Autoresponders and Shopping Cart Integration

When people place orders through your website, it 
is always a good idea to immediately acknowledge 
the purchase. One way to do this is with the use of 
an autoresponder that can be integrated with your 
shopping cart. In fact, many shopping carts that are 
available today have their own autoresponders built 
into the system.

When you set up your autoresponder to send a 
message to someone that has placed an order, 
there are several things that should be included in the 
message. This is an opportunity to ‘speak’ to your 
customer, and to let them know about other deals 
that you have or special items that you have available. 
You should not miss this opportunity.

Do not try to get your ‘thank you’ sales message on 
the same autoresponder as the customers email 
receipt. Putting the sales message on an email that 
is automatically sent to grant the customer access 
to their purchase is also a bad idea – that would go 
better with the receipt. Make sure your ‘thank you’ 
sales message is a message that is sent out all by 
itself, so your customer can focus solely on that!

Thank the customer for their recent purchase. Tell 
them how much their purchase will help them, and 
then tell them about other available products that 
work well with the one that they just purchased, or 
that are similar to the one that they just purchased 
in some way. For instance hair conditioner works 
with hair shampoo. Vacuum cleaner bags or carpet 
powder works well with vacuum cleaners. Just let 
them know about the various products that you offer 
that will compliment their purchase in some way. 

The important thing is to not let your customer get 
away without further contact! Think about being in a 
brick and mortar store. When you go up to the 
counter to pay, there are many items there for sale. 
These items are meant to be picked up as last 
minute purchases, or impulsive purchases. Your 
‘thank you’ sales letter serves the same purpose.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding your 
customer! You can usually send them periodic 
information about your specials after they have made 
a purchase through you, but emailing them on a 
daily basis with your offers is not good business! 
Use your autoresponder responsibly! Make sure that 
your autoresponder is set up to handle automatic 
remove requests, and make sure that the information 
that you are sending your customers is of value to 
them.

(word count 414)

PPPPP
