When you started your business, you likely had a single product, with a single price, that you scrapped and clawed to sell many copies of. Now, however, you've had some success, and are looking to grow your revenues - and not just your revenues, but also your profits. The trick to getting a quick return on your effort is to start to sell high-margin add-ons.

A quick backgrounder on the concept. When you check out at a supermarket, you are surrounded by racks selling candy, magazines and other low-cost items; studies show that as many customers as not add a dollar or three of goods into their basket. Now, while these items are low cost (making them easy for the customer to choose on impulse), they are also high-margin. As a result, the supermarket makes more profit per square foot from the candy rack than it does from almost any other area of the store.

When selling online, of course, you don't have a spot to hang up dozens of different flavors of chewing gum. But you do have control over a checkout process, in which you can offer add-ons which, just like the gum, is sufficiently low-cost to be an easy impulse buy, but delivers you high margins.

We separate these options into two categories:

    * Items provided by Plimus, making your investment essentially zero
    * Items provided by you, the vendor, making your profit potential unlimited

_____________________________________________________________________

Let's examine these options separately.

Plimus gives you the option to offer two simple items: Extended Download Warranty (EDW) and CD-on-Demand.

Extended Download Warranty

EDW allows the customer to come back and re-initiate their download at a later date if they, for instance, buy a new computer. Plimus charges $3.95 for the first year - and you can add a profit margin to it that makes sense (most vendors opt for $1). You can offer this by simply selecting the 'Extended Download Warranty' checkbox in any Contract's General Settings. Your customers simply choose whether or not to accept it - if they don't want it, nobody's hurt, but if they do you increase your revenues, without any investment or effort required.

 

CD-on-Demand  

CD-on-Demand allows your customer to order a back-up copy of your software on CD, delivered right to them. Plimus charges a total of $9.90 (including shipping) for this service - and you can add a profit margin to that makes sense (the current thinking seems to be that $2.05, taking it to $11.95, is very acceptable offer). To set this up, simply go the CD-on-Demand link for any product you'd like to have offered in this way. Once your customers order the CD, it is shipped within 48 hours, and you have added to your transaction. Again, you've not had to invest, and you have the potential to increase your revenues.

________________________________________________________________________

When it comes to offering your own add-ons, the sky is very much the limit! Some Plimus vendors offer physical goods (for instance, headphones to go with audio software), and simply add them as either additional contracts (therefore offered as a Promotion), or as Additional Charges (setup separately - see the Advanced Features section for an upcoming tutorial).

The most effective offers, however, according to Plimus vendors tend to be around intangibles. The single most popular option is to offer a maintenance and/or support contract at a fair percentage of the initial cost. Simply add a maintenance contract to your product, and offer it as a promotion whenever someone buys your product - from what we hear, this will likely be more successful than you might imagine.

Also popular are CD on Demand and EDW offers that you make yourself. Unlike some of our competitors, Plimus is more than happy to support you in doing this. Although your investment needs increase (i.e. you need to produce CDs and/or have a server available with an ongoing link to the software), your profit potential becomes literally limitless. Simply add these offers as Additional Charges, and display them prominently on your website - the worst case scenario is that customers don't buy them, but the chances are they will.

________________________________________________________________________

By adding these simple low-cost, high-margin offers, you can increase your revenues without having to even increase your sales rate; and you will deliver value to customers who often actually want to have the service. From the other perspective, not having these available may mean that you are 'leaving money on the table': your customer is at the checkout, with their wallet open - this is very much the time to ensure they've bought everything they're interested in.

 

Keep reading in this Marketing section to learn how to increase your revenues through other means, including promotions, communicating effectively in the checkout process and driving business through affiliates..