How to upsell 5-USD-shower-head-buyers?

21 replies
Hi,
our company sells about 5000 shower heads monthly, 5 USD each, through DIY stores similar to Home Depot.

And I got the idea to use the shower heads like foot in the door for the first time customers, so the question is how can I upsell them or make them to come back again and again.

Our company sells everything for bathrooms, from 5 USD shower heads to 400 USD shower cabins and 1000 USD infrared saunas.

The most simple idea would be to put in every shower head package some flyer about shower cabins, or take them to our website for some free ebook, but I am not sure yet what should be the ebook about and what should be the newsletter about after I get their email addresses.

Or do you have some better idea how to get much more lifetime value from these customers?
I think the company and the stores are leaving a lot of money on the table if the customers buy only one shower head and never come back.
The best point is, these are not 5000 newsletter subscribers who will never buy anything, these are already 5000 new buyers every month.
#5usdshowerheadbuyers #upsell
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    They're only buying because it's the cheapest shower head they can find.

    My point is, whatever you test needs to be a cheap up sale.
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    • Profile picture of the author James Foster
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      They're only buying because it's the cheapest shower head they can find.

      My point is, whatever you test needs to be a cheap up sale.
      Perry Belcher and the team at Survival Life would disagree with you very strongly. They giveaway stuff all the time (just pay shipping) and then sell them continuity and high end offers immediately after.
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by James Foster View Post

        Perry Belcher and the team at Survival Life would disagree with you very strongly. They giveaway stuff all the time (just pay shipping) and then sell them continuity and high end offers immediately after.

        I don't have a clue who Perry is but sure, I'd disagree with him because anyone standing in Home Depot and picking up a $5 shower head is:
        • (A) Broke.
        • (B) Doesn't own the shower (rental).
        • (C) Thinks all shower heads are equal (why spend more).

        OP could easily find out the buyer demographic If he tried, then the guessing game would end.
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      • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
        Originally Posted by James Foster View Post

        Perry Belcher and the team at Survival Life would disagree with you very strongly. They giveaway stuff all the time (just pay shipping) and then sell them continuity and high end offers immediately after.
        I'm not sure what continuity you might suggest for a shower head purchase. . .

        Perhaps a subscription to a glossy magazine "Bathrooms of the Rich and Famous"

        There is a bit of difference between the team at Digital Marketer AKA Survival life and a traditional business selling physical products.

        I'm not saying that offering a low dollar lead in to another product is not a good idea but the Survival life comparison is not really valid.

        The survival life funnel or whatever you want to call it was built out on the back end BEFORE going to the market with a Free + shipping offer for a gadget aimed to appeal to preppers or other targets of the WHOLE funnel.

        In this example a purchaser of a cheap shower head is pretty much summed up by Yukon's post.

        There might be an very small number of purchasers who are considering a bathroom upgrade.

        There might be a number of purchasers who could get additional washers for taps or new taps for the low budget market.

        There is a possibility that they could reach a landlord who has multiple properties and needs a complete overhaul but THIS situation is not likely to occur because most successful landlords employ property managers to take care of things like dripping shower heads and other issues.

        The OP might as well take the Willy Wonka approach and offer a "Golden Ticket"

        Well pardon the pun " A Golden Shower"

        Where if the purchaser films and shares on Facebook their first shower with their NEW $5 shower head and it rains down a unique color then they win a bathroom makeover.

        Unique color is a secret so only can be verified by experts at headquarters.

        Now you've got a viral "Golden Shower"

        Otherwise as Yukon pointed out most options are pretty piss-poor.

        Best regards,

        Ozi
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  • Profile picture of the author James Foster
    I'm confused, is this a brick and mortar store or a website?

    If it's a B&M, your $5 shower head is your lead gen, and then your sales people should be using a consultative sales approach to find out what else the customer needs and sell that to them.

    If it's a website, the shower head is your tripwire and you should be selling other shower related items like a hanging shower organizer as an upsell.
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  • Profile picture of the author eccj
    Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

    Hi,
    our company sells about 5000 shower heads monthly, 5 USD each, through DIY stores similar to Home Depot.
    It seems to me that your asset here is the distribution. I would go out and find other products that I can put on the shelf next to the shower head.

