Running out of eCommerce promotion ideas?
You’re just going to discover what could be the perfect solution. In this guide, we’re going to offer 10 types of sales promotions you can run to help drive more sales for your business.
Are you ready to sell more and earn more?
Let’s get started…
1. Abandoned cart discount offers
One of the leading reasons customers abandon their shopping cart is because of unexpected additional costs, such as taxes, shipping, or other fees. There is however a way to get those potential customers back through abandoned cart recovery. Offering a discount to customers that have abandoned carts directly solves this problem and gives you a good chance of recovering the sale.
This is the process of sending visitors a notification that reminds them they haven’t completed their purchase. And if you include a valuable offer with your notification, you can quickly get them back to finish checking out.
Let’s have a look at this example of an abandoned cart discount offer.
2. Buy X and get Y free
It’s a challenge to build trust with site visitors so that they believe in the quality of your products. But this is easily overcome by offering free product samples to put their mind at ease.
You could charge a small fee for shipping only or even offer a complimentary freebie alongside a purchase, to get it in as many hands as possible.
This idea is best used for small or perishable goods that run out quickly. As it prompts the customer to head back to your website to restock.
Take a look at how this company offers free sample gifts with customer purchases.
3. Buy X and get 50% off on Y
One more popular way to offer discounts is through percentage-based discounts. This can include smaller incentive percentages like 5% or 10% off, larger discounts to really drive sales like 20% and 25%, or significant percentages like 50%+ to liquidate merchandise that’s old or isn’t moving. You can also easily apply these discounts to multiple collections, or products or offer them based on a specific purchase, like “Buy two sneakers, get 50% off any sweater.”
Let’s take a look at this example from Cherokee
4. Run Flash Sales
Flash sales are promotions run within a certain time period that includes a high-value offer potential customers will find irresistible. These sales promotions could be a high-ticket item at a significant discount, product bundles, or even trending seasonal products.
The time-limits of a flash promotion are often combined with limited stock to create a sense of urgency that entices people to buy. This links into our emotional impulse to buy for fear of missing out (FOMO).
5. Cross Sell
The first thing you need to know is: Cross-selling and upselling are huge opportunities because you’re selling to existing customers who already like and trust you.
Cross-selling is a great promotion idea for eCommerce stores to boost order values. It works by offering customers who are already ready to make a purchase, complementary products.
A strategic way to do this is to offer exclusive products customers can only get when they buy a specific item. This makes the offer scarce and will entice customers to take advantage of it for fear of missing out.
This type of cross-selling works best when you sell a product that complements many other items in your inventory, such as related accessories. You can highlight these “extras” with your shoppers.
6. Up Sell
Upsell, on the other hand, is designed to get a customer to spend more money on the same thing. For example, if you’re purchasing a PC, you might want to buy extra storage space on the hard drive or a more advanced graphics card. You’re still purchasing the main item in question, just with augmented features.
Here’s a quick look at real-world example. The Dollar Shave Club sends the automated email below after people browse their razors online.
It upsells by showing upgraded and more expensive versions of the same item they had originally browsed. And it’s no surprise they’re all more than one dollar!
7. Affiliate Offer
Affiliate marketing involves referring a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media platforms, or website. The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique link associated with their recommendation. This performance-based opportunity can become an important part of your business by getting you a healthy income.
Affiliate offers are most definitely profitable. With names such as Amazon and Shopify offering great affiliate programs, there’s a lot of potential for affiliate marketers and brands.
Other benefits include:
- It’s proven to be cost-effective
- The audiences you can reach are very large and constantly growing
- It’s easy to track your progress with powerful metrics
This is an example of how you can make a blog into a great affiliate site. SnapCreativity’s focus is all about creating; arts and craft, home decor, DIY and even tips you can take on for your own blogging site.
8. Gift Cards
Gift cards can help you have both, customer loyalty along with better visibility. A gift card recipient is almost 100% likely to visit your store at least once. This is your golden chance to make an impression. Till the person has availed the benefits he/she is bound to return for checking out your products. This way you may get not just one but repeated attempts at making an impactful impression that lasts.
By allowing your loyal customers some special benefits over these gift cards you could earn their trust and they’d be encouraged to gift more, which in turn would again help you attain better visibility.
Gift cards can expose your business to people who may not have otherwise shopped in your store. Customers who already know and love your business will purchase gift cards for friends, helping to grow your customer base.
9. Offer Discounts for Upgrading
Another way to use discounts for your eCommerce promotions is to offer customers a discount when they decide to upgrade a product or service.
This is particularly useful for eCommerce retailers that sell software and digital products as they can include a discount when customers upgrade from a free trial to a paid version.
For example, in exchange for sharing their email address, subscribers can get an eBook, access to a webinar, a checklist, a resource guide, or even a video packed with insider information.
One of the most popular types is the discount offer. Subscribers can save a percentage or dollar amount on a future purchase. These offers pop up automatically on your website after customers either:
Spend some time browsing your shop
Scroll down the page they’re on
Move to close the page—the idea here is to get people to stay on the site longer by offering an incentive
10. Run Gated VIP Promotions
Gated VIP promotions are often used to reward customers for their loyalty to a business. And they can be used in a variety of ways.
One way to use them for your online business is to invite registered customers to a sale before anyone else has access. This can be done by restricting access (also known as gating content) to customers who are subscribed to your email list. That way they can secure the best deals ahead of the crowds.
Loyalty programs have been an eCommerce favorite for many years now. They have the potential to improve your relationships with customers, increase repeat purchases, gather valuable customer data, and reduce marketing costs.
But you can’t simply start a loyalty program without proper planning because they require a lot of attention over time. From a customer’s perspective, they should be simple and easy to join.
They also require regular communication, offers, and special deals to keep customers engaged and happy. For example, many big eCommerce stores would have a full-time employee managing their loyalty program.
There you have it! You now have some of the eCommerce promotion ideas to boost conversion rates, increase sales, and grow your business.
If you want to cut through the noise and stand out to potential customers in your niche, you need to have a toolkit of promotional tactics at your disposal that you can draw from. These ideas are a good starting point which you can build on.
At The Good, we at CgColors are committed to finding the best solution for your ecommerce business, no matter the size. If you’re interested in improving your ecommerce sales discounting, sign-up for a free landing page assessment where we’ll take a close look at your site and identify areas that could benefit from a usability upgrade.
That’s the path towards increased sales and more profits.
