Window Shopping Promotions: From the Physical Store to the Digital Store

This article was originally published on Medium

I’ve been walking by a GAP store for the past 2 years now…I’ve never ever seen GAP clothes & accessories in the shop’s window!

All I see is…
Promotions * Sales* Ads.

  • New Season, Great Prices
  • BUY ONE GET ONE -50% OFF
  • 30% OFF all Denim
  • Sale 40% OFF EVERYTHING
  • Buy TWO Get 1 Free!

I always thought of our Widgets at APPOCALYPSIS as a way to create Promotional ads in the Digital World. In the digital world it is even more fun and interesting than in the offline world…! I will tell you why:

First of all you can create and activate a promotional ad to your digital store very very fast. You can test so many things instantly and with minimal cost.

Now, let us go back to the Offline world for a while. How do potential customers react to GAP’s Promotional ads located to its windows?

  1. They might not look at them at all
  2. They might stop and take a look but continue walking for several reasons (not interested, do not have time, do not have money etc.)
  3. They might stop and take a look and then enter the shop
  4. When they enter the shop they will either buy something or they might not.

What extra information could GAP get if they placed the exact same Ads to their website (same cases as above)?

  1. There is less chance that APPOCALYPSIS widgets get unnoticed on your online shop, especially if you select a strategic location in your screen to present those and a specific moment.
  2. If they notice the Widget and they are not interested you can know that sooner than later and instantly react to it. As I said earlier it is extremely easy to create different types of widgets and check which convert better than others. In the Offline World you would need days (if not weeks) to change your store’s window.
  3. If the visitor clicks on the widget then if you’ve done a good job at the page they will land, you have a higher chance of converting those to paying customers. Changing the specific page in your website is also easier than changing your whole store’s design and positioning of items in it.
  4. If the visitor buys you know which promotion helped in the conversion process and you can keep that promotion for a longer period. If the visitor decides to leave your online shop you have one last change to keep him in: The Exit Intent Popup. In the offline world the saleswoman would actually have to stop the customer walking away and convince him/her to stay longer.

I thought it would be cool to bring GAP’s promotional ads to their digital form, so I created 2 by using Appocalypsis. I changed a few things to make the Ads convert better in the digital world. Here are the results:

The Real Store’s Promotional Ad:
See it live here

And then I took it a step further:
I thought, wait, how can I get more leads from people passing by my website …well not mine, but anyway :). So I created a Widget which asks visitors for their info (Name & E-mail) and I promise

  • a Discount on their Next Purchase and
  • a GAP Card to their Inbox. See it live here.

 

There are E-N-D-L-E-S-S ways to convert your visitors or grow your E-mail list. At the same time it is SUPER FUN to test those ways by using our amazing workbench at APPOCALYPSIS. And if you need any help in your designs our Super Cool Support team will help you get the result you always wanted 🙂

APPOCALYPSIS is a SaaS application which Helps you Create & Manage Widgets which help with Conversion for your Websites. A great online tool
for Single Website Owners, Developers, Webmasters or Marketers.

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