    That's your real asset here.

    Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

    I'm not saying that offering a low dollar lead in to another product is not a good idea but the Survival life comparison is not really valid.

    The survival life funnel or whatever you want to call it was built out on the back end BEFORE going to the market with a Free + shipping offer for a gadget aimed to appeal to preppers or other targets of the WHOLE funnel.

    In this example a purchaser of a cheap shower head is pretty much summed up by Yukon's post.

    There might be an very small number of purchasers who are considering a bathroom upgrade.

    There might be a number of purchasers who could get additional washers for taps or new taps for the low budget market.

    There is a possibility that they could reach a landlord who has multiple properties and needs a complete overhaul but THIS situation is not likely to occur because most successful landlords employ property managers to take care of things like dripping shower heads and other issues.

    The OP might as well take the Willy Wonka approach and offer a "Golden Ticket"

    Well pardon the pun " A Golden Shower"

    Where if the purchaser films and shares on Facebook their first shower with their NEW $5 shower head and it rains down a unique color then they win a bathroom makeover.

    Unique color is a secret so only can be verified by experts at headquarters.

    Now you've got a viral "Golden Shower"

    Otherwise as Yukon pointed out most options are pretty piss-poor.

    Best regards,

    Ozi
    I agree that the survival people is not congruent.

    But I wouldn't want to tell a bunch of people to post their golden shower on FB, at least in America.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
      How this thread got slid from cheap shower heads to Ozi and his "golden showers", I'll never know. But, I'll just say this about that.

      Urine, over your head.

      Ron
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by eccj View Post

      But I wouldn't want to tell a bunch of people to post their golden shower on FB, at least in America.
      My point is why would anyone who is buying the cheapest shower head be in the slightest bit interested in spending more money or taking any further action.

      If it is cool to have something people share it.

      If it is an embarrassment then some people will share for the notoriety.

      The idea of the color of the water that comes out when you first attach your $5 shower head might interest some people. - maybe those $5 people.

      [ I suspect some of you might not get Aussie Humour ]

      - Language warning -

      These are some of the $5 shower head buyers you might encounter in Oz


      Best regards,

      Ozi
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael9
    Thanks for the answers, maybe I will just try to sell them some 50 USD shower with LED light, if they send back the cheap one.
    This is B&M, but the sales clerks cannot upsell them, they just take the shower head and walk away. There must be some automatic sales funnel.
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    • Profile picture of the author eccj
      Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

      Thanks for the answers, maybe I will just try to sell them some 50 USD shower with LED light, if they send back the cheap one.
      This is B&M, but the sales clerks cannot upsell them, they just take the shower head and walk away. There must be some automatic sales funnel.
      Why can't you sell a $50 shower head in the store?
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

      Thanks for the answers, maybe I will just try to sell them some 50 USD shower with LED light, if they send back the cheap one.
      This is B&M, but the sales clerks cannot upsell them, they just take the shower head and walk away. There must be some automatic sales funnel.
      When was the last time you were in the home depot? Go look at furnace air filters. go look in the paint section. Go look in flooring. Go look at appliance hook up hoses. Go look in electrical.

      So what are you looking for? GOOD, BETTER, and BEST - its everywhere, and probably for good reason. Go find the color cues that the rest of these products use. place 3 shower heads on the shelves with proper color coded packaging, good better and best. If good is $5.00 and Better is $15.00 I bet you will see a huge upswing in the $15.00 model.

      Education in retail is pretty important. DIYers want to do the right thing.. but sometimes are not aware. a shower head is a shower head.. me personally I want the ones without the water conservation crap.. I want to take a shower in more than 1 gal per minute! LOL

      But really.. walk into a home depot.. a lowes for that matter.. look for it, you will see it, and I would imagine that would be a doable solution for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael9
    And what about cross selling, what else could they need, maybe some cheap products for their house?
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

      And what about cross selling, what else could they need, maybe some cheap products for their house?
      I think without question you can upsell, the formula is there for that. There is a story from years gone by.. after the 2nd world war there was a talcum company sitting around in the board room trying to figure out how to sell more powder. ( consumption dropped after military demand was removed ) So guy had the great idea of making the holes in the top of the container bigger.

