Using birthday dates on Etsy and sale calender tool

[Former_Member]

I was thinking of some ideas here are a few please let me know what you think

1 - Contacting your customers on there birthday, how lovely would it be to email your customer when its there birthday offering a discount in your store?

2 - A sale calender tool for shops, I thought this would be good to have and speak to etsy admin about having it as an option for store owners to show up and coming sales?

Would any one else think these are good ideas or just silly?? hehe

I am very new to the etsy selling so excuse me if this has already been happening!!

Thanks

@ Priscilla

[bonniefillenwarth]

Are you asking for their birthdays? It seems like a nice idea. I know some big stores send you coupons and such on your birthday, like Petsmart. I would Ask for their birthday and let them know you are doing this though otherwise it might seem stalkerish.

[Former_Member]

If the customer signs up for email mailing lists, I think that's OK.
It's against Etsy rules to contact customers once transactions are complete - it's considered spamming to cold-email a previous customer.

[Former_Member]

OK great thanks i didn't know that.

[BeMyBee]

I didn't know about that either. There's so much to learn!

Is it considered spamming if you mail a postcard with a coupon code?

[Former_Member]

I don't understand why I would want to post a sale ahead of time. That would only encourage buyers to wait for the sale to begin to make their purchases, costing me money. Also, I want to catch the impulse buyer who see something and wants it right then. If that person sees a sale notice for the upcoming weekend, let's say, she may choose to wait in order to save a few dollars and then later decide not to purchase or simply forget to purchase. Maybe I am missing your intent? How do you see if being valuable?

[Former_Member]

I just thought it would encourage people to buy, especially when I as a newbie aren't getting any sales anyway...

Even if I wanted to clear out some stock for new things if my listings were about to expire to just let the customers know and seeing we can't email them having a calender to let them know the date in advance might encourage them to come back... Its up to you what items you put up for sale so have some full priced ones and old stock put on sale....

thanks for your feedback everyone

[Former_Member]

I see, I thought you meant a storewide sale :-) There is a Saturday Night Special team that promotes sales on Saturdays. So if your customers get to know that you participate in that, they would know when to check in with you for a sale.

[Former_Member]

Oh ok cool thanks!

[Former_Member]

I appreciate your ideas and as a seller I always question what is appropriate and what isn't. I don't think you should mail or contact anyone solely based on the fact that you have their information due to a recent purchase.

A few creative ideas:
In your info & appearance you are able to include a message to the buyer after a purchase... you could, at that time, thank them for their order and if they would like to sign up for your newsletter, get daily deals, store coupon codes in the future they can send you an email.... and than give them a coupon code for signing up! OR do that when you send them their shipping notification.

Facebook: Get a facebook fan page and there you can offer all your coupon codes and daily deals to only your fans... that way if they care than they will become a fan. It's also a great social network for small business!!

[Former_Member]

Gee thanks for that thoughtful feedback. Great ideas there too! Yes I completely understand contacting people too much and privacy etc

Thanks to everyone that took the time to write I really appreciate it!