Discounts, sales and special offers

Discussions
#1

We’re still poking about in our data. The interesting bit of data today is about the impact of a discount.

We don’t often offer a discount on licenses or upgrades for Perch, just once or twice a year. I don’t like the idea of being one of those products where there is always a discount running, making you feel a mug if you pay full price.

However we do this occasionally. The data we’ve turned up today is about people who have bought an upgrade from Perch 1 to Perch 2 (the only time we’ve had a paid upgrade) but haven’t applied it to a project. So they bought the upgrade but it is just sat in their account - they haven’t tried it and rolled back, it has never been used on a site.

The % of upgrade purchasers who that applies to is: 46%

Digging into the data a bit more it turns out that 93% of people who bought an upgrade and didn’t apply it, bought it during a sale. So it seems as if a discount which worked out at $21 was enough to prompt an upgrade purchase they didn’t actually have a compelling reason to install right now.

Very interesting. We know that license sales of Perch not only prompt existing customers to “stock up” but also prompt new customers to try it, but I am amazed at the percentage who bought an upgrade and didn’t then use it. The last upgrade sale was in July so they have had some time.

I’d be interested in other people’s experience of sales and discounts and if any of you have similar data.

1 Like
#2

It is well known in retail that a significant % of gift vouchers are never used. Approx 25% IIRC. That is why retailers are so keen on them!

#3

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/27/144308234/lost-money-41-billion-in-gift-cards-havent-been-redeemed-since-2005

#4

It is funny - especially when people are so touchy about price and leap on a special offer - then don’t use it! I’ve read stuff before about the psychology of feeling that you are “missing out” by not taking up an offer. It will be interesting to see if, over time, those upgrades do start to be applied. It may be that people are hanging onto them until next time they are asked to work on the site.

#5

I recently discovered that it turns out used vouchers are a better thing. I was talking to a leader at an eCommerce site here in SA who recently wrote a script that scanned through all their soon to be expiring gift vouchers and sent people a prompt. A significant portion of them then went and used them as part of an order so they made a lot more money by getting them used!

@rachelandrew - I wonder if this isn’t a great excuse for you to communicate with your customers in a “caring” way… “We noticed you bought an upgrade but haven’t enabled it” etc. just to bring Perch back to the front of their mind in a non-spammy way.

#6

@imsickofmaps that’s indeed what we were thinking. One of the goals of our current infrastructure work is to be able to more easily segment and contact people via email based on what they are doing. So this would be one thing we would do.

It may be that people are nervous of doing the upgrade, so we could always prompt them and remind them we are there to help in support if they get stuck.

The other thing that would be interesting to get out would be how many of these people don’t already have sites on Perch 2 as the product has come a long way. If we can encourage someone to upgrade they see the latest product and then may well use it for more sites.