Coupons, ever?

[kobaltkween]

Sometimes (most times probably) it's not the value but the perceived value. Marketers have carefully examined the consumer mind to entice them to spend, many times we spend irrationally. I think the various other markets have it down almost down to a science how to get you to spend on things you don't really need. I've read many posts about all the unused products people have in their runtimes. People may respond better to coupons than the point system. Hopefully Chris and crew can analyze whatever data to determine whether points and stacks are an effective way to sell their products.

I also have a lot of points. The more I buy the more I get. It might be cool to have some double point days where you could use twice as many points against a purchase. That would add perceived value to the points I've collected, whittle them down to where I'd like to build them back up, and allow me to spend on stuff I actually want rather than what's on sale. Just a thought.

Oh, that's definitely true. That's part of why I'm asking about concrete examples of what liasen has been willing to buy. For instance, I have a few clothing sets where the person can set the color themselves for certain material options. That seems to have much less appeal than a set where people get 50 hue shifted color options, despite that limiting the customer more, taking less skill to create, and requiring _much_ more time on testing, creating promos, and creating thumbnails. But when it comes to scenery, the perception of quality seems to have more to do with meshes. That said, that seems to have a curve. Many people will pay $5 for a single item, even a fairly plain one, but balk at paying $20 for a 10 item set.

I really like your idea of double points days. I think it might work best if it excluded items already on sale, but I think it would be good either way.

 

[Darryl]

It's possible

Oh, that's definitely true. That's part of why I'm asking about concrete examples of what liasen has been willing to buy.

It's possible the OP simply wants to apply the coupon to an item he wants to use right away and be done with it. I'm starting to believe I would spend less by paying full price for what I need at the moment rather than "saving money" by buying and hoarding stuff on sale. Seems that there is a sale at some store pretty much every day of the week. I could quickly go broke "saving" money. A handfull of $10 items at 20% off will take more off my bottom line than buying one of those items at full price when I actually have use for it. 50% off a $50 item? Now I gotta do the math, lol.

 

[Lorraine]

I'm a sale junkie, and have real difficulty resisting something heavily discounted. What I've started doing is checking my wishlist first, to see if there's something I actually WANT in the sale, and then looking very carefully at the rest to see if there's something I would actually USE, something that would add value to my runtime instead of just sitting there. I don't always manage to resist a bargain but I'm getting a lot better. And crappy exchange rates do help in the resistance.

 

[Gadget Girl]

So I had some similar feeling around the point system when I first start shopping at Hivewire, but I've come to really like it. The thing that turned me around was something I read somewhere that said that instead of waiting for coupons it was like having a coupon you could use on anything whenever you wanted.

For me this has actually meant that although I tend to like to wait for sales, I'll often get an item I really want even when it's 'full price' because I have points to spend to reduce the price. Also, once I realized that value stacks don't have to be bought all at once, that was a great moment. In fact I'll probably be picking up both the Shetland Pony and The Beast for Harry soon, because I want to make morphs for them for a set I've been working on. Since I've got most of the breeds already, I'll get both a nice value stack discount as well as being able to use points:

I kind of like this anytime I want it kind of sale, although I will admit in the past both Daz and RDNA (when it was it's own thing) would get money from me just because they had coupons and a sale. But at this point, most of what I actually want/need I have from those stores. Not everything of course, but half the time at Daz, to get a discount on an item I want, I have to play a lot for an item I don't want. So as a Poser user, they've had lots of great sales recently on v4 and m4 stuff, but I usually would have to by something Genesis3 to get the deal, and I'd rather not spend money on something I won't ever use to get a discount on something I will.

Also I almost never use the coupon I get from Renderosity, because they tend to almost always exclude sale/clearnece/prime items, and if I'm going to spend money because there's a sale, I want a really good sale.

 

[LisaB]

Lots of great feedback here from everyone. Thank you.

Here's a little chart that illustrates just how much difference Reward Points can make.

10% off plus Reward Points = 25% off
15% off plus Reward Points = 27% off
20% off plus Reward Points = 32% off
25% off plus Reward Points = 36% off
30% off plus Reward Points = 40% off
35% off plus Reward Points = 45% off
40% off plus Reward Points = 49% off
45% off plus Reward Points = 53% off
50% off plus Reward Points = 58% off
55% off plus Reward Points = 62% off
etc

Keep in mind that the artists who make these fantastic products need to be able to make a living, too.

 

[eclark1894]

I admit, I'm not the sales junkie i used to be around March Madness time back when Chris ran the show at DAZ, still, I'd like to see a March madness type sale here at Hivewire. That said, I'm not a BIG fan of coupons because they actually limit my sales buying. Rendo's coupons are a good example where you have to buy a set amount before the coupon kicks in. I really hate that and for the most part don't even bother looking any more.

 

[Miss B]

I've also gotten to the point where I hate Renderosity's coupons because of the set amount you have to spend to use them. Every once in a while the amount you need to spend is low, but for the most part it's usually more than the total amount of the items I want to get, and very often, by 5¢ to 25¢. That's extremely frustrating.

As far as sales like March Madness, I used to enjoy that, but the sale I enjoyed even more was the PA sale, where a few of the PA stores were on sale for a day (or 2) at a time. I realize we don't have that large a number of CAs at HW, but something like that would be nice. Since we have Ken's big Audubon Birthday sale in the Spring, maybe we could have something like a week of sales in the Fall where CAs, who are willing to participate, would have their stores on sale for a day. I have always found it the best way to get caught up on items I didn't get when they first came out.

Just my 2¢ FWIW.