Letter to Hardwareversand from boards.ie users

Copper_pipe

Made a new thread so Everyone would see the letter and what we hope to get so here is is:

Dear Sir/Madam
You may have noticed that over the recent months there has been a dramatic increase of sales from your store hardwareversand to the Republic of Ireland. I would like to suggest the reason for this. You may not be aware that a large portion of these sales to Ireland is due to the fact, that many people are being referred to your store by means of a very popular Irish forum.
Boards.ie is the most used online forum in the Republic of Ireland. We have our own Pc Building & Upgrading forum where users can asks for specific builds that they require. I can safely say that 100% of the time the builds that are suggested are linked to your store. We members of boards.ie agree that your store has the most extensive range of computer components available and are also pleased with the reasonable shipping rates to Ireland.
The members of boards.ie would appreciate if you could give us a discount code exclusively for boards.ie members. If this discount was 10% or even 5%, it would be greatly appreciated by us users of boards.ie as this would separate you Hardwareversand from any other online retailer for computer components.
I appreciate you took the time to read this and I am looking forward to your response.

Yours Sincerely
Boards.ie users

ShadowHearth

like i posted in other thread: can we add a request for some more payment options? for good few people this bank transfer is a pain in a hole and a factor not to order from them.

damn even if they would give us free shiping it would be an amazing thing!

Copper_pipe

Il chance it so

deejer

Copper_pipe wrote: »

You may have noticed that over the recent months there has been a dramatic increase of sales from your store hardwareversand to the Republic of Ireland.

just on this part. I have been around here for a couple of years and HWVS has been used since at least then.

And you could say it would encourage users of boards to avail of your great selection of products if there was a small discount made available (rather than appreciate it because Germans are all about the bottom line )

But looks good to me alright. Think could be on to something

Tea_Bag

man free shipping alone would be awesome, but they probably wouldnt do it cause everyone would be ordering small items on separate orders.

CastorTroy

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Boards.ie is the most used online forum in the Republic of Ireland. We have our own Pc Building & Upgrading forum where users can asks for specific builds that they require.

I'm sure this is more about content than grammar, etc but if you're looking for proof reading, you can just remove the 's' from the end of asks

Other than that, with the edits suggested in here and the other thread, I think it looks good

But on another note, I know I'm fairly young in terms of number of posts, but how would the offer/discount be implemented? Basically if not implemented correctly, anyone in Ireland building a computer could use the offer and, as much as they'd appreciate the business, they may see it as abuse of the offer.

Of course, I'm sure getting the offer is the first step. After that, deciding how it works can be decided

Copper_pipe

If i were to get a discount code users could PM me for it or else id distribute it to the main contributors to the forum who can then tell it to users as it is required

TheZestyLemon

Not to seem pessimistic to ye lads, but I don't think they'd be able to give a discount, but here's hoping anyway

Tea_Bag

TheZestyLemon wrote: »

Not to seem pessimistic to ye lads, but I don't think they'd be able to give a discount, but here's hoping anyway

CastorTroy

Maybe include a link or 2 to give examples of where they've been recommended? Especially for a higher priced build.

Copper_pipe

yes il include some links

The_B_Man

I'd recommend some numbers be added in. I was gonna suggest the total number of users that pass through here on a weekly basis, but if thats not possible, then maybe throw in the total number of users boards.ie has. It'll make it more measurable for them, and make them more likely to offer specials.

Tea_Bag

Copper_pipe wrote: »

yes il include some links

I just ordered this:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€188.78
Corsair Hydro Series H80 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€81.03
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€150.95
4 x Revoltec Kaltlicht Kathode, rot|€5.04
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€87.58
2 x XFX CORE RADEON 7970 925M 3GB D5 2x mDP HDMI DVI|€471.64
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's PC Upgrade Kit|€155.39
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 800W|€82.21
LG GH22NS50/70/90 bare schwarz|€16.78
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€16.42
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance rot PC3-12800U CL9|€42.68
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1804.25

a 10% saving would have been spent there anyway for another SSD to RAID0 or something stupid like that.

actually thats a good point, the 10% saving wouldn't really be a loss to them as the budget stays the same, but we get to purchase better quality components. how do you put that into writing though, or is it even worth it.

and could we mention we (Fluffy ) built a whole javascript to beautifully shape our baskets for PHP use?

Copper_pipe

ya Fluffy's javascript would be good to mention

uncle_sam_ie

"The members of boards.ie would appreciate if you could give us a discount code exclusively for boards.ie members. If this discount was 10% or even 5%, it would be greatly appreciated by us users of boards.ie as this would separate you Hardwareversand from any other online retailer for computer components"

I think we need to change "give us". After all why should they give us anything. My be something like "It might be in your interest" because, like I said in the other thread they do lose a lot of business from people unsure about the payment methods and shipping from Germany. "It might be in your interest to recognise boards.ie and stimulate increased sales sale through some kind of coupon code."
I think it needs to show what we can give them. And,we do give them a lot of business through this site.

