21 Discount Methods to Increase Your eCommerce Sales

While the thought of making less money by offering discounts to your customers may not appear to be the best business decision, it can actually help your company grow and improve sales if they are used correctly. Having sales in your store is a great way to move along old stock, but offering discounts via coupons can help you not only keep track of what marketing methods are more effective, but also give your customers more flexibility when browsing your store and still get a great deal.

Making less profit on these orders can actually be beneficial to your store in the long run, by bringing in more people to your site, helping clear your stock and improving your relationship with your customers by rewarding them.

How often to run discounts

When it comes to offering discount codes, you will want to decide how many you want to run, how long they will run for and how they will be scheduled. There are certain discounts that can be run all the time, such as offering free shipping to a customer if they spend over a certain amount and discounts for first time customers or for people who subscribe to your mailing list. These discounts are aimed at bringing in new customers, which will help increase your sales and customer base so are worth running most of the time.

There are also other discounts that can be used at the times of year where your customers are more likely to purchase, such as the build up to the holidays, but can also be used when you are looking to either clear out your old stock or to boost sales to meet your targets.

How to use coupons and discounts

When it comes to using coupon codes and discounts with your store, there are a variety of platforms and services that can be used. Sometimes the platform that you built and host your store on will have the option to use coupons, such as Shopify. These will usually offer you the basic methods of discount such as adding free shipping or taking a percentage off the cost, but it can usually be expanded by subscribing to apps that offer more.

There are other services that will be able to offer you more variety when it comes to applying discounts, and Klaviyo is a great choice if you want to promote most of your discounts via email. This will allow you to create numerous flows and campaigns that can not only target certain customers, but send out reminders of when a coupon or deal is about to expire.

Wisepops is another service that can offer interesting discount methods that are presented on your site, such as a spin to win feature that will offer customers the chance to win a prize or receive a big discount. It is worth experimenting with a range of ideas and services to see which works best for you and your budget.

Using analytics to check your success

When using coupons, it is important that you look at the data you receive from the campaigns to not only see which works best for you, but also use this information to tweak any future campaigns you will run. You can check what time of year the discounts work best, which marketing method draws in the most customers, and how the increase in sales helps offset the discount.

To help keep track of which customers are using your discounts, you can use an app or service to generate a unique code for each customer. This will not only help prevent coupon codes being shared around, but you will be able to see which customers use the discounts, and use this information to target similar campaigns to them in the future.

21 Discount and Coupon Ideas

When you are planning to run a discount campaign, it can be difficult to decide on which method to use, so here we have broken down 21 different ideas you can use to provide your customers with discounts, to test and see which works best for your store.

1. First Order Discount

A sure fire way to increase your stores sales, bring in new customers who will purchase from your site, and to convert the browsers into purchasers, is offering them a first purchase discount. This will likely be in the form of a pop up that will appear after they have been on the site a set amount of time, but can also be a coupon code distributed through social media accounts or through social advertising.

This type of offer will usually be a percentage discount, but you can also add extra offers like free shipping to make the offer even more inviting. Once you have converted this customer, you will have their email address so that you can then provide them with further sales pitches around new products lines or sales, provided they consented to these emails when they completed their order.

2. Weekly Deal

If you are looking to boost your sales towards the end of the month to meet your targets or to try and move some stock, you can run a coupon code that will last for the week. This time limit will apply pressure to the customer to purchase within this week to get the best deal. This can either be a coupon that applies to your entire range of products, or can be aimed towards certain product lines. When sending out this coupon, it will likely be to customers that are on your mailing list, so it is important that you don’t send only one email out. After the initial email, schedule a couple more throughout the week, counting down the amount of time left to use the discount before it expires, increasing the pressure on the customer to convert the sale.

3. Flash Sales

If you are looking to generate quick sales, then offering a flash sale can be a great way to quickly increase the amount of customers that shop at your store. This sale will run for a limited amount of time, from a couple of hours to a couple of days, creating urgency for customers to purchase and get the best deals. Flash sales can be a great way to clear some of your old stock to create space for new ranges you are bringing in, or if some of your products are going to be out of season soon.

