Father’s Day Specials & PhotoReflect

This is special post for to help you create special promotions for Mother’s Father's Day which is right around the corner!

(We thought we would change the headline for this post to include Father's Day now that Mother's Day has passed -- and with great success. So if this is your first time around reading this feature, note it was originally written about the day in May while still being 100% appropriate for the June holiday as well.)

Why the special post? Because according to many reports (including this report) Mother’s Day is second only to Christmas in gift-giving expenditures and this year in particular is poised to see record numbers.

If you used PhotoReflect and the promotional tools available to you for Christmas last year, you know exactly what we mean! PhotoReflect represents an access point for your photography customers to find sincere and lovely gift options of their photography, whether it is a beautiful print in a nice frame, a mug or pretty jewelry box a neat chef's apron!

If you are not familiar with creating special promotions in PhotoReflect there are three in particular you can investigate and evaluate for your purposes:

Create a special promo code and share the news. The way promo codes work is that you authorize a unique discount for photo products on your storefront. Your online customers with that promo code can “apply” it to their shopping cart.

Create a volume discount such as: “Father’s Day Special: Get $10 off any order of $60 or more!” When you create a volume discount the special announcement appears as a “pop-up” on your storefront whenever your customers view their albums.

When in doubt: Sell gift certificates. This is especially great as a last-minute shopper promotion. You can buy gift certificates from your self, all you need to do is pay the sales commission, credit card transaction, and the certificate create fee upfront. That comes to 20%... So you can buy a $50 gift certificate for your storefront for $10 and then sell that gift certificate to your customers for $50 thus, earning a $40 sale without even selling a photo. PhotoReflect will generate a Gift Certificate code that you can put on cards, coupons, in an email or piece of pretty stationary. Your online customers can apply the gift certificate during their shopping experience whenever they want.

All three of these options are a fantastic way to get the word out to your customers that your storefront is a great place to get wonderful gifts for mom, grandma, dad and grandpa and also remind your customers that you are around and open for business!

All you have to do to try these promotional ideas out is go to your online manager (you can sign in from PhotoReflect.com) and click the “Products” tab. These options are listed as “Sales Options” and “Promotion Codes”.

Just keep in mind for any promotion listed above, other than gift certificates, you have to mention that items have to be ordered by:

• Sunday, May 2 to get the gift before Mother’s Day WITH STANDARD SHIPPING
  Sunday, June 13 to get the gift before Father's Day WITH STANDARD SHIPPING*
• Monday, May 3 to get the gift before Mother’s Day with 2-DAY SHIPPING
  Monday, June 14 to get the gift before Father's Day with 2-DAY SHIPPING*
• and no later than end of day (midnight) on Tuesday, May 4 to get the gift before Mother’s Day with OVERNIGHT SHIPPING / Tuesday, June 15, 2010 to get the gift before Father's Day with OVERNIGHT SHIPPING*
• If your online customer is buying on or after Wednesday, you may want to contact them and let them know of the risk that they may not get the gift in time. They may want to purchase a gift certificate or book time with you as their gift instead.

* Postal delays do not apply to these general assumptions. If ever in doubt encourage customers to purchase as soon as possible and pay for expedited shipping even if they are purchasing before the deadlines detailed above – this will ensure satisfaction and less of a risk. In addition, if you are using a Labtricity Lab, please check with them their policies on production and routing times. For reference, the PhotoReflect gift and print lab will put a product in shipment in 48 to 72 hours after the order is placed.

After you have devised your special treat, tell the world about it! Send an email out explaining your promotion, what great gifts you offer and any limitations (such as the shipping notes detailed above) they should know about.  

If you need a graphic feel free to take our little jpeg posted above. Click it and it will expand to a larger size. Notice we placed the text on white so that it can be easily manipulated in PhotoShop to say whatever you want.

Good luck. We hope the upcoming Mother’s Day [and Father's Day] your photography pleases a lot of parents and grandparents as we know it should!