FlyingIrishMan

Tea_Bag wrote: »

actually thats a good point, the 10% saving wouldn't really be a loss to them as the budget stays the same, but we get to purchase better quality components. how do you put that into writing though, or is it even worth it.

-Building on that we could just ask for like 10% store credit where they just calculate 10% of your total build cost and then let you spend that.
If someone built a 700euro machine 10% of that is 70euro, 70euro would work wonders.

-Or even ask for free shipping on orders above a certain price, 300, 400euro?

-Tell them about other sites such as Dabs, Kompletts, and tell them it would give HWVS the final push for being the best site to order anything from and not just full builds.

CastorTroy

Shorter version of letter:
"As we're Irish and you love the Irish, give us a discount!"

Tea_Bag

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

-Building on that we could just ask for like 10% store credit where they just calculate 10% of your total build cost and then let you spend that.
If someone built a 700euro machine 10% of that is 70euro, 70euro would work wonders.

-Or even ask for free shipping on orders above a certain price, 300, 400euro?

-Tell them about other sites such as Dabs, Kompletts, and tell them it would give HWVS the final push for being the best site to order anything from and not just full builds.

and how HWVS recognising boards.ie will reassure any doubts customers might have from doing a bank transfer to germany. kinda like boards.ie endorses HWVS as their leading PC component retailer, or the other way around.

ShadowHearth

Tea_Bag wrote: »

and how HWVS recognising boards.ie will reassure any doubts customers might have from doing a bank transfer to germany. kinda like boards.ie endorses HWVS as their leading PC component retailer, or the other way around.

i just would really love them to add an option to pay by visa or paypal. thatn should go in to letter too!

Copper_pipe

Great stuff lads, Keep the ideas flowing.

Is it best to send an email or Physical letter?

Fluffy88

Tea_Bag wrote: »

and could we mention we (Fluffy ) built a whole javascript to beautifully shape our baskets for PHP use?

and maybe just mention they can hire me as a consultant for a minimal charge, I might even just do it for free if they give me free parts :P

uncle_sam_ie

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i just would really love them to add an option to pay by visa or paypal. thatn should go in to letter too!

I don't see them changing their payment methods, but I could see them making the shipping cost better. I've had companies in the UK do this for me because I'm a good customer. If they only knew of this site they could see right away the business we drive their way.

Tea_Bag

maybe removing the 3% paypal charge? will bring down the dispatch times anyway.

PogMoThoin

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i just would really love them to add an option to pay by visa or paypal. thatn should go in to letter too!

You already can pay by Paypal

ShadowHearth

PogMoThoin wrote: »

You already can pay by Paypal

up to 500eu. any decentish build goes over that.

Eboggles

ShadowHearth wrote: »

PogMoThoin wrote: »

You already can pay by Paypal

up to 500eu. any decentish build goes over that.

Really? My build that was about €800 was done by PayPal, and everything turned out fine.

ShadowHearth

Eboggles wrote: »

Really? My build that was about €800 was done by PayPal, and everything turned out fine.

eh? i was prety sure there was a thing going around that max you can go 500eu, thats why everyone went bank trasfer way! :eek:

partyatmygaff

Personally, the best way to go about it would be from a marketing angle.

Dear Sir/Madam,

In the past few months, you may have noticed a surge in orders and sales from customers in the Republic of Ireland. There is a reason to explain this.

Although you may currently be unaware, it would appear that the vast majority of these orders are being made as a result of suggestions put forward by members of the popular Irish website Boards.ie.

On this forum -which incidentally gets 2.3 million unique page visits per month- there is a section dedicated to PC Building & Upgrading. In this section, members of the forum discuss computer hardware components and system configurations. This section of the website is dedicated mainly to assisting users in choosing and sourcing components for their systems from retailers.

Your business has a very good reputation on this website with almost all threads pertaining to system configuration recommending your business for your relatively low prices, wide product range and good after sales service. Your website is so frequently recommended that a user has prepared a Javascript script to convert Hardwareversand basket entries in to tables ready for posting on the forum to aid in discussion.

However, although your site is frequently suggested, people can often be hesitant in deciding to order from you. This is largely due to the fact that people perceive that there are inconveniences such as language barriers and uncommon (In Ireland) payment methods involved when ordering from your business in comparison to a UK/Ireland competitor such as Dabs.ie.

At present, many new boards.ie members are turning to your UK/Ireland based competitors due to the fact that they do not perceive the price difference to be significant enough to warrant choosing you over your competitors.

