Are you ready for your big sale?

It's your big sale day.

You've announced it to your mailing list, changed the code on the website so the discounts would be applied, and you're off to a great start?

Or are you?

Have you checked to make sure the promised discounts have been applied, or will be applied at the right time?

Are you sure that everyone who goes to your site will be able to tell what they need to do to get the discount?

If despite all of your planning a customer has a problem, will they be able to figure out how to contact you on the day of the sale?

Even if you are sure, you better double check.

You definitely don't want what happened to me to happen to your customers.

It's the big sale day.

I got the news in a newsletter several days ago, and I was so excited that I even wrote it on my calendar!

I wake up, and before I even start working I know that I must visit your site to make my purchases.

I find the newsletter that announced the sale, make sure today is the day, then I visit your site.

I read the note on the homepage that says everything is 25% off...all I have to do is add it to my cart and the discount will be applied.

I start adding stuff to my shopping cart, and, then look at the contents of the cart.

Hmm, one thing that I added isn't in the cart, and the other stuff is regular price!

That's odd.

I go and add the stuff that's missing - fortunately it's easy to find. If it wasn't, I'm definitely not going to go look through your whole website again to find it.

I'm a busy woman.

Look at cart again.

Nope, still no discount.

Reread instructions, then check for an email to see if anything has changed, or if there's a code for the sale that I don't know about.

Oh well, it's only 8 am, maybe the site owner is still asleep and doesn't realize that the discount isn't going through.

I decide to wait a while and see if maybe the discount will show up later.

I get bored of waiting, or I need to close the computer down, or (insert excuse here) so I check my cart.

Nope, still no discount.

Refresh cart, look around some more.

Still no discount.

Reread instructions again.

There's no code, and everything is supposed to be discounted when it goes in the cart.

I decide to see how far I can get with the check out process, without entering my personal data.

Hmm, still no discount, and if I do any more, I'll end up purchasing the items at full price, which I'm not going to do.

After all, everything is supposed to be on sale, I'm not paying full price.

So I close up the computer, and you lose a customer.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah