In mid-December I dived deep into different sale strategies for online stores. The vast majority of Stonemaier products are sold to distributors (who sell to retailers, who sell to consumers), but we do decent business selling directly to customers on our webstore (which ships from fulfillment centers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia).
I haven’t attempted many sales in the past, but this year I wanted to experiment with various methods to see which work the best. I have a weekly reminder to consider a new sale technique as long as our fulfillment centers aren’t currently swamped.
A few quick notes before I dive into the methods and data:
- Last year, out of consideration for the economic impact of the pandemic on consumers worldwide, I put many core products on our webstore for sale on an ongoing basis. However, as I started testing these targeted sale methods, my Director of Sales wisely pointed out to me that if everything is always on sale, it makes a targeted sale feel considerably less special. I kept a few sales and upsell offers, though.
- I never want a customer to regret buying something because it went on sale soon afterwards or wait to buy something because it might go on sale in the future. So in every sale message I send, I say that if you recently bought one of the on-sale products at a higher price, just contact us and we’ll refund the difference.
- I quickly found that I like the type of sale that targets specific people. I think this makes the sale feel more special and relevant, and it means I’m not spamming our monthly e-newsletter list (per the name, I’m committed to only sending it out monthly). This has mostly worked out, though I have some difficulty on Shopify with isolating various specific groups of people. Most of the sales are still available for everyone, though, as I’m simply changing the price on our webstore for a few days.
- The duration of each of these sales is slightly over 4 days.
Want It (but Don’t Own It)
- Who: Stonemaier e-newsletter subscribers who filled out our 2020 demographic survey and indicated a Stonemaier game they wanted most (but don’t own).
- What: A specific related product, when added to your cart, would then reveal a large discount on the related core game.
- Results: We sold 140 units of the 4 games available for the sale, as well as the products they were each paired with.
- Thoughts: I really like how this sale targets exactly what people want (because they told us what they want). I’ll definitely try this again next year.
Release Anniversary
- Who: Euphoria Facebook Group, Instagram, and Stonemaier Ambassadors
- What: To celebrate the 7-year anniversary of Euphoria’s retail release date, we put all Euphoria products on sale and invited people to play the game (and share photos on social media).
- Results: We sold 104 units of various Euphoria products. The week after the sale–perhaps due to the social media impact–we sold another 38 copies of Euphoria.
- Thoughts: Definitely the most pleasant surprise were the “aftershocks” in the week that followed the sale. I’m curious if this could be achieved even without the sale (i.e., simply encourage people to play and share during the game’s anniversary week).
Bought X but Not Y
- Who: People who bought Between Two Cities on our webstore but not the Capitals expansion.
- What: We simply offered Capitals at a flat discount for a few days.
- Results: We sold 9 units of Capitals (from 250 potential customers).
- Thoughts: Meh. This was a big of an underwhelming response. I like the idea behind it, but it’s a bit of a weird target, because many of those people may have bought Capitals from other sources. I don’t want to spam people who already own the product.
Holiday (Valentine’s Day)
- Who: Stonemaier Champions, contacted several weeks before Valentine’s Day so their orders would arrive in time for the 14th.
- What: Using the theme of Valentine’s Day and love languages, I offered sales on The Rise of Fenris (quality time), the Scythe Legendary Box (gifts), and chocolate-colored resource containers (chocolate). For the single Champions of the world, I highlighted the Automa modes in several other games (Viticulture, Charterstone, and Tapestry) with corresponding discounts.
- Results: We sold 166 units of the various products.
- Thoughts: I like the idea of holiday-themed sales, though it does present some difficulties. Different countries celebrate completely different holidays (though 81% of our webstore orders are for the US). Also, there isn’t a specific target for holiday sales, so it’s nice when it corresponds with an enewsletter I’m already planning to send.
Complete This Survey First
- Who: Stonemaier Ambassadors who fill out a brief survey.
- What: Today I’m sending a monthly update to Stonemaier Ambassadors, and it includes a brief survey. At the end of the survey I reveal a few items that I secretly put on sale on our webstore.
- Results: We sold 38 units of metal coins via this sale over a 2-day period.
- Thoughts: Usually I get around 100 responses to these ambassador surveys, so I’m curious to see if the intrigue of the sale will increase that number.
That’s what I’ve tried so far! I’m curious about what you think of these methods and if there are any sale techniques you think we should experiment with in the future.
Also read: This Flash Sale Technique Has Amazed Me…Twice!
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content!
19 Comments on “5 Stonemaier Sales in 2021: Methods, Data, and My Thoughts”
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[…] it for the first time and will be compelled to invest in a copy for themselves. We do this through game anniversary celebrations, promos, expansions, downloadable variants, and support of fan-created content. We’re now […]
[…] Anniversary events/sales: A recurring theme of 2021 was that I celebrated–and encouraged people to celebrate–the retail release anniversaries of our games, starting with Euphoria. Sometimes this just entailed me encouraging people to play and post about the game; other times it involved a special sale. […]
I purchased Euphoria in the Anniversary sale and then felt a little bad that I got an email about the viticulture sale before Euphoria had even shipped. Ultimately I decided to wait on getting Viticulture until another sale comes up. Euphoria has been fun though.
