Steuben glass discovered something it didn’t know when it started its Web site six months ago: The most popular time to shop for art glass and crystal is 3 a.m. EST.
It also found that consumers are willing to buy big-ticket items online.
A division of Corning Inc., Steuben sells items at prices up to $20,000. As part of the Web launch, it began an e-mail campaign to build traffic and sales at www.steuben.com.
The e-mail, to customers who have already shopped on the site, offers a premium for those who place their orders on the Web. The Christmas promotion, for example, offered free shipping, while the giveaways during the Valentine’s Day and spring campaigns were hand coolers.
So far, the e-mailings have worked: Roughly 55% of the orders placed in response to the Christmas promo came from new customers, compared with 42% for the Valentine’s Day promotion.
And Steuben’s spring e-mail campaign has generated four times the usual traffic to the Web site. Moreover, the e-mails are being forwarded, creating additional hits – and sales – for the Web site, says spokeswoman Gillian Mueller.
The site’s also being promoted through traditional media, such as space ads and the Steuben catalog.
Initially Steuben’s promotions were available only to past customers. But the firm has changed course and now lets anyone who hears about the promotions to take advantage of them. Orders have been coming in from around the world.
Promotions are set to run once a month, but are only implemented as needed. The spring promo not only helped Steuben make its numbers for the quarter (which had been in question), but gave the company a comfortable margin with which to start the next quarter, Mueller says.
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