      The question would then be.. what are you going to cross sell with? More importantly why exactly do people buy replacement shower heads?

      I seriously would suggest sometime spent late Friday afternoon and Saturday all day in a store that sells your product and get some answers... find out why people buy shower heads. from there... from there, you may better understand the needs of your customers and with that, you will have a better understanding of what they might be looking for beyond that sale.

      I just don't think you can get on this board.. or sit in your office and get the answers you need. well ok maybe you can pay to get a study done.. but the point is.. you need data, and right now you don't have any.. so you need to get some. and getting right there in the store would be the easiest way to go about it.

      And really the more I look at this.. Home Depot has what 2250 ( +/- ) stores plus I am sure you sell these in other stores so the odds of you being in a store that will sell 1 shower head out of 5000 for the month is what.. slim and none?

      Lets go at this another way... 5000 a month.. 60,000 a year. Geographically is there an area that sells more than any other? Is there a state.. a region of a state.. a city specifically that sells more than any other? I might suggest going social with the question, why do you replace your shower head?

      off the top of my head I am going to say it would probably have to do with the water itself.. they ( the shower head ) get clogged up, they don't have a clue about CLR and they go out and buy a new one... water with junk in it reeks havoc on a homes plumbing system... they should replace faucet filters ( I bet they end up simply removing them ) Do you sell water filtration?

      Again it all falls on the WHY? that will drive the cross sell for you!

      Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    sell them a curved shower curtain rod. inexpensive and should double sales.

    anti fog shaving mirror for shower

    a squeegee to keep water spotting on glass to a minimum

    and shower clean spray

    how about a dollar shave club monthly/quarterly recurring revenue program for cheap shampoo? shaving cream?

    offer the good/better/best shower head lineup, a percentage of people can afford to spend more but they dont know a reason why they should. have higher end decoy pricing of an expensive shower head, that will make your $20 dollar one seem like its not too bad.

    make a video of hot girls in the shower loving the more expensive shower heads
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael9
    Just to make it more clear, we are in 50 stores, each selling about 100 shower heads per month.
    They are in big boxes, like cheap offer for sale, and people walking by, just take them, because they look better than their old shower heads, not because they would be in the store looking for shower heads. There is nothing to loose for 5 USD, so people just give it a try. So its more like impuls sale.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

      Just to make it more clear, we are in 50 stores, each selling about 100 shower heads per month.
      They are in big boxes, like cheap offer for sale, and people walking by, just take them, because they look better than their old shower heads, not because they would be in the store looking for shower heads. There is nothing to loose for 5 USD, so people just give it a try. So its more like impuls sale.
      I am going to straight up cry foul here... I shared this post with people in my office so in the last few hours 7 guys 9 women... I'm going to be honest, they laughed. You only buy a shower head when there is a reason.. its not an impulse buy.

      You need to get into one of those 50 stores... you really need to understand your market. In the whole scheme of things.. the replacement faucet section of Home depot.. you are there only for a reason.. 1 aisle is faucets and fixtures and all that and the next isle over is replacement parts IE your shower heads. you go into that aisle knowing specifically what you are looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    we are in 50 stores, each selling about 100 shower heads per month.
    I doubt a shower head is an 'impulse buy' - but people DO buy shower heads. If yours are in big boxes - aisle visibility - and cheap...they will sell.

    I'd think your goal would be simple: try to get these $5 shower heads into 1000 or 2000 stores.
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  • Profile picture of the author ShayB
    How about a Shower Care Kit?

    1. Shower Cleaning Spray
    2. Shower Head Soak (it works well in areas where the water has a mineral buildup)
    3. Cleaning Cloths, Sponges, etc.)

    Basically, create a $20-30 upsell to keep their $5 shower head clean and sparkly.

