What To Do in a Recession

If you've paid attention to the ongoing elections, housing industry or Wall Street, you've probably already heard that we are either in the midst of a recession or heading into one. For a business owner, it's important to not shy away from the recession, but double up efforts at attracting new customers with better deals.

In one of my recent conversations with our merchants, Chuck Bruce of Bruce's Sew Handy in Coarsegold, CA, he had one of the most eye-popping figures I've heard recently.

He says:
"My absolutely best coupon redeeming experience I've ever had was through MerchantCircle. I've advertised coupons in the local newspaper offering free gifts with no purchase necessary and got nothing. With one MerchantCircle coupon I had 43 coupons redeemed!"

I have to warn you first off, that that number is not common. Coupon sites have been notoriously hard pressed to gain much traction - Zixxo, Judy's Book - even well-funded and well-publicized sites like Edgeio have gone out of business. While the major reasons lay in consumer apprehension, a lot of it has to do with merchant resourcefulness.

There are a number of great lessons we can learn from Chuck. He started off by collecting email addresses of all his regular and new clients - which is very important when taking advantage of MerchantCircle's free tools. He uploaded them onto his MerchantCircle account and started sending his customers newsletters and coupon deals.

The coupon that generated 43 redemptions was a 'buy one, get one free' which he broke even on. What he did gain from the coupons was customer loyalty and a number of 'extra' added-on purchases. Since opening in April of 2004, Chuck has seen a 30% increase in business every year. So, while the analysts predict gloom, there are many proactive ways a merchant can continue to attract new customers - starting with themselves.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations

Celebrate Good Times.... C'mon!

After hitting our One Year Anniversary since we launched, it's time to take a look back. When MerchantCircle launched in June of 2006, we had 5,000 business owners signed-on. Today, that number stands at 145,000!

We've added a number of new features over the course of this year to help you find more customers and have a more rewarding web experiences. Features that enable you to track what customers are saying about you on the web, features that allow you to engage and communicate with business owners all around the country, features that let you customize your MerchantCircle listing, and features that let you network across the web.

We've added a number of partners to enhance your listings and make sure that the content you create, including coupons and ads, are seen all across the web - not just on MerchantCircle. Those partners include Jingle, Judy's Book, Oodle, Edgeio, Local.com, Topix and yes, Google.

For our efforts and yours, we've been recognized by BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, CNet, ZDNet, AlwaysOn, and TheStreet.com TV among others. It's merchants like European Esthetics and Wellness, Wedding Supplies Unlimited and Higgy's Pizzeria that make us proud that we can give hundreds and thousands of customers a month access to these business owners.

Does all this activity make us less motivated for our second year? Not at all. We've got a ton in store for you this next year, much of which we're excited to unveil, because we know this will help you maximize your web potential on the web. Also look for us to pass a quarter of a million merchants signed-on this summer!

Many of our local merchants and partners will be joining us this Thursday evening as we celebrate a successful first year. Send me your email and I'll send you details. In the meantime, thanks - for everything.

Cheers,
Kevin
Community Relations