As such, we, the members of boards.ie would suggest and would likewise appreciate exclusive promotional deals specific to boards.ie members such as a 5-10% discount or free shipping for certain order values. This would both reward your current loyal customers (To ensure continued recommendations) and would entice new uncertain customers to choose you over more familiar competitors such as Dabs.ie.

I appreciate the time you took to read this email and I sincerely look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,
Partyatmygaff et al.

Not too shabby if I may say so myself. If people were happy with the idea, i'd be glad to volunteer and send the email to them.

Copper_pipe

Thats perfect, If you are ok with emailing it then go ahead, If not il do it with your permission of course

Stuck Cone

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Thats perfect, If you are ok with emailing it then go ahead, If not il do it with your permission of course

You do it copper!!:D

partyatmygaff

Sent to webmaster@hardwareversand.de. I'll paste the reply back here as soon as I get it!

Dear Sir/Madam,

In the past few months, you may have noticed a surge in orders and sales from customers in the Republic of Ireland. There is a reason to explain this.

Although you may currently be unaware, it would appear that the vast majority of these orders are being made as a result of suggestions put forward by members of the popular Irish website Boards.ie.

On this forum -which incidentally gets 2.3 million unique page visits per month- there is a section dedicated to PC Building & Upgrading. In this section, members of the forum discuss computer hardware components and system configurations. This section of the website is dedicated mainly to assisting users in choosing and sourcing components for their systems from retailers.

Your business has a very good reputation on this website with almost all threads pertaining to system configuration recommending your business for your relatively low prices, wide product range and good after sales service. Your website is so frequently recommended that a user has prepared a Javascript script to convert Hardwareversand basket entries in to tables ready for posting on the forum to aid in discussion.

However, although your site is frequently suggested, people can often be hesitant in deciding to order from you. This is largely due to the fact that people perceive that there are inconveniences such as language barriers and uncommon (In Ireland) payment methods involved when ordering from your business in comparison to a UK/Ireland competitor such as Dabs.ie.

At present, many new boards.ie members are turning to your UK/Ireland based competitors due to the fact that they do not perceive the price difference to be significant enough to warrant choosing you over your competitors.

As such, we, the members of boards.ie would suggest and would likewise appreciate exclusive promotional deals specific to boards.ie members such as a 5-10% discount or free shipping for certain order values. This would both reward your current loyal customers (To ensure continued recommendations) and would entice new uncertain customers to choose you over more familiar competitors such as Dabs.ie.

I appreciate the time you took to read this email and I sincerely look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

******** ******* & other members of Boards.ie

uncle_sam_ie

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Personally, the best way to go about it would be from a marketing angle.

Not too shabby if I may say so myself. If people were happy with the idea, i'd be glad to volunteer and send the email to them.

You nailed it.

Seifer

This is confusing to me. People order from them and recommend them because they are the cheapest and are reliable. So you are asking them to provide a discount because they are the cheapest?

Also did you contact any admins to see if it's ok to write a letter/email and sign it, "Boards.ie users"?

Copper_pipe

Any sort of a discount is a win as far as im concerned

uncle_sam_ie

Seifer wrote: »

This is confusing to me. People order from them and recommend them because they are the cheapest and are reliable. So you are asking them to provide a discount because they are the cheapest?

Also did you contact any admins to see if it's ok to write a letter/email and sign it, "Boards.ie users"?

No, we are making them aware of the business we bring and the advantages of giving a coupon code of some type would be to their sales.

I do agree that we need to run this by the admins.

FlyingIrishMan

Hopefully they don't just realise that they're still the best site regardless of a discount or not and we'll still buy of them and recommend them even if they don't give it to us :P

uncle_sam_ie

BTW, doesn't Scan do this for one of the UK forums?

Tea_Bag

I think it would be wise to email it from a frequent customer, (or several?) no offence to anyone here. Just a little more sugar coating maybe? Im not sure who's the largest customer, I think Deceit takes the e-peen on that, but i know IrishMetalHead does a few builds too, maybe more than me?

They might just find it harder to ignore a customer who drops €1000's into their bank account every few months.

opinions?

Tea_Bag

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

BTW, doesn't Scan do this for one of the UK forums?

yea, AVforums. im a member there just for the shipping discounts. they keep recommending GTX480's in their building forums, so i dont hang around there much :P


Did you translate it to German Partyatmygaff?

partyatmygaff

Seifer wrote: »

This is confusing to me. People order from them and recommend them because they are the cheapest and are reliable. So you are asking them to provide a discount because they are the cheapest?

I worded my version of the email carefully to avoid that. What I said was that they're highly regarded by many members of boards.ie and that they're recommended often on the site but new users don't find the price difference significant enough to warrant the inconvenience involved with ordering from them over the likes of say Dabs.

