Coffee of the week half price sale, thoughts?

[essentialwonders]

Hey Folks,
We are now offering a new coffee every week at half price or almost half price and shipping is always FREE. What does everybody think about doing a loss leader like this to get new customers.

Try 100% Colombian Supremo coffee for $6.99 out the door.

 

[caffe biscotto]

I'm also experimenting with sort of a "product of the week special"....

You have to wonder though, if the new interest it draws will only be from the bargain shoppers that will only check in once per week to buy your discounted products, therefore you're really not gaining anything, unless you're actually profiting on the half-priced item. You can't go the distance in business if you're just spinning your wheels.

Obviously I think it's a good idea, otherwise I wouldn't be experimenting with the idea. It's part of the dynamics of commerce and it adds to your online presence.

I guess we can assume that one or more of our products is there as a staple item to draw interest to our other, more profitable products (or services).

 

[PinkRose]

Hello,

I visited your Essential Wonders website a few minutes before I visited this forum (and read your recent posting).

When I looked at your web site, I didn't notice anything about a special promotion, but I did notice the half price ($6.99) on Colombian Supremo. I have to admit when I saw that the price was slashed, my first reaction was to wonder about the freshness, etc. The thought crossed my mind that you may be trying to get rid of old beans.

I'm into medium roast coffee, so the dark roast Columbian Supremo didn't spark my interest too much. However, after reading your posting on this forum, I book marked your site so that when you feature one of the medium roasts for half price, I'll be tempted to buy that and some others that I was considering.

Rose

 

[essentialwonders]

Dear Pink,
Our coffee is fresh roasted 6 days a week and we sell out daily so we never have any old beans. If by chance we ever did they would get tossed before sold to our customers.

Dear Caffe,
You are right as we have been doing this for 3 weeks now and somebody during our first week posted our sale on fatwallet.com. That posting generated a few hundred sales and I would say that about 25% just bought a few pounds of the coffee of the week. The rest of the buyers added regular priced coffee and accessories to their basket, which made up for the loss. There are always buyers who are only going to be interested in the loss leader product but hopefully their referrals bring new customers. So far it is working out very well, I suggest everybody should give something like this a try.

 

[caffe biscotto]

A few hundred sales generated from one post on Fatwallet???

What do you need my opinion for?
I can't sell hundreds of anything... :? aarggh!

My only feedback from a coupon site was members asking for free samples.

Thanks for the skinny on the "Fat"!

 

[PinkRose]

Hello again,

Usually when I see that an item is drastically reduced, I tend to wonder why. I'm glad to hear that you roast fresh daily. I remember reading that on your web page too.

Good luck with your promotion. I'm sure you'll get lots of new customers.

Rose