Update to Ecommerce Skills

{
  "description": "Use when designing a promotion that isn't just a price cut — pre-order incentives, free gifts, bundles, \"buy X get Y\", launch offers, sale events, pick-your-price, urgency mechanics — e.g. \"how do we get pre-orders\", \"gift or discount\", \"what should the Black Friday hook be\", \"should we cap it at 500 units\", \"how do we word the free bonus\".",
  "included_files": [
    {
      "relative_path": "reference.md",
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  "name": "promotions",
  "skill_md_contents": "---\nname: promotions\ndescription: Use when designing a promotion that isn't just a price cut — pre-order incentives, free gifts, bundles, \"buy X get Y\", launch offers, sale events, pick-your-price, urgency mechanics — e.g. \"how do we get pre-orders\", \"gift or discount\", \"what should the Black Friday hook be\", \"should we cap it at 500 units\", \"how do we word the free bonus\".\n---\n\n# Promotions\n\nPick the promotion mechanic and the framing that move sales without training customers to wait for markdowns. Gifts, bundles, invented occasions, and small token fees often beat a straight discount, and the wording of the same offer changes how lucky it feels.\n\n## When to use\n\n- Launch and pre-order campaigns\n- Bundles, free gifts, buy-one-get-one, upgrades\n- Seasonal or event promotions and their theme\n- Urgency mechanics (deadlines, unit caps, sold-out labels)\n- Anything offered \"free\"\n- Loyalty or promotional rewards\n\n## When not to use\n\n- Sizing or wording a plain price reduction → the `discounts` skill\n- Setting the everyday price → the `pricing` skill\n\n## Inputs\n\nCollect, or state your assumption:\n\n- Product, price, and any complementary product you also sell\n- Goal: pre-orders, volume, new customers, clearing stock, returns reduction\n- Launch date (if pre-order) and today's date\n- Whether buyers typically take one item or a basket\n- Brand strength and whether quality is easy to judge before buying\n\n> **Classify the product first.** *Hedonic* = bought for enjoyment, pleasure, or the experience (chocolate, fashion, decor, travel, spa, perfume). *Utilitarian* = bought to do a job, judged on function and value (detergent, appliances, insect repellent, tools, accounting software). If it's mixed, decide by what the buyer is optimizing for at the moment of purchase.\n\n## Procedure\n\n1. **Pre-orders: gift or discount by launch distance.** Launch 3+ weeks out → give a gift (a complementary product, extra content); it beats a discount by a wide margin. Launch within about a week → gift or discount both work. Keep the pre-order window short for utilitarian products; hedonic products tolerate long windows.\n2. **Bundles: make the wanted product the gift.** Pair the product with a complement and frame the *target* product as the gift: \"Buy the scale, get the fitness tracker at no cost\" — shown to people searching for the tracker. Only for items of comparable value (not \"buy a case, get a phone\").\n3. **Frame the bundle as a gift, not a special price.** \"Buy X, get Y at no cost\" cut returns by up to half compared with \"X and Y for a special price\". The gift framing is what matters, not the word.\n4. **Wherever the word \"free\" would appear, write \"for $0\".** The study tested the numeral: \"$0\" reminds people of money not spent; \"free\" reads as a giveaway with no value. \"At no cost\" is an untested paraphrase — use it only where \"$0\" can't work grammatically. (The two studies used different wording; combining gift framing with \"$0\" is the sensible default, but the combination itself wasn't tested.)\n5. **Upgrades: charge a token fee.** A larger size or add-on for a token fee (¥0.1 in the study) was rated a better deal than the same upgrade free (39% better; 17.1% more chose the larger size). The tiny price gives people a reference point to compare the benefit against.\n6. **Tie the promotion to an invented, fitting occasion.** \"National Picnic Day Sale\" beat \"Annual One Day Sale\" by 25% for a picnic retailer. The day must be creative and relevant; Father's Day or a generic sale doesn't count. Examples: founding day, customer anniversary/birthday, World Cotton Day (Oct 7, apparel), World Radio Day (Feb 13, electronics), World Chocolate Day (Jul 7), World Pasta Day (Oct 25), International Coffee Day (Oct 1).\n7. **Urgency: deadline, never a unit cap.** A short, justified deadline with a timezone is fine (\"ends Sunday 23:59 CET, birthday week\"). \"Only 500 available\" makes people who miss out angry and drives them to competitors. Online, deadlines mostly raise engagement rather than immediate sales — pair them with a real hook.\n8. **Sold-out options: keep 10–30% visible.** Mark sold-out variants as sold out instead of hiding them; sales rose up to 31%. Above 30% sold out, hide some or restock — the effect reverses.\n9. **Pick-your-price, not pay-what-you-want.** Offering 3–4 fixed price options ($25/$35/$50/$100) raised purchases; most choose the lowest, so set it deliberately. Don't use it for basket purchases (fashion, groceries). Pay-what-you-want (any amount, including zero) reduces sales — only for donations.\n10. **Rewards: make them uncertain.** \"20% or 80% off your next order\" outperforms a fixed reward on repeat behavior, even if fewer sign up at first.\n\n## Output\n\n| Item | Value |\n|---|---|\n| Mechanic | Pre-order gift: smart scale bundled, tracker framed as the gift |\n| Headline | \"Order the scale, get the tracker for $0 — launch offer ends 30 Sept 23:59 CET\" |\n| Why | Launch 9 weeks out → gift beats discount; target product as gift; \"$0\" not \"free\"; deadline not unit cap |\n| Avoid | 15% off (rational, deferred reward); \"only 500 units\"; \"FREE\" |\n| Test | Gift vs 15% off on a split of the launch list |\n\n## Common mistakes\n\n- Offering a discount for a launch that is weeks away — a gift wins; discounts are boring deferred savings.\n- Dropping \"FREE\" without replacing it — the replacement is \"for $0\" / \"at no cost\".\n- Bundling with \"extra 10% off the pair\" — frame the searched-for product as the free item instead.\n- Capping units for urgency — use a deadline; unit caps cause anger and switching.\n- Hiding all sold-out variants — keep some visible (≤30%) as a quality signal.\n- Making the upgrade free — a token fee makes it feel like a better deal.\n- Pay-what-you-want \"to build goodwill\" — it lowers sales; use 3–4 fixed options.\n\n## Quick reference\n\n| Situation | Do |\n|---|---|\n| Pre-order, launch 3+ weeks away | Gift, not discount |\n| Pre-order, launch within a week | Gift or discount |\n| Bundle | Wanted product = the gift; \"get Y at no cost\", not \"special price\" |\n| Anything free | \"For $0\" / \"at no cost\" |\n| Size/add-on upgrade | Charge a token amount (1¢) |\n| Sale theme | Invented, relevant special day |\n| Urgency | Short justified deadline; never a unit cap |\n| Sold-out variants | Show 10–30% as sold out |\n| Participative pricing | 3–4 fixed options; never pay-what-you-want |\n| Loyalty/promo reward | Variable, uncertain amount |\n\nEvidence and effect sizes: see [reference.md](reference.md).\n"
}