Also did you contact any admins to see if it's ok to write a letter/email and sign it, "Boards.ie users"?

I shouldn't see why it would be necessary. The email does not represent boards. It's signed " .... & other Boards.ie users". Boards and its users are two separate entities and even when we speak collectively we aren't necessarily speaking on Boards.ie's behalf.

Tea_Bag wrote: »

I think it would be wise to email it from a frequent customer, (or several?) no offence to anyone here. Just a little more sugar coating maybe? Im not sure who's the largest customer, I think Deceit takes the e-peen on that, but i know IrishMetalHead does a few builds too, maybe more than me?
They might just find it harder to ignore a customer who drops €1000's into their bank account every few months.
opinions?

Probably a good idea actually. I've already sent the email though. Perhaps they could draft similar emails? All in all though, I don't think they're going to just take our word for it. They'll have a look at the forum and their own sales records before making any decisions.

partyatmygaff

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Did you translate it to German Partyatmygaff?

I considered it but decided not to in the end. Google Translate is fine for phrases but when it comes to things like these the quality of the translation dives massively. A lot of their staff have pretty good English anyway so I don't foresee it being a major issue.

Tea_Bag

im not sure they're going to search boards.ie for PC Building and Upgrading. a newbie to find this forum is extremely difficult. should have linked to the specific forum. Ill try do that in my edited version.

anything else?

Copper_pipe

Perhaps a link to fluffys script.

How lomg does it usually take HWVS to reply to emails

partyatmygaff

Tea_Bag wrote: »

im not sure they're going to search boards.ie for PC Building and Upgrading. a newbie to find this forum is extremely difficult. should have linked to the specific forum. Ill try do that in my edited version.

anything else?

I linked to the forum, this subforum and the basket->post script. The hyperlinks broke when I copied it here.

Tea_Bag

Im going to use most of what you said PAMG, if you dont mind, but try spin the 10% thing into a store credit bonus or something. 10% sounds like they're losing 10% out of their pocket, but people come here with €1000 to spend, and when we say they'll get €100 off, most people would keep the budget at €1K and get more/better stuff.

Boskowski

Can't see it happening lads. Not in a coupon code fashion anyway. Lets face it, 2 days after they released a coupon code half the country would know it.

And I imagine they are the cheapest because their margins are tight and their overheads very small. 10% is probably going to be huge dent in their profit.

Also German companies and German customers don't like credit cards. Especially not if they're a discounter. Because the credit card company syphons another 3% or so off an already tight calculation.
IBAN/BIC bank transfers are easy anyway, what's the problem?

Good luck with it and you never know, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

uncle_sam_ie

Boskowski wrote: »

Can't see it happening lads. Not in a coupon code fashion anyway. Lets face it, 2 days after they released a coupon code half the country would know it.

And I imagine they are the cheapest because their margins are tight and their overheads very small. 10% is probably going to be huge dent in their profit.

Also German companies and German customers don't like credit cards. Especially not if they're a discounter. Because the credit card company syphons another 3% or so off an already tight calculation.
IBAN/BIC bank transfers are easy anyway, what's the problem?

Good luck with it and you never know, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

True, but I think they could offer reduce or free shipping on big orders.

uncle_sam_ie

Boskowski wrote: »

.
IBAN/BIC bank transfers are easy anyway, what's the problem?

Because, you need to trust the people your sending the money to with a bank transfer. A credit card is easy for people to use and if the seller screws you the credit card company will back you up.

deconduo

Looks good to me. I doubt they'll do anything about it, but there's never any harm in asking

Tea_Bag

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

True, but I think they could offer reduce or free shipping on big orders.

I think this is the most likely/only potential option. i dont see HWVS budging on payment option. bank transfers is the german way. I also cant see why HWVS would give a discount. we've just admitted to them that we send 99% of customers their way, and they know theyre damn competitive anyway, so losing that trickle means nothing, and gaining it at the cost of 10% of profits isnt worth it.

Shipping prices is the only thing they might even entertain tbh. something like free shipping when spending €900+, even then, its €18.99 out of their pocket. you can be sure they dont make a profit off shipping costs. my last order was 41kg.


were going to get back a response saying:


"Thank you for your continued support, you will be happy to know that we reduced the price of shipping fro €30 to €19 as of this month. I hope that you are happy blah blah blah."


but it was worth a try.

Serephucus

If we could get people to PM or post order numbers for recent builds. This would give the guys on their end an idea of the volume of stuff we contribute to, as well as proof that we're actually telling the truth. :P

I wouldn't even bother asking for 10% to be honest. Not a chance in hell. If they do respond to this letter at all with anything remotely like what we're thinking of, I wouldn't expect more than 2%. Here's hoping, etc. but, well...

Great idea though. Hope something comes of it.