    Heck, get them on an autoship program -- every month/2 months/whatever they automatically get charged for a Shower Cleaning Kit and it's shipped right to their door.
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  • Profile picture of the author 1Bryan
    I would challenge the idea that your average consumer ... is an average consumer.

    You are (and most others on this thread) are talking as if the average buyer is either a homeowner or residential renter.

    Maybe ...

    Probably not.

    Here's a common buyer:

    Small company owns 8 rental properties with total of 24 units. And they rent on the low end of the market. When they want to get a new tenant, they advertise "newly renovated bathroom" ...

    But it ain't.

    They just switch out some cheapo stuff to make it appear new.

    But they don't want to spend money.

    They buy 4 of those or 6 of those or even 12 of those at one time. Keep 'em on hand. So when someone calls about a leaky showerhead, they replace it rather than fix it. Or when a tenant moves out, rather than spend a lot of money renovating the bath ... they switch out a few key items.

    (new cheapo showerhead, new cheapo toilet seat, new cheapo towel rack, etc, etc. ... the entire "project" is going to be like $ 100 at most.)

    That's probably more likely to be your average buyer of the bulk of what you turnover each month.

    Upsell them?



    P.S. At best, you are the regional no-name vendor for the retailer. That's not lucrative shelf space and your numbers mean the retailers make next-to-nothing for the shelf space you occupy.

    Regional no-name vendors get discontinued all the time in retail. This is especially true if you are in only 10% or less of their stores. That's basically still a test run.

    I'd say your company was built for retail ... by someone who doesn't know how retail works.

    And that's a HUGE problem.

    Add in this idea that you are going to upsell them into saunas and whatever or monthly continuities?

    Does anyone in your company have real-deal experience?

    P.P.S. I hope you already know this ... but ignore any talk like you (the vendor) get to dictate to the retailer what shelf space they give you. That's when you know whomever is talking just has ZERO experience in retail.

    Yeah ... they're going to knock out Moen or Delta for your no-name company.

    Riiight.

    :-)

    (Just because someone walks into a retail store and looks around ... doesn't mean they know how the game is played. But on WaFo? Lol, that's how it is.)
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    I don't know where you are and how much $5 is where you are; it's little where I am, so little I've never bought a shower head that cost only $5, not even ages ago, when the dollar had more power.

    That said, your first step should be to find out as much as possible about who buys your $5 shower heads (and who buys the rest of the stuff your company sells).

    You may have the same group of people buying both; you may have several groups, each buying completely different items (at least by price point) or different groups of people that overlap.

    What you do depends on who they are. If they are landlords, like Bryan suggests - a very strong possibility; your next step is way different than if they are home owners ( and the type of home they own would matter, by the way).

    With people who do the work themselves, the way to stay at the top of their attention is to have tricks / hacks on how to do something better (for less), with less pain... So, you'd have to be on the net, with good videos when they type their how do you regrout or whatever it is they want to do...

    Or to get their email addresses and send them tips... Which raises the question: how do you get their email addresses?

    Or have a physical newsletter they could sign up for... This raises the question: Why would they sign up for such a newsletter? I, for instance, do such projects so rarely, that no amount of tips, no matter how great, would get me to sign up for anything, especially as I know how to Google what I need.

    Originally Posted by Michael9 View Post

    Hi,
    our company sells about 5000 shower heads monthly, 5 USD each, through DIY stores similar to Home Depot.

    And I got the idea to use the shower heads like foot in the door for the first time customers, so the question is how can I upsell them or make them to come back again and again.

    Our company sells everything for bathrooms, from 5 USD shower heads to 400 USD shower cabins and 1000 USD infrared saunas.

    The most simple idea would be to put in every shower head package some flyer about shower cabins, or take them to our website for some free ebook, but I am not sure yet what should be the ebook about and what should be the newsletter about after I get their email addresses.

    Or do you have some better idea how to get much more lifetime value from these customers?
    I think the company and the stores are leaving a lot of money on the table if the customers buy only one shower head and never come back.
    The best point is, these are not 5000 newsletter subscribers who will never buy anything, these are already 5000 new buyers every month.
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