How To Run Promotions For Your eCommerce Store

Shoppers are always on the lookout for a good deal. Even if your products are reasonably priced, offering the occasional coupon or special can motivate customers to make a purchase. If you use coupons and discounts correctly, they can be a great way to make sales without losing money.

Plan Your Discounts:

Offering too many discounts, or discounts at the wrong time, can hurt you rather than help you. Start by looking at the slower times of the year for your business. Do people tend to stop purchasing as much over the summer months? That might be a good time to plan a sale or send out coupons to entice customers back in. Holiday weekends tend to be a popular time for businesses to run sales, so avoid offering your bigger discounts on those weekends. Plan your sales well ahead of time, so that you can make sure that your site will not crash and your inventory is stocked.

Find fun reasons to run sales, in addition to holidays or new customer specials. Things like celebrating a local event in your town, your company’s birthday, or an excess of inventory you want to clear out to offer some special sales. You can use just about anything as an excuse to run a sale and get your audience excited about shopping!

Reward Your Customers:

Discount codes and coupons don’t have to be reserved for special occasions. Sending out coupons to customers after their first purchase, or surprising customers who have signed up for your SMS list with a code is a great way to encourage your audience to keep shopping with you! Even a discount as small as 10% or a free shipping code can be the encouragement they needed to purchase a product they’ve been eyeing.

Offering a loyalty program can be an excellent incentive for customers to come back to shop with you. Most loyalty programs work on a points system. You could offer a certain number of points for every dollar they spend, or based on the number of items they purchase. Once they hit certain points milestones, offer them a reward- free shipping, a discount, or a free product. Starbucks Coffee has a fantastic rewards program. Customers earn “stars” every time they make a purchase, which can be redeemed for food, drinks, or even products! They also incentive customers to make purchases by offering “double star” days, or bonuses for completing challenges such as coming in three days in a row. This program encourages customers to purchase from Starbucks more frequently than they normally would while making the customer feel as though they are getting a great deal.

Product bundling is a great way to offer discounts while up-selling. Do you have any products that customers like to purchase together or items that would be useful in a set? Offering product bundles at a discounted price encourages shoppers to buy more than one product, and can introduce them to new products they haven’t tried. This also helps raise your average order value, lowers shipping costs by sending two items together, and your customer gets a great deal!

Running sales and offering special discounts doesn’t have to mean making less money. Find a good balance of offering these deals without offering them too frequently for maximum success. There are many ways that you can offer promotions, so test out your options and see what works best for you!