Over the weekend I stopped into Bath and Body Works to purchase some hand cream, and it was packaged in a nice paper bag with the company name in large letters. What struck me was below the name was “Shop 24/7 at www.bathandbodyworks.com.” Great idea. Of course I knew the company would have an Internet presence, but I loved the not-so-subtle way they reminded me I could find them after the sale.

This also reminded me of an experience I had many years ago vending at a major regional show near my home. I knew lots of the area quilters, and they stopped by the booth excited to show me all their new finds. One product in particular – and I can’t remember now exactly what it was – was a new notion. Everyone who saw it wanted to know where to get it. The receipt had the company’s name and nothing else. The show catalog listed the vendors, only not their locations. I didn’t know where they were, and the only option was for someone to go up and down all the aisles until she found this particular vendor. As I recall, the vendor ended up being in my aisle, though I didn’t know it at the time. I suspect this vendor missed a lot of follow-up sales during the show.

How can you put my experiences to use? When I did that regional show, as well as other larger shows, including Quilt Market and Festival, I had a stamp made with my booth number on it. I think the stamp cost less than $5. Since I used handwritten receipts, I pre-stamped that booth number on the customer copies in my receipt book. I hoped that when all those quilters went back to their hotel rooms and shared their purchases, anyone who wanted to purchase from me would be able to easily find my booth.

Today many people use computerized or printed receipts, and you have the ability to print a message on those receipts. You can add your booth number if at a show, your website, or some other message to encourage repeat sales. One idea that came to mind for a shop was to advertise an upcoming sale or even to offer a small discount for a return visit with the receipt.

As for the shopping bag idea, this would be easy to accomplish when you need to reorder bags. Another option would be to print adhesive labels with the additional info and add them to the bag.

I’m sure you have other ideas to let your customers know how to find you after the sale. Please share them here.

Tags: International Quilt Festival, International Quilt Market, Marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Business, Marketing, Quilt Festival, Quilt Market, Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.