When running a flash sale, you need to make sure that your infrastructure is prepared for the increase in sales. This will include not only the increased traffic to your site, but also how your dispatch team will be able to handle the orders. If on the day of the sale you get 5 times the amount of orders as a standard day, you will need to be sure that your team can handle it and adjust delivery times if needed to allow for the extra workload.

4. Themed Discounts

There are certain times of year when people are more likely to purchase online, with Black Friday and Christmas being the most obvious, but also the build up to summer where people are preparing for their holidays.

Offering a discount on your products around these periods will not only draw more potential customers to your site, but there is a higher chance of them converting, as they are likely looking to purchase already, just not necessarily from your store.

5. Minimum Purchase

To increase the order value of customers in your store, you can offer discounts that they will receive if they spend over a certain amount. This could be 10% off your order if you spend over £60 or 15% if you spend over £100, giving them a great discount on their shop. While they will be saving money, you will also be selling more products as they will likely add more products to their cart to meet this threshold and bring the cost of their cart back down.

6. Exit Intent

If someone has been browsing your site, but is yet to add anything to their cart, you want to try and keep them in your store with an enticing offer that will push them towards purchasing with you. The aim is to avoid missing out on sales completely, by taking a slightly smaller profit and gaining a customer.

This offer will likely appear as a pop up on your site after a specified period of time to browsers who have yet to add anything to their cart. Make sure that you keep the discount or offer as prominent as possible in this window, and also keep the text nice and short. If they were already looking to leave, they are unlikely to stay and read a lot of information, so keep it simple and attention grabbing.

7. Free Shipping

The cost of shipping can often put a customer off completing a purchase, due to the sudden price increase in their order. If they have added items to their basket and head to the checkout to see that £4.99 has been added for shipping, this could lead to them either not completing their order, or removing some items to offset the cost.

By offering a free shipping coupon for their order, it can help them feel more comfortable completing their transaction with your store, and not having to cut down on the amount of products that they order. This coupon can either be a timed discount, such as running it for a week, or it could be if they spend a certain amount. This method can also increase the order value, as they may add more items to their cart to qualify for the free shipping.

8. Newsletter Sign Up

As well as acquiring new customers, you also want to make sure that you retain them, and adding them to your newsletter email list is a great way to market to them in the future. To entice people to sign up, you can offer a one time discount code for people who join the list, which will have both short and long term benefits for your store. The short term is that they will complete their first order with the discount, and the long term benefit is that you can market to them in the future, whether it is about new products or offers you are running.

While the customer will have the option to unsubscribe once they have used the discount, the majority will likely continue to be subscribed, until they get irritated by your future emails.

10. Specific Products Discount

Rather than offering discounts to a range of products in your store, you can offer a discount that only applies to a specific product. This works similarly to just reducing the price of the product, but will be more exclusive and allow you to see if this type of marketing method converts well for you.

This method works best when applied to products that people are likely to buy on a regular basis, such as food and drink. You can then use data to predict when customers will be looking to repurchase your product and send them a coupon code in the build up to this time.

For example, if you sell honey, you can predict by using your sales data when a customer is likely to have consumed it, and will be looking to replenish their stock. By sending them a discount code, it can make them feel more positive about your brand and help keep them as a loyal customer.

10. Product Bundling Discount

To provide perceived value to your customers, you can create bundles of products that will appear like they are getting a great deal and help them with their shop. By bundling products together, you can shift stock of items that underperform and paint them as items that sell well. By seeing the discount they receive by having all the items bought together, it can encourage them to buy the bundle, even if it contains products that they might not have been looking to buy.

For example if you are a store that sells cameras, you can create a bundle that includes a tripod, a microphone, spare batteries etc and label it as a ‘starter videographer pack’. While you are providing things that the customer will likely need, it might not be the exact product they would choose to buy, but my making it easier for them, they will purchase the bundle instead, increasing customer AOV.

11. Buy One Get One Free

If you have a large number of stock that you are looking to move but might not be selling too well, you can look at offering a buy one get one free offer to your customers. This can help not only reduce stock, but bring in some sales, albeit not at a high profit, by pushing customers to purchase products they might not be looking for, but tempt them by offering a great deal.

