Autoresponders and Shopping Cart Integration

When people place orders through your website, it is always a good idea to immediately acknowledge the purchase.  One way to do this is with the use of
an autoresponder that can be integrated with your shopping cart.  In fact, many shopping carts that are available today have their own autoresponders built
into the system.

When you set up your autoresponder to send a message to someone that has placed an order, there are several things that should be including in the message. This is an opportunity to ‘speak’ to your customer, and to let them know about other deals that you have or special items that you have available.  You should not miss this opportunity.

Do not send your ‘thank you’ sales message on the same message as the customers email receipt.  Putting the sales message on an email that is automatically sent to grant the customer access to their purchase is also a bad idea, that would go better with the receipt.  Make sure your ‘thank you’
sales message is a message that is sent out all by itself, so your customer can focus solely on that!

Thank the customer for their recent purchase.  Tell them how much their purchase will help them, and then tell them about other available products that work well with the one that they just purchased, or that are similar to the one that they just purchased in some way.  For instance hair conditioner works with hair shampoo.  Vacuum cleaner bags or fragrant carpet powder works well with vacuum cleaners.  Just let them know about the various products that you offer that will compliment their purchase in some way.

The important thing is to not let your customer get away without further contact! Think about being in a brick and mortar store.  When you go up to the counter to pay, there are many items there for sale.   These items are meant to be picked up as last minute purchases, or impulsive purchases.   Your ‘thank you’ sales letter serves the same purpose.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding your customer!  You can usually send them periodic information about your specials after they have made a purchase through you, but emailing them on a daily basis with your offers is not good business!
Use your autoresponder responsibly! Make sure that your it is set up to handle automatic remove requests, and make sure that the information
that you are sending your customers is of value to them.