Talk to your customers and actually listen

I had a very interesting exchange with a NicSocks.com customer recently.While reviewing failed subscription orders I noticed that two orders back to back were from New York and both customers had canceled their orders at the final checkout hurdle. This struck me as odd so I decided to contact each of them.One of the customers responded to me almost immediately. He explained that the shipping price was firstly not stated on the product page and secondly was unexpectedly high in comparison to the monthly cost of the subscription.I immediately apologised and explained that shipping to countries other than South Africa was a costly thing to do.Fortunately I don't work alone at NicSocks and Jen noticed that the site was set up incorrectly for this particular order and was charging this particular type of customer for shipping when it shouldn't be.If I hadn't have taken the time to email a customer who had chosen to cancel an order we would never had discovered this mistake. We have since rectified the error and I have contacted the customer to thank him for helping us discover this little bug.In short - contact your customers, listen to what they have to say and respond.

The NicSocks Website Redesign

Starting NicSocks was an attempt at lean fashion ecommerce creation. With the help of the amazing skills over at Obox we launched a quick and effective site seen here:

For the launch of the brand this site was perfect, fun and effective. As sales increased, our customer base grew and the brand itself grew legs we realised that the time had come for a reworking of the website.

Obox has just launched an incredible new theme called FlatPack which fit the needs of the new NicSocks site perfectly. We wanted to give the site an edge and bring it inline with our customers and fans. David Perel took the lead and guided me in all things ecommerce and effective design.

With the amazing photography from Gregor Rohrig that you can see dotted throughout the website and the newsletter we felt that the site was ready to take on it's new and edgy look.

Selling socks is about more than just the selling of socks. I wanted to portray an experience to men browsing the site and show visitors (men and women) what being a NicSocks man means. I really feel like we've achieved this in the new design and hopefully this aesthetic will continue throughout the sock designs and into the Sockaholics Club!

A Phoenix Sale: Failed orders turned into sales

I absolutely love ecommerce but I cannot stand losing a sale.It's an extremely frustrating thing: Watching orders come in, process and then fail in the end.I was told that a business that earns money while you sleep is the best kind. The converse of that statement is also true: A Business that earns money while you sleep can create problems while you dream of money.One of the problems that I've been experiencing is that orders fail at a certain point and I can't tell why. So I decided to start emailing potential customers who don't complete their purchases on NicSocks. The replies are often simple and mundane ranging from forgetting that the tab was open, forgetting a credit card number or simply changing their mind about the purchase.What I have discovered is that no one is ever angry at me for asking them about their experiences and more often that not the problems that the customer is having can be rectified. I'll solve their problem with a little bit of customer TLC and close the deal.The end result is what I'd like to call a Phoenix Sale: A sale that was closed out of a failed order on your website.Talk to your customers. Every email could be a Phoenix Sale waiting to happen.