a square.

So yes, every using Gifted on WIX works with every payment provider that is connected to your online store. However, some payment providers offer their own gift cards and those do not work natively with us. So that that's another path that isn't covered by Gifted.

Cool. So make sure if you're selling on your online store and you want them to be redeemed on your online store that you're using the app that we're suggesting to you. Saf, I guess your design did not carry as well as we thought because we're getting a question. Can you personalize your gift cards like adding a logo?

Definitely you can and you should. I think gift cards, like everything that has to do with your brand needs attention and preferably professional attention. It isn't a must. I have to be let's be clear. It's better to have a functional and clear yet not perfect gift card than not having one at all. But if you have the design skills or you want to pay a little bit for designers, it's not a lot of work. Definitely do it to increase brand awareness and unify all the assets that you're offering.

Cool. And then other than that. Okay, so I think you touched this, but maybe cover it again because we have a question. Is the gift card emailed or is it a physical gift card?

So this one is a digital gift card. You don't have to worry about losing it. Once shoppers buy it, they can email it to whoever they want and it will remain there for forever. Or at least it's been redeemed.

Very cool. So with that, let's move on to our next section for today's workshop, which is talking about how you're leveraging those late holiday shoppers for recurring revenue next year with subscriptions. So why sell subscriptions? First of all, you're going to create a steady cash flow and recurring revenue. I think any business model that has guaranteed income is a good one, so definitely worth considering. It's also a really great way for you to be able to expand your product offering. So whatever you're already selling, you can think about creative ways to offer subscriptions around that. So, for example, if you sell scented candles, which we all know by this point is a soft dream in life, this is what he is going to do when he grows up. You can create all kinds of subscriptions around those. So you could have the monthly candle where you get a surprise candle every month. I know ASAP has some of those subscriptions. Or you could have the candle box where you get a whole selection of candles and candle accessories every month. And of course, it's a really great way to build a loyal customer base so customers get to interact with your products and your brand again and again and get to really build that closeness with your business. So the first thing that you want to think about is what is the subscription model that you want to use. So first of all, you can create an individual recurring product. That means you create a single product that is only available on subscription. So for example, like I said, my monthly candle, surprise candle that you get every month. And it means that your business is guaranteed to get recurring revenue and and your customers don't have to worry about reordering. So if like a saf, you must have a new scented candle every month, you're guaranteed that your candle will arrive. You might also want to think about creating one off products that have a subscription option. So going to those scented candles now, I'm okay with a candle. I wouldn't mind one here and there. So a stuff wants the subscription and I just want to buy the one candle. So you basically offer the same product, allow customers both options, right? To buy it once or to get it on a regular basis. And the third option is having a subscription box. So I think we've all seen these. They're super popular these days. You're creating a lovely Curated theme box of products the customers can purchase on a regular frequency. So maybe monthly, maybe quarterly. And you can really customize these boxes based on whatever theme works for your brand or for your customers. So maybe on regions of the world based on hobbies, interests, holiday seasons and more. So one of the things that we get asked a lot about is how you should price your subscription boxes. So obviously there isn't a one answer fits all, but there are definitely a bunch of things you should consider when setting your price. So let's go through the different areas you can think about. First of all, the products that you're including in the box, obviously they have a cost to you. There is the box itself. So I will say, if you're trying to create a subscription box, then definitely the unboxing experience is really important. And you want to make sure that you have a great looking box that's really part of the experience for the customer. And that will come with some sort of cost. So think about the box and the box accessories like stickers or stamps and their costs and also whatever packing materials you're using in that box. So whether that's beautiful filler paper or bubble wrap or inserts or whatever you need, you need to be thinking of cost, about your postage or shipping costs. And here, of course, because we're talking about a box, this might be heavier than your normal packages. So you want to be taking that into account. And you definitely want to be thinking about all the fulfillment costs, whether those are logistical and operational costs or just the actual delivery itself, because this is something that you're going to be doing frequently. So it might be a weekly subscription, monthly, quarterly, whatever it is, but you're going to have to be preparing those boxes and sending them out every time. Of course, you want to be thinking about your transaction fees, your practicing fees, like any online sales, and whatever acquisition costs you have. So how are you planning on advertising and marketing this box? And those would be all the things that I think you should be thinking about as you plan your price. And obviously you're going to have to adapt them to your business and your products. So now that we're done with Terry Assaf, would you kindly show us how to set up a subscription?