I think the targeted sales are terrific! I’ve wanted Scythe since I got back into gaming this past summer, but because I was buying games for my GF as well, we got Wingspan and Viticulture earlier. The Scythe flash sale was the perfect time & motivation for me to finally buy a game just for me (yay!).
Since I’ve become an Ambassador, I feel an obligation to know more about more SM games than just 1 or 2. I’ll be looking forward to more sales. Another reason I think these are perfect is that I consistently miss sales from all vendors due to the way they’re advertised. I don’t watch broadcast TV or subscribe to newspapers, & FB posts get missed until it’s too late. However, emails stay in my Inbox & I can very quickly tell what’s unread and who it’s from.
Kevin
Hi Jamie,
I received an email with a concrete offer for a game I would like, but still don’t own. It was much appreciated! As a matter of fact, I immediately added the boardgame to the basket, but the shipping costs made the final price higher than average retail price and I finally desisted.
I am currently based in the EU and I guess this is related to Brexit (despite you are assuming part of the cost). I wonder whether you are considering establishing another distribution hub in the EU or if number of sales here are not worth of such logistical effort. I would like to support Stonemaier games also by purchasing your boardgames directly from you, but the truth is that under the current circumstances it is not the best option for me. But rest sure: sooner or later I will own that game.
Thanks for the efforts you made to explain your decisions and strategies. That keeps many of us really engaged with Stonemaier as a project!
Thanks for this feedback! Our shipping fees haven’t changed since Brexit even though we’re now paying duties on your behalf.
I received the Want It But Don’t Own It offer for Viticulture–I may have been tempted but actually found that the timing was the biggest problem here because the survey came out before Christmas but the offer came in January. Because Viticulture had been so high on my list, I received it for Christmas, which meant that the offer ended up being useless to me because I obviously wasn’t going to buy the game again. However, some flexibility on the offer (e.g. being able to buy Tuscany instead of Viticulture and still get the deal) may have made it more likely for me to jump on the deal.
Sam: I’m glad you got it as a gift! I intentionally time that sale until after the holidays so if you were hoping to get the game but didn’t receive it, you now have a good excuse to get it. :)
very true :) my wife and I have played it a few times already and love it. thanks!
Nice experimenting. Just now I had a look at the products for sale and also placed on order. I always have to make a little calculation, because of shipping costs (to Belgium). If I order in Belgium, I do not have shipping costs, when ordering above 100 EUR. When I add the cost for shipping, this makes a difference. Result : ordering without a sales promotion in your shop, is in most cases more expensive, than buying it local in Belgium.
But your products remain outstanding !
Problem on shipping costs solved since I became a Champion. Thanks to Jamey and Stonemaire Games !
The Viticulture flash sale totally worked on me. I did fill out the survey, and Viticulture has been on my “want to play/buy” list for quite some time. The sale just made it too good of an opportunity to pass up and pairing it with the Moor Visitors expansion might not have made sense to me at first, but totally makes sense now having played it.
I think some of the guided purchases can really help with the decision of buying a game and expansions prior to having played the base game. This pairing was a perfect combo.
Jamey, I always appreciate your openness and sharing of information, it’s always well received by the community and shows the respect you have for your customers.
I’ve read your previous discussions on pre-orders, but this topic of targeted sales initiatives made me think of the question:
“Do you feel there is an opportunity for you to influence retailers in the promotion of Stonemaier product?”
Do you feel (in the US at least) there is too much distance between a publisher and the retailer, to make a significant impact on retailers opportunity to react to publisher promotions?
norkle: Thanks for your question. The way retailers sell our products is pretty distant from the way we sell them (in multiple facets, not just pricing). Retailers independently choose their prices, their marketing, sales tactics, etc, and I don’t think they pay much attention to how we’re selling our products to consumers (other than retailers who read our monthly e-newsletter).
Really interesting to see the different ways you targeted people and how it worked out! I guess when you sell from your own site you also already have a really specific group of costumers/fans that come to your website seeing as most people who don’t know a lot about board games would end up at a local game store or one of the bigger online stores. I’m curious to see if that alone already has a big impact on which sales techniques would work.
I do love the fact that you still offer people a discount if they just missed out on a sale. I actually ordered my first copy of Wingspan 2 weeks ago (the Dutch translation) but because I don’t want to see it somewhere cheaper now I try not to look it up online anymore.
I am curious to know if you also use specific Facebook or google targeting adds to target those people from your mailinglist or if you only use the newsletter to reach out to them?
Aarnt: We have some Google ads, but I haven’t had much success with Facebook ads. It would be interesting to try a sale targeted externally via an ad, though.
It should be possible with both Google and FB to target not only people from your specific email list but also people that (according to google) are the same (as in interests, age, location, financial etc). From what i understood its a good way to increase sales if you already have a solid base to target.
Interesting results. Did you compare to total unit sales in the same period last year if you had comparable products selling? (e.g. something out of stock can’t be compared) The question would be whether overall total sales of individual games increased.
Bill: I didn’t do that, though compared to a normal month, these are all much higher sales than normal (and that’s comparing 4 days to a full month). :)