Solve this Puzzle and You Could Win $100 Prize

Recently, letter carriers all over the Two River area delivered 1,000 pieces of puzzling mail that could land their retail loving receipients a nice prize.

The delivered envelopes each contained a puzzle piece designed to lure in women who are already customers of on River Road in . Four of those pieces fit into a jigsaw puzzle displayed at the store, which makes them worth a $100 gift certificate to the boutique.

As its name suggests, All Things Consignment features women's designer clothes sold on consignment, .

Store owner Ann Marie Elia of Long Branch said she launched the promotion to drive traffic to her store, which is located between and .

"I thought, 'This will grab people's attention,'" she told Patch. "Who doesn't want a $100 gift certificate?"

So far only one puzzle piece has proved a winner. Fair Haven resident and piano instructor Wendy Lovell took home the first price, telling Elia, "I never win anything. You made my month!"

Elia says she has 1,500 customers in her database. She did a random sampling of that base to send out 1,000 puzzle pieces, four of which will fit into a matching puzzle she put together.

The idea came from Retail Mastery System, an online retail training business that Elia subscribes too.

The puzzle piece is the latest of the unique Elia's promotions. During the holidays her staff created a video of themselves singing the 12 Days of Christmas with names of featured products to go on sale each of the 12 days. Next month she plans to launch an  at the shop's sister store, Farm House on Broadway in West Long Branch, which may have proper ladies shoving each other aside for sweet discounts hidden inside each egg.

But just how much money can a promotion like this generate?

"My goal is to have $3,000 by the end of this month and we're halfway there," Elia said last week.

But Elia doesn't just use the promotions to increase sales, she also collects her own market data to see who's shopping and what's working.  "I keep a list of who walks in and if they spend or if they didn't. And how much they spent," she said.

The promotion runs through the end of the month. Do you hold one of the remaining three lucky pieces?

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