I went on to Tommy Hilfiger’s site and I instantly got this splash screen:
I love their products and getting 20% off for simply registering is a great idea to me! I went ahead and registered and sure enough a little bit later in the Balfe household I get an email to verify my email address and account with a coupon code!
So how did they do this? Well, I don’t know exactly how they did it but I can pretty much guess.
First, they set up a flash advertisement on the site for unauthenticated customers to show the “Register Now” page. This is a pretty basic rule and easy to accomplish using the tooling. Once the customer registers, there is an event (a trigger) that is sent to the commerce system that a dialog activity can catch. Here is a basic flow of a dialog activity that sends an email when a customer registers (link to InfoCenter):
Email Templates can be used to have generic emails with key fields and advertisements put into a template. Below is a sample email template from the Madisons Starter store. Notice the “Insert Content” button where you can select from a range of fields and content like First Name, Last Name, Link, Content Spot, E-Marketing Spot, and Promotion.
The coupon model they most likely used was a coupon set up for 20% and a redemption count of “one”. Here is a sample promotion image cut out from the Management Center showing some of the options for redemption:
Dialog activities are a powerful feature and you have the flexibility to use the many built in triggers or create your own triggers. From the Info Center, here is a list of the current out of the box triggers for dialog activities:
Trigger | What triggers the activity to start or continue |
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A specific period of time has elapsed.
Example: Wait for two weeks and then continue the activity. |
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A customer successfully registers with your store. | |
A customer places an order with your store. | |
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A customer has participated in any social commerce activity on your site.
Example: A customer has done any of the following things at least three times:
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A customer has placed something in the shopping cart and has not checked out within the number of days you specify.
Example: A customer has abandoned a shopping cart for three days. |
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A customer belongs to a customer segment you specify on the day the activity runs.
Example: The customer belongs to the Preferred Customer customer segment. |
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A customer is celebrating his or her birthday in the number of days you specify, or today.
Example: The customer is celebrating a birthday in 7 days. |
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A custom event that the triggers listed in this table do not support.
Examples:
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A customer searches in the store.
Example: The customer searches multiple times for the same product. |
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A customer has triggered a recurring order event.
Examples:
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A customer has triggered a subscription event.
Examples:
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A customer checks out with a specific promotion applied to the order.
Example: A customer checks out with the Furniture Blowout promotion applied to the order. |
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A customer checks in to a specific point of interest or region using a mobile device.
Example: A customer enters a brick-and-mortar store, and then uses a mobile phone to “check in” and see what the current store promotions are. |