Below is an excerpt from an article posted today in AOL Daily Finance:
“For local merchants that also engage in online sales, Facebook’s large network of users should be a major selling point. It was for Christine Tran, owner of Artisan Wine Depot in Mountain View, Calif., one of the retailers participating in Facebook’s Deals launch.
Other issues that contributed to her decision included Facebook’s technology, which allows her to use her Facebook account to track customers who sign up for the discount in real-time and then click on their names as they redeem it. She noted other group-buying websites tend to use a paper-and-pencil approach, sending merchants a document that requires them to scratch off customers’ names as they redeem the discounts.
The clincher for Tran, however, was Facebook’s approach of defining and emphasizing a customer experience in its advertising, rather than focusing on the size of the price cut. For example, the 25% discount Artisan offered for its limited-production wine tasting is displayed in smaller type than the headline that touts the tasting itself.
“Discount deals like Facebook’s are a loss-leader for us,” Tran says. “I consider this part of our advertising budget, but I also want to attract customers who’ll want to come back later, not just for the deals. Facebook seemed interested in building our customer experience.”
Click here to read the entire article.
Cheers!
-The Artisan Wine Depot Team
