If you want to scale your business in a short period of time and increase eCommerce sales, then using sales promotions is the way to go. Statistics suggest that more than 90% of consumers use coupons throughout the year to make a purchase. That’s a huge market, and if you are not catering to it, you are losing business and conversions.
Sale promotions are tried and tested techniques that can help you gain attention, earn new customers, and increase brand awareness. All of which is crucial if you are just stepping out into the competitive eCommerce market.
Sales promotions or offers can be marketed over social media platforms, either free or paid, and help you increase sales, but only if properly implemented. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the most effective offers and how to utilize them to increase business.
Table of Contents
Effective Promotion Strategies to Increase eCommerce Sales
1. Exit-Intent Coupons
You all know about coupons, but there is one type of coupon that is most effective when it comes to retaining customers at the last possible moment, exit-intent coupons or popups. Do you know that more than 70% of consumers abandon their carts at the last moment due to several issues? But by strategically placing an exit-intent coupon, you have a way of bringing more than 30% of them back? I don’t know what you think, but it’s better to gain 30% of customers rather than losing 70% entirely. To me, that’s a no-brainer.
For creating an effective exit-intent coupon, make sure you use the right content, font, and time to display it. For example, showing exit-intent coupons on peak holiday seasons is a great way to gain sales. Moreover, you can also choose specific pages for this.
2. Make an Offer
Now, this might be new to most of you, but it works. Make an offer refers to products on your site that you place without any price and add a “make an offer” button below, which means your customers can negotiate the prices themselves. How is this beneficial? First, it increases customer engagement, and secondly, it provides business owners with ample upselling opportunities.
This is a new strategy, and thus it helps you stand out from the competition. Moreover, you get to attract new customers and cater to a wider market, especially if you are selling something one of a kind. To enable this feature on your website, choose from the best WooCommerce Make an Offer plugins.
3. Referral discount
Another new-age marketing strategy for increasing eCommerce sales using offers is referral discounts. Do you know that 8 out of 10 customers trust peer recommendations or that 40% of the consumers purchase products because it was recommended by an influencer? Thus, this confirms that people depend on others’ experiences before making a purchase.
Businesses can easily employ this strategy for themselves by using their current customers as referrers and asking them to honestly review their products and services on social media and other platforms. And what do they get? Discounts, free products, or services, etc. You can also offer discounts to the referee. You can limit the number of referrals required to avail of the benefits or offer memberships. Whatever the strategy, this works well.
4. Free Samples or Shipping
Anything that has the word “free” attached to it, is sure to gather you some traffic and increase eCommerce sales. Even with retail stores, it’s hard to trust the product, especially if it’s related to health or beauty. Thus, offering free samples of your product line is a great way to gain credibility and trust and secure sales. Although a proper strategy should be devised so that you are not only giving out free samples.
Free shipping is something preferred even more than free samples. Customers are willing to pay for your products, but the extra shipping cost is one of the reasons why they abandon their carts at the last moment. By enabling free shipping on your site, you can increase sales up to 50%. Either you can offer free shipping on all products, or limit it to certain products, shipping methods, payment gateway used, etc. You can also set a price limit to avail of free shipping, thereby increasing the average order value. Try to find the best strategy for your business by A/B testing and see which increases sales the most.
5. Buy One Get One Free
If you want to clear inventory or increase sales, BOGO offers are the ones for you. Buy One Get One offers are very popular because they are the most preferred sales type. Customers get to buy 2 products at the price of 1! Who wouldn’t want to avail of that! And it’s not hurting your revenue as well. You still get to make a profit, although a little less, you can make that up with increased traffic and sales.
Besides sales, BOGO offers are great for creating cross-selling opportunities, clearing out stock, and increasing conversions.
6. Loyalty Program
It is easier to retain existing customers rather than converting new ones. And that’s where loyalty programs come in. Built to retain existing customers, loyalty programs offer rewards or points to your loyal customers which they can redeem in the form of free products, discounts, free shipping, etc.
Having a loyalty program not only increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, but also increases chances for referrals, sales, and increases brand awareness.
There are different types of loyalty programs available, such as tiered membership with different benefits, which can be free or paid, or a point system. You can determine the rewards, the number of points they need to collect to receive the reward, or what actions they have to take. Just keep experimenting and see which works out the best for you.
7. Giveaways
Social media is a powerful marketing tool and if you are not utilizing it, you are losing. Instead of websites, your social media profiles provide more credibility about your business. Depending on your business type, your consumers can be found on channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or other social platforms. This is where you need to be active and provide your audience with something they cannot ignore, like a giveaway.
Giveaways are a great way to gather attention that won’t be possible by just having a website. If you want to make some noise, you need to offer free giveaways or a contest where your followers can engage. Set up rules such as tag your friends, share a story, comment, and like. You can also use influencers for this purpose, so they can create hype among their followers and increase eCommerce sales.
8. Members-Only Discount
Another common and effective type of sales promotion is a members-only discount or offer. This is effective because it oozes exclusivity. And people love to get exclusive discounts, offers, or deals that no one else can benefit from.
If you have a service-based business, such as an institute, salon, or spa, you can introduce exclusive members discounts on your site. Customers can have the option of purchasing these benefits. This could include exclusive services, live events, members-only discounts, and much more. It is a great way to retain customers and make them loyal members of your business.
Final Words
As you can see, there are many types of sales promotions you can implement on your site. But keep in mind that proper strategies are required to receive fruitful results. It is important to set goals such as brand awareness, increased traffic or sales, etc, to see if they are working or not.
Sales promotions can be a great way to build customer loyalty and provide your customers with exclusive discounts which they cannot find in your competitors. Moreover, it enables you to focus on simplifying the shopping experience and keep bringing new trends to satisfy your customers, which plays a big role to increase eCommerce sales.
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Related posts:
- 8 Strategies to Increase ECommerce Sales Using Offers - July 9, 2021
- What is Social Proof? How it Helps eCommerce Store Owners - January 8, 2021
