Store Credit

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   I think the misunderstanding here is what you are selling. In the case of cpgmar... you're selling plants so it is unlikely that you will have the same customer purchase from you every month. As for Katharina... you charge a re-stocking fee which makes me think you sell more expensive items that require time/effort to re-stock. This subject is on apparel. Most people who shop for clothing online do so frequently and since everyone is looking for bargains, we have to keep the clothing priced low and cannot charge to re-stock. I have many customers that make an order every week or two when we put up new merchandise. That being said, many of my customers don't want a refund because it takes several days to process and is not instantly available in their bank accounts. A store credit on the other hand would be instantly available in their online accounts once their return is received so they wouldn't have to wait to receive the money back on their card to make an order, especially in the case of exchanges where I want them to re-purchase the right size they need because we are not responsible for the re-shipping fee. They would be able to log in right away and purchase the new merchandise that they want before waiting to see the refund and having the items be sold out. I actually moved to PC from a custom shopping cart I had which had the store credit features and the rewards points feature as well. The store credit would automatically be applied to the person's next order and they would be able to choose whether they would want to use their rewards points or use some, not all. On top of that, we were also able to give them a discount. Everything was split into their own parts. The way it is set up now, I would have to write an extensive email to my customers explaining why all of a sudden, their rewards points don't make sense and what happened to their previous rewards points. They only see one number so they won't be able to know whether we computed everything correctly for them or not unless we broek it down for them in an email which would cause confusion and distrust in our company. Basically.... a store credit should differ from a reward. People like seeing their rewards and this shouldn't have to be manually altered my me in their account. 

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ashley2617 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 12-May-2010 Location: Miami, FL Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote ashley2617 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12-May-2010 at 12:06pm
	I think the misunderstanding here is what you are selling. In the case of cpgmar... you're selling plants so it is unlikely that you will have the same customer purchase from you every month. As for Katharina... you charge a re-stocking fee which makes me think you sell more expensive items that require time/effort to re-stock. This subject is on apparel. Most people who shop for clothing online do so frequently and since everyone is looking for bargains, we have to keep the clothing priced low and cannot charge to re-stock. I have many customers that make an order every week or two when we put up new merchandise. That being said, many of my customers don't want a refund because it takes several days to process and is not instantly available in their bank accounts. A store credit on the other hand would be instantly available in their online accounts once their return is received so they wouldn't have to wait to receive the money back on their card to make an order, especially in the case of exchanges where I want them to re-purchase the right size they need because we are not responsible for the re-shipping fee. They would be able to log in right away and purchase the new merchandise that they want before waiting to see the refund and having the items be sold out. I actually moved to PC from a custom shopping cart I had which had the store credit features and the rewards points feature as well. The store credit would automatically be applied to the person's next order and they would be able to choose whether they would want to use their rewards points or use some, not all. On top of that, we were also able to give them a discount. Everything was split into their own parts. The way it is set up now, I would have to write an extensive email to my customers explaining why all of a sudden, their rewards points don't make sense and what happened to their previous rewards points. They only see one number so they won't be able to know whether we computed everything correctly for them or not unless we broek it down for them in an email which would cause confusion and distrust in our company. Basically.... a store credit should differ from a reward. People like seeing their rewards and this shouldn't have to be manually altered my me in their account.

katharina Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote katharina Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12-May-2010 at 1:03pm
	We have the restocking fee online to cover ourselves, because we had some customers returning items not in original condition. We never charge it, unless there is a true reason for it. I think we applied it maybe 3 times in the past 5 years. We don't really sell expensive items either. I see your point with the store credit when it comes to exchanges. We had a customer return some items and she wanted something else instead. To keep things easy on our bookkeeping end we did refund her, and she did wait 4 days to reorder for the funds to clear. So there you have a very good point for store credit usage. Its available immediately. Customers have to request an RMA on our site, so I think it could be build on that part. Let the customer choose an option for refund or store credit. That way you would not build up a lot of store credit accounts and it gives the customer a choice. It empowers them and they feel in control. Perhaps EI can up with that option, and a field for store credit in the customer account besides the reward points. It will make PC even more useful to some sellers. Man I truly like discussions. It's amazing how many good points can be made.
	Katharina ***************** www.GermanPlaza.com *****************

cpgmar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-December-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote cpgmar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12-May-2010 at 1:44pm
	Yes, I agree, the RMA system is great for that. We already use it extensively and being able to issue a store credit or issue a refund through the RMA system would be lovely. It would be really nice to have some kind of reporting of RMA's on a date range basis too
	Cindy The Tasteful Garden www.tastefulgarden.com

cpgmar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04-December-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote cpgmar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14-May-2010 at 4:16pm
	This really works great, I am very happy with the Rewards Points feature as a store credit calculator. Only problem is that it shows as $5 instead of $4.75 when a store credit is done since it is based on the points. Any ideas how to change that easily?
	Cindy The Tasteful Garden www.tastefulgarden.com

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14-May-2010 at 6:48pm
	Hmmm. Yeah, good point. Without getting into any customizations, the obvious idea would be to make a dollar worth 100 points (pennies), so to get $4.75, you'd have 475 points.