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The best time to upsell is when you have a satisfied customer who is inclined to know more about your company or your products and receptive to making another purchase. For many customers, the "upsell" moment comes at the time of purchase. If someone puts cologne in their shopping cart, you tell them about your after shave. If someone has just paid for a T-shirt, you suggest shorts or a swim suit to go with that.

But the point of purchase is not the time of the greatest customer satisfaction. That comes when the package arrives with the eagerly awaited item. Some companies put a note in a package to thank the customer and suggest other items.

One company is taking advantage of an overlooked - and perhaps surprising - place to put QR codes, messages about special promotions, and other information the customer might want to know about. It's the shipping label. Ted Shanley, founder and President of Seattle-area-based eCom Label Solutions says the idea for creating shipping labels that fold out and present the buyer with brand- and sales-building promotions occurred to him at a business meeting.

"I was sitting in on a meeting with a gift company on the west coast," he says. "They were trying to come up with a branding opportunity other than printing on a corrugated box. They were looking for a branded shipping label with a packing slip and gift message."

As it turned out, that opportunity did not come to fruition. For about two years, eCom staff continued to work on challenges surrounding adhesion and printing. Earlier this year, their labels were ready, and now, they're ready to launch. A few users are trying them out, and some large merchants (which eCom will not yet name) have said they will use the labels. Third-party shippers like ShipWorks and Shiprush have signed on. Shanley is working on label compatibility with FedEx's Ship Manager software, and custom integration is available.

The sample labels I received from eCom were larger and more substantial than the ones I'm used to printing out on my home computer. They were like a miniature brochure that had adhesive around the perimeter. When detached, they folded out to reveal a substantial amount of information printed in color. The samples included notices of special promotions.

Like many online businesses, Bulbs.com includes promotional inserts with the packages it ships. The inserts are intended to encourage buyers to come back and buy some new light bulbs and lighting supplies.

Robert Kernweis, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Worcester, MA-based company, says Bulbs.com is going to try the new multi-panel labels, but only after some initial testing.

"Since eCom labels are a new marketing vehicle, we would like to understand how effective the labels are when compared to our existing package insert program," comments Kernweis.

As you might expect, Kernweis says Bulbs.com wants to see if the labels drive more revenue to the company. He also wants to learn whether the labels:

• Are more effective when used with package inserts, or alone;
• Are more effective than other approaches at driving repeat business;
• Have any impact on Bulbs.com's brand awareness;
• Produce better results with new or used customers?

"Third party shipping software companies have built compatible software as they see this label having an impact on the industry," says Shanley. "It allows you to create your postage. Our label will print out on laser printers that can run an 8-12 x 14" documents through it that can handle label material. We have a list of compatible printers that we can make recommendations from. We help the merchant design and do the layout so there can be color printing on the front and back of label. They run a single pass through the printer printing the address in black-and-white on the label. The color part - an invoice or ads or reminders to use social media - is preprinted by us."

Pricing varies with the number of labels produced. "For medium users the cost might be around .20 a piece," said Shanley. "If they order 100, the cost would probably be in the low .30s." For higher volume users, the unit cost would be lower.

For Bulbs.com, the chance to be one of the first companies to test the labels' marketing potential is especially attractive.

"We are very excited about the opportunity and are looking forward to exploring the true potential of the labels with eCom and Federal Express."

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About the author:

Greg Holden is EcommerceBytes Contributing Editor. He is a journalist and the author of many books, including "Starting an Online Business For Dummies," "Go Google: 20 Ways to Reach More Customers and Build Revenue with Google Business Tools," and several books about eBay, including "How to Do Everything with Your eBay Business," second edition, and "Secrets of the eBay Millionaires," both published by Osborne-McGraw Hill. Find out more on Greg's website, which includes his blog, a list of his books, and his fiction and biographical writing.

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