As a store owner, you might be aware of coupons and discounts, but do you know that offering coupons and discounts can be very profitable as it helps you to gain loyal customers and increase sales. 

As a general rule, most customers are attracted to buy a product if they see some discounts on it. In fact, 96% of the users are looking for coupons and discounts to shop online. 

In today’s article, we’ll look at popular tips/ways to use discounts and coupons to drive customer loyalty and generate more conversions.

Why Should You Create Offers, Discount Coupons and Deals?

Here are a few reasons why online stores should offer customer discounts.

• Increase Sales

Coupons and discounts have the power to increase sales. The addition of a discount strategy to your consumers’ purchasing experience adds a layer of time sensitivity. As a result, you’ll most certainly witness an increase in sales during the time of the promotion.

• Drive Traffic

You’ll probably get more traffic to your site as you promote fresh offers (and as your customers spread the word). Keep in mind that many of these people are likely to be first-time visitors, so make sure you’re providing an excellent customer experience to win their attention. Discount coupons enhance the offer, but conversions are up to your marketing and user experience.

• Attract New Customers

Offering discounts and coupons is one of the best ways to attract the attention of new customers. 

Promotional offers allow your business to create interesting marketing content that relates to your brand. These offers add a degree of excitement and urgency to the customers.

Types Of Offers, Discount Coupons and Deals

Here are the most commonly used types of coupons and discounts by popular online stores:

Bundled Discounts

You can increase the total number of items you sell by selling them in bundles and packages. As a result, your average order value will increase.

Personally, it is my favorite promotional strategy as it is more focused on adding value to the customer.

If you are adding a new product to your store, bundled discounts are a great way to introduce your customers to this product which they may not have purchased previously.

Fixed Price Discounts

Cash discounts are frequently used by e-commerce shops to take advantage of the principle of urgency, as these cash reductions are usually only accessible for a limited time. 

Percentage Discounts

A percentage-based offer works similarly to a cash discount/coupon. You can offer a percentage discount on the item’s worth, such as “Apply 5% Discount for the Order”.

You can also easily apply these discounts to multiple collections, products, and locations by using the Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin. This plugin will allow you to offer percentage discounts based on a specific purchase, or you can even create offers like “Buy two sneakers, get 50% off any sweater.”

Value-added offers

You can provide your customers a value-added item, such as a free gift, in exchange for their purchase without lowering the price of your product. The majority of value-added offers can be complementary items, or you can utilize slow-moving inventory as a free item or provide a free service.

Free Shipping

Despite the fact that shorter delivery times are becoming more popular, many buyers are still ready to wait longer when free shipping is given.

You can offer free shipping, if customers spend more than $100. You can improvise it according to your store to offer value to your customers. 

How to Use Coupons and Discounts Effectively to Drive traffic?

You have a lot of choices when it comes to using offers, coupons, discounts, and deals. But we’ll be exploring some of the most effective and best ways to use discounts and coupons to drive traffic, customer loyalty, engagement, and sales

1. Flash Sale Offers

Flash sale offers have proved to be one of the best ways to get more sales and traffic. You may have heard online that “5 hours left! Grab the products at 20% off”

These are flash sales. These types of offers create an urge to get the offer before it ends. Flash sales persist for a short period of time often for a few hours to 24 hours. These types of sales use the sense of scarcity and urgency in users to push customers to take action immediately. 

2. Email Subscription Offers

This strategy is getting more popular day by day. Many store owners are implementing this strategy in their stores to grow their email lists. 

Take a look at the following opt-in form. The brand is offering a coupon for a 10% discount if the users sign up for their newsletter. 

3. Pre Launch Offers

If you’re in the pre launch stage of your business or even releasing a new product, you can use this strategy to boost the interest and traffic. 

You can create a pre-launch landing page like Canva. During the pre-launch phase of Canva, they created scarcity by creating the landing page to reserve the unique usernames. 

Canva created a stronger sense of ownership by displaying the visitor’s username after canva.com/, which can easily lead to the visitor reserving their account.

4. First-time Buyer Discounts

Offering a discount to first time visitors is an excellent strategy to convert them into users. Not only that, they’ll come back to shop more. 

Lenskart is offering a 30% discount to the new visitors. They are also using the Email subscription approach to get the email list. 

5. Exit Intent Offers

A last-minute offer can sometimes be all it takes to convert a visitor into a customer. Exit-intent offers can convert the leaving users to the buying ones. 

You can trigger a popup when the user will try to leave the site and on the pop up you can add the offer type to make them buy. 

Woosuite is using a similar approach by displaying a popup with a 10% discount to grab the attention of the users when they try to leave.

Profitable Business

If you want to increase revenue and customer loyalty, you should use offers, coupons, discounts, and deals with a strong value proposition to make them effective and stand out from the competition.

Customers develop loyalty to online stores that deliver a great customer experience and consistent excitement by offering the above examples of attractive offers, coupons, discounts, and deals to boost sales and improve brand recognition.

Conclusion

Now it’s over to you, let me know in the comments which strategy you plan to implement. It’s also worth mentioning that throughout this process, I would first consider who your end customer is, and then decide on which offer would best benefit them. With that in mind you’re sure to create a winning offer, all the best!