Eversave.com, Woburn, MA, an online couponing site, said that an online incentive program it launched five weeks ago to drive customers to its site, reward them for their loyalty and offer customer information has brought impressive results.
Eversave, which calls itself the online source for offline shopping, allows its members to receive special offers and promotions from local merchants who advertise on its Web site. The coupon offers are sent via e-mail to a member from merchants or service providers within a 10-mile radius of a member’s ZIP code. The offers are often tailored to correspond to that member’s interests. Members can print a paper coupon on their printer and bring it in to the merchant’s store for redemption.
The direct response incentive program Eversave launched allows consumers to receive free versions of up to 10 different software titles — which normally cost $30 to $60 — when they sign up for the service or refer a friend to the site. They can also receive free software when they provide further information on their shopping preferences. By providing more detailed information, Eversave can tailor its offers to each member's particular interests.
The software and fulfillment for the incentive program is provided by Kestral Communications, Westwood, MA, an online premium and incentive company that offers more than 2,000 software titles in its library.
The way the program works is, first Kestral puts up a transparent URL that resides in its domain but appears to be a part of Eversave’s Web site. An Eversave customer goes to that Web page, chooses software titles and checks the “Click to Buy” box to purchase the selections. After the customer selects a payment method for shipping (Eversave pays for the software, and consumers pay $4.97 for the shipping), the customer clicks on the “Submit Order” button. Then, the customer fills out requested information and finalizes payment and shipping instructions. Orders are shipped First-Class mail and arrive within a week.
Software titles Eversave has chosen for this program include The Joy of Cooking, Webster’s Encyclopedia and Home Depot 1-2-3.
The company has chosen these titles because “they reach our target market, which is women and men between the ages of 30 and 50,” said Rob Burns, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Eversave. Burns said Eversave’s membership base is 70 percent women.
While Burns could not give the exact number of members who have signed on to become members of the program because of the incentive, he said that membership has increased since the incentive program began and that it has been “extremely successful. We are approaching over 20,000 titles.”
Burns also said that the incentive program is perfect for Eversave’s audience because “our site is all about savings, and when you give someone the opportunity to save all this money on software that they might only buy at retail prices, it works out great.”
To advertise the program and bring people to the site to register, Eversave has been running a print campaign for the last several weeks in local newspapers around the country. It also advertises its site on several city-oriented Web sites. This week, for example, it began advertising on the Boston.com Web site.
