Remind me later

How to convert off season browsers into buyers

[hellraiser1]

Hi

I just added something (i think) is clever to my product displays. right next to the "add to cart" button - I added a "remind me later" button, which presents a form where the user can be reminded if: a items quantity approaches 0; the price lowers; a special date; 25 days before a holiday (select holidays) and when an item is back in stock (sold out) I wrote an application as a cron job which will store the request, add the user to the mailing list (if they opt to) and of course send a reminder email to the user at the appropiate future date.

Did this because by selling gifts, our business is very seasonal, and has extreme highs and lows. (now is an extreme low) i mean if you take march and december, December would be 12 times (1,200%) more revenue. Anyway the point is that my traffic stays the same, thus i have between 30,000 - 50,000 uniques (google analytice - excluding ALL robots) and yet such lows. Im assuming everyones browsing and curious, and thus would want to be reminded at a later time WELL.....

Its been 5 days and ive only got 4 people to use this function (which is appropiately marketed and displayed - seperate topic) What is up with this traffic --- they really buy in season, and is just deap end in off season. The conversion rate for this function (and other "maillist addon promotions" is LESS then the #*$!ty conversion for sales. I wonder what other people do with theese "wishlist" or "remind me later" functions to make them usefull, and are they usefull or just marginal like anything else i do to increase conversions during off season months?

[lorax]

I think that functionality is very useful and should increase conversions if executed well.

Common reasons for high traffic low conversions often have to do with products that have tight margins and are in a competitive market space (power tools, books, music), elicit research before purchase (high tech, big dollar purchases), or are easy for people to replicate themselves if they do a bit of research (solar power, crafts, etc).

It may be that your design isn't as usable as you think it is. Have you done any usability or A-B testing?

[pp_rb]

If you can analyze how many people click your "remind me later" option, compared to the number of people who actually enter their information to be reminded, that should help you determine whether there is a usability problem or just low interest. For example, maybe you're asking for too much information or presenting too many options; however, if no one is even clicking on "remind me" then this may just be a low-demand option for the type of customers who are browsing.