Discount ideas refer to the pricing strategy of marking down your product price. The goal is to attract customer traffic, get rid of old inventory, and increase sales. Most businesses don’t rely on discounts only for a long time as it would downplay your economic values. However, it could be exceedingly effective if conducted properly.
Normally, there are 4 common types of discount programs, which are:
- Loyal member discounts
- Seasonal discounts
- Promotional discounts
- Volume discount
In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of each discount idea and how to implement it with the assistance of automation.
1. Loyal member discounts
Offering regular loyal member rewards would show your customers that you value the relationship with them. This will also encourage them to buy from you more often.
After the customer spends a certain amount of money or purchases some special products, send them a personal message with a promo code. Remember to tailor the message to each individual customer to demonstrate that you pay distinctive attention to them. This can be done by referring to their name while saying thank you.
To head up with this information, set up a workflow within your store to gather data from the start of their shopping journey.
You can also stimulate cross-selling by giving a discount on related products. For example, if the most recent product they buy is a dress, you can recommend a discounted mix-and-match jacket. Then they are more likely to continue to order from you.
3. Seasonal discounts
Seasonal discounts often take place at the beginning or end of a specific period. For example, a sale off of winter clothes when the spring comes or a discount on stationery in September when the school year starts.
On the one hand, these discount ideas help boost sales when the demands are high. On the other hand, you get rid of the old inventory to prepare for a new shopping season.
To save time and effort, design a workflow to track the stock inventory to see what is left in your store. Then, tell the system to publish the discount price on the sales day.
3. Promotional discounts
Promotional discounts are quite similar to seasonal discounts, except that it is mostly launched with products at the end of its lifecycle. That means the demand is declining and customers are switching to another item. However, getting rid of them would give you more room in the storage and earn some extra transactions.
This can be done all year round when you notice that the item is rarely chosen or accompanied by holidays and other special events. Some popular form of promotional discounts are:
- Buy one get one
- % off certain items
To employ this discount idea wisely, keep an eye on your stock level and frequency of purchase. Also, consider tactics to grab your customers’ attention such as sending discount announcements for existing customers or designing popups on your homepage.
4. Volume discounts
Among discount ideas, this is used particularly to generate up-selling by offering a lower price for a large quantity of the same merchandise. This helps vendors sell additional products while keeping the low manufacturing costs.
A study found that you can increase sales up to 73% with a bonus pack. An example can be seen among cosmetics and healthcare products. Say that a bottle of hair shampoo has a price of $7 but a combo of hair shampoo and conditioner within the same brand only costs $10. There you can sell more items while making your customers feel like they’re making a good deal.
Don’t forget to promote your discount ideas
Talk about your discount program on every platform, from your website, social media to engagement email. The more people know about it, the higher the chance that you’ll have your products sold out. Lastly, make use of an automation app to avoid the tedious part of manually applying a new price for every item.
