Your customers love your product, but they also love a good bargain. Especially for online businesses, customers hunt for discount promotions everywhere, from social media to search engines and online marketplaces to narrow down their choices. That’s why you need to have an effective e-commerce discount promotion strategy.
Discount campaigns are crucial, particularly during the holiday season. According to a study, 75% of consumers are actively looking for deals this holiday to counteract price increases. By having a good e-commerce promotion strategy, you can boost sales, attract new customers, and increase brand loyalty.
However, not all sales promotions can help your business. Some, are ineffective and can damage your business in the long run.
So, how do you create a discount promotion strategy that works?
In this guide, we’ll share the best e-commerce discount promotion ideas that are guaranteed to ignite your sales. We’ll also provide some tips on how you can implement this promotion effectively.
8 Best Discount Promotion Ideas for E-commerce
Here are eight examples of promotions and discount campaigns that are perfect for e-commerce. Make sure to offer a combination of these promotions to prepare for the holiday season.
1. Free Shipping Promotion
Free Shipping promotion is the most important deal for e-commerce. The reason for this is that online shoppers already expecting it. A foreign study revealed that 80% of consumers expect free shipping if they spend a certain amount of money, and 66% of shoppers want free shipping for every order.
What’s more, if you’re not offering free shipping, your customer might abandon their carts and look elsewhere.
A Study found that 47% of online shoppers do not complete their orders because of the shipping cost.
Let’s take the Lazada case as an example. In 2018, Lazada announced that it would no longer offer a free shipping promotion campaign within Metro Manila. This decision sparked a lot of backlash and criticism from customers.
A free shipping promotion campaign can eat your revenue when execute it wrongly. Now our suggestion is to include a minimum purchase requirement in your terms. This e-commerce promotion trick works. A study found that 78% of online shoppers are willing to buy more to qualify for free shipping promotions.
2. Product Bundling Strategy
Product bundling is a type of e-commerce promotion strategy wherein you combine 2 or more products and sell them into one cheaper package. This sale strategy can increase your average order value. By grouping your products, you can make your customers buy multiple items at once, instead of just one. So, the product bundling strategy can also help you clear out your inventory and cross-sell your product.
But does this discount promotion Idea work?
According to Harvard Business School’s study, yes it does. Vineet Kumar’s research discovered that people did not value the bundle more than the separate products. But Nintendo sold more when it had a bundle option – a console and a game in one package – and an option to buy them separately.
This promotion campaign idea is perfect for e-commerce businesses, as this doesn’t pose that much risk, unlike other deals in this list. If you’re going to group products together, our recommendation is to group items that are relevant to each other. For example, if you’re selling a pencil, you may add an eraser and sharpener to the bundle.
3. Flash Sale
Flash Sale is a type of e-commerce sale promotion that is offered for a limited time only – usually a very short time. This promotion strategy is one of the best ways to foster urgency and drive shoppers to impulsive buying. The time limit and limited availability effectively entice customers to buy on the spot, as they fear missing out on a good deal.
This marketing psychology accelerates consumers’ buying decisions by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity.
The 2012 report by Reuters revealed that online retailers that offered flash sales grew at twice the rate of those that did not use this technique in the same period.
To create a successful flash sale event, we recommend keeping your process straightforward. As mentioned, you want to create a sense of urgency. So, don’t complicate your checkout process with multiple tabs or steps. Keep it simple, so they won’t change their minds.
4. Percentage Discount
This is probably the most straightforward form of sales promotion. In a percentage discount campaign, you’re offering customers, like the name suggests, a percentage off the price of an item or order. For example, you can offer 10% off, 20% off, or even 50% off, depending on your goals and budget.
To make your percentage discount campaign a success, you need a solid digital marketing strategy to back it up. Make sure you communicate it to your audience across different channels. You can display it on your website, social media, and on marketplaces.
You can also create a sense of urgency by using words such as “limited-time offer”, “Today Only”, and so on. You can also display the number of items left to let them know that you have limited stock.
The percentage of discounts also matters in this type of e-commerce promotion. Our suggestion is to put a higher discount on slower moving items. This may help you clear them out from your inventory.
5. Referral Program
In the referring program, you’re rewarding your customers with discounts who refer someone to your business. This is a great way to attract new customers but also leverages the trust established by existing ones.
What makes a referral program effective is that it is more than just an e-commerce discount promotion. It can also function as a marketing campaign. According to a well-known Nielsen study, a whopping 92% of people worldwide trust recommendations from friends and family above other forms of advertising.
To inspire your customers to make referrals, we recommend giving incentives to both the existing customer and the referred friend. This way, the referred friend may continue the cycle by referring new customers to your business.
6. E-commerce Coupon Strategy
Coupons and promo codes are among the earliest forms of sales campaign, but they remain to be one of the most effective promotions.
According to research, 60% of consumers are likely to try a new product as a result of a coupon, while 46% said they’d change their planned purchase.
One strategy to make your coupon campaign successful is to partner with influencers. Here, you can assign a unique code to each influencer and let them spread it among their followers.
Promotion from influencers holds a lot of weight as they already have fans who trust them. Your coupon can also serve as a tracking tool to help you monitor the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaign.
7. Social Proof
This creative discount promotion idea works like the referral program. Here, you are rewarding customers who will leave reviews of your product.
Social proof, such as review, is a powerful marketing tool that leverages the influence of other customers on your potential buyers. By encouraging your existing customers to share their positive experiences with your product, you can boost your credibility and trustworthiness.
You can offer coupons to reward those customers who leave a review. This is a strategic move for customer retention. Customers who get coupons will be more likely to return to your business and redeem them.
8. Contest and Giveaways
Running a contest is an effective way to connect with your audience in a more exciting way. A contest can spark their interest, challenge their creativity, and reward their participation. You can also collect valuable data from participants. You can use this data to design a more personalized campaign to reach them.
Before launching your contest, it’s important to understand all the legalities and best practices you need to adhere to. In the Philippines, all promotional campaigns, both big and small, must have a permit from The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Run an E-commerce Discount Promotion Strategy That Works
Having the right e-commerce promotion strategy is crucial for success. There are many ways to promote your online store. The promotion ideas above can help you get started. But how do you choose the best ones for your business? Be Global E-commerce Corporation is here to help you.
Our team has the expertise and experience to help you design and implement a promotion strategy that works for you. Whether you want to increase your sales, boost your brand awareness, or grow your loyal customer base, we can help you achieve your goals.
Want to learn more promotion strategies for your business, don’t hesitate to contact our team. We are offering free consultation for all businesses.