Absolutely. One more thing about pricing. Riyadh and I think E commerce subscriptions are game changers for brands that know how to do it right. They do take commitment because you have to deliver on a monthly basis. So shipping the entire fulfillment process needs commitment, needs planning and proper execution. I'll run quickly on how to Start a subscription. So from your WIX dashboard, go to store products. We will in a second create a new one. It's going to be a physical product because we're selling toys. So for us it'll be something like a toy box that arrives once a month. Let's name it as a toy box or surprise toy box. Add some images. It so happens I just have a couple of them here. Let's add them and you'll be able to see it on the storefront in a minute. This is new, so obviously let's make sure everybody is aware of that. And in terms of pricing, we'll go with 50 bucks. I like rounded numbers. I know many of you will go with 49. That's pretty cool. Obviously, take the time to add some description, but for the sake of this demo together, imagine that I already did that and we can move forward and as you scroll down on the product pages, create a subscription. All right, let's go with a monthly box. Doing this some time in copy. I think I pretty much nailed this one. But perhaps in a couple of iterations we can get something that is better.

I love even better than your design Asa.

You know how fast I work Liat and in terms of duration, this is something to consider. I really love brands that are confident and everything is auto renewed until canceled by the shopper. I think it, you know, oozes with the confidence that you should be using with and let's give 10% discount and just because. Oh, that's $10. I'm sorry. So it's a 10% discount. One second. As I remove the zoom widget. I think we're all good in terms of and we have some details here. Let's apply now. We'll need and this is something I often forget. But don't forget to add it to a collection. I'll add it to Creative Toys. Save it here. Give it a second as we go. Let's go to Hip Hip Shop, Creative Toys. And voila, we have here the surprise box. When you hover, I added this beautiful question mark and some other things you want to just, just don't remember on your storefront. So obviously the add to cart from gallery so shoppers can do it immediately. They don't need to go inside the product. However, we'll do it right now just to see that everything is good. You have here the subscription and again we sort of breeze through it. Don't forget that a lot of information here. So subscription boxes can be found directly from Google and also build trust with people who just browse your store. And yet you mentioned before marketing, I just want to say what I love about subscriptions, that it allows you to really double down on how much you spend. Because in theory you'll be considering that you don't sell this box only once, but at least like four or five times before people cancel. And again, you have to track those things to make smart, educated decisions. But in general, I think looking at it, if I were to guess it would be at least five or six times this price. So instead of trying to get a cost per acquisition of 10 or $20, when you account for all refunds and returns, you can 5 exit and still be profitable.

Absolutely. And again, like tying this back to the holidays. So if you guys are thinking about shoppers who are signing up for subscriptions late in the holiday season, especially if people are buying them really close to the holidays. So even if I were to order this, like mid December, it's a really great gift to give to friends and family. So even if it's only going to get fulfilled in January, or the fact that I know that I'm going to be getting this lovely surprise box for the next three, six months, whatever it is, is a really awesome gift. And for your business, that's guaranteed revenue into 2021, which is a really great way to start the new year. So that's really great. I will remind everyone to set up all of your policies accordingly. Whenever you add subscriptions, make sure you're adding that stuff into all, all of your shipping policy, refund policy, return policy, whatever you need to add on your store. And now for a couple of questions. So I noticed one in the chat that I just want to address quickly, which was people asking about how you connect this to your inventory. So for example, like Asaf created the lovely surprise box so the team can drop a link for you if you need to connect to inventory or what you're actually trying to create are bundles. Then take a look at the Multi Orders app on wix. There is a solution for that. We're not going to get into a demo today, but we'll be happy to share the info with you guys. And Asaf, a couple of questions for you. Somebody wants to know if they can set up weekly or monthly. I guess they're asking about the timing, like what are the limits on timing for subscriptions?

So a lot of it has to do with who your audience and what you want to offer. I always recommend asking a few customers before you start offering it, but we did see like we have the weekly monthly, you can do yearly. It all depends on the product and how it fits the audience.

Cool. And I'm checking. I think it's more or less that's what people are asking us about. And can I have more than one subscription? Is another question.

So currently I think we can. We only offer a single subscription or they will correct me in the Q and A if I'm wrong. But I think for now that is the way it is. By the way, shoppers will be able to manage subscriptions, and there's a new area for that in the dashboard. You can log in and see it once you have it. And.