For example, if you are a clothing store that is entering the summer period, and you have a lot of sweatshirts in stock, you can offer this deal to customers to help clear this stock and make way for new winter lines later in the year.

12. Referral Code

A great way to increase your customer base is by having your current customers help out by referring their friends to your store. This can be via a code that will give them a discount if they recommend a friend to your store and that friend completes a purchase. You can also offer the new customer a discount so that they feel more motivated to purchase, and both customers can then benefit.

You will likely need to use a service that specialises in coupons to keep track of the codes, and automatically assign the codes, as it can be complicated to keep track of whether a customer has used a referral code and who they were referred by.

13. Abandoned Shopping Cart

If a customer has added items to their cart, but have yet to checkout, you want to try and bring them back to complete the order. They may have left the checkout for a number of reasons, whether it is the cost of the order, or if they are unsure about the products.

By offering them a reminder that they have left items in their basket, as well as a discount, you can increase the likelihood of them completing the checkout. This reminder will likely be sent by email, if they are logged into your site and have an account, and will link them straight to their cart allowing them to checkout straightaway.

14. Loyalty Discount

A lot of discounts are used to bring in new customers, but it is important to reward the customers who regularly shop with you. This will be in the form of loyalty rewards, and could mean that they earn points by spending at your store, which they can then turn into discounts, or you could send them a discount code depending on how much money they spent in the previous month. For example if they spend over £50 they will get a 5% discount or 10% if they spend over £100.

You can also offer a loyalty program in the form of a subscription, such as ASOS do with their ASOS Premier membership. With this, you spend £9.95 a year and then receive free next day delivery as well as exclusive discounts.

15. App Exclusive

If your store has an app that customers can use to shop on, then offering exclusive discounts that can only be redeemed on the app can increase the amount of customers that shop this way. This will help increase your usage, by sending customers from their browsers and onto the app, which will also make shopping easier for them, as long as your app is designed with great UX.

16. Upsell

When your customers have decided on a product they want to add to their cart, you can look to upsell them by offering other related products that they might enjoy. This could also form part of a bundle, where if they add this product along with the item they had already added, they will get an exclusive discount. It could also be that if they spend over a certain amount on their order, that they will qualify for a free gift.

The aim with his offer is to try and get your customers to spend more by offering them a product that they may be interested in but weren’t particularly looking to buy.

17. Giveaways

A great way to get people subscribed to your mailing list is by offering them the chance at winning a prize. This could simply be a competition where they sign up and then a winner is drawn who will gain the prize that was advertised (usually a valuable product in your store).

You could also utilise a wheel of fortune, which will appear when they first land on your site. With this the customer will spin the wheel and land on a prize. The default prize could be 10% off their first order or free shipping, and then the more appealing prizes can be higher discounts or free gifts.

18. Social Media Discounts

If you are looking to grow your social following, you can offer discounts that are only promoted on these platforms. This will reward the customers that follow your accounts, and also convince customers to follow you so that they don’t miss out on any discounts. It can also be helpful to keep track of how effective these campaigns are.

19. Retargeting

After someone has purchased from your store, you will be able to look at their order data and see what products they purchased and work out what other products they may be interested in. You can then use this information to send them promotions on specific products or ranges that they are likely to be interested in, rather than a broad email that might include products they don’t regularly purchase. By being unique to the customer, it can have a higher chance of converting.

20. Influencer Codes

Advertising with influencers is a great way to increase your customer base. Whether it is hiring them to create an ad for TikTok or sponsoring their YouTube videos, you can get your brand seen by millions of people in your target market.

To help convert this audience into customers, you can offer an exclusive code for that creator. This will allow you to see how effective it was and whether it is worth partnering with this creator again, or if there are better options out there.

21. Customer Milestones

To reward your customers, you can send them an exclusive discount around certain milestones. This could be a year after they place their first order, or on their birthday if you gathered that information when they created an account.

On their birthday, there is a higher chance that they might have some extra cash and are looking to treat themselves, so by offering a discount for that day only, you can persuade them to shop at your store.

Contrast is an eCommerce marketing agency that specialises in creating effective ad campaigns, landing pages and emails campaigns to increase your sales. To find out more, get in touch.