Promotions on your website, are they necessary? Unless you have a brand like Lamborghini, where your client bases sorts you out. then yes, promotions are very important.
Promotions attracts buyers to your site not only to purchase the discounted products, but to also purchase other full priced products online. Promos and discounts are a good way of increasing your average order value (AVO).
Promotions also provides the ability to compete with the competition. Businesses in the fashion vertical is constantly discounting to capture customers and sell old season styles and excess sizes.
Catalogue promotions
Catalogue promotions are promos that are automatically running without a trigger for conditions in the customers cart. Some of the common types of catalogue rules are outlined below.
Free shipping
- Free shipping can be a catalogue and cart promotion.
- Catalogue:
- A rule that is set for the site for all products or a range of products.
- For example, for the month of June free shipping on all items.
- Cart:
- A rule set that displays in the cart and checkout if the purchase meets certain rules.
- For example, customers that have purchased over $X amount of dollars will receive free shipping.
- Catalogue:
- Free shipping is one of the best converting promotions. Especially when a threshold of spend is set.
- For example, spend over $80 and get free shipping.
- Customers that are close to the threshold will add extra products to qualify for free shipping.
- This boosts AOV.
XX% off
- Probably the most common of all the promotions.
- XX% off sitewide or product category.
- Discount is done via catalogue price rule where the product is discounted.
- RRP crossed off and sale price highlighted with a different text colour.
- This is set up in the backend:
- Where the product itself is discounted.
- Can be done:
- By bulk (through CSV upload).
- A promotion rule that can discount particular products, categories or on attributes.
Buy X and Get Y (BOGOF)
- BOGOF – buy one get one free.
- These rules are set in the promotion engine in the backend.
- Examples of these promotions are:
- Buy X and get Y free.
- Buy X and get X at $XX off.
- Buy X and get Y at $XX off.
- Buy 3 of X and get X free.
- Some of these rules are used for merchandising.
- To give the customer the ability to purchase a look. For example, buy these jeans and get the shirt for X% off.
- These rules are set to raise the AOV.
Merchandising Rules
Bundles
- Used to drive AVO by grouping high margin products.
- Can be pre grouped products or a group of products that can be grouped by a customer.
- Pre grouped products:
- Set in the backend as a bundle.
- Bundle usually has a discounted price compared to buying each item individually.
- Bundle is displayed with a discounted product with the RRP of the sum of the products crossed out.
- Customer built bundle:
- There are two ways of displaying custom bundles:
- Customers have the option to add products that appear on the PDP to complete a bundle.
- Customers are taken to a page where they have to add X amount of products and a bundle is created with a discount.
- Customers are usually displayed the discounted price with the sum of the individual prices crossed out.
- There are two ways of displaying custom bundles:
Kits
- Kits are similar to bundles:
- They are a collection of individual products.
- They have their own SKU.
- They have their own inventory.
- Generally kits are pre built and set aside in the warehouse as an independent product.
- Kits enable customers to add a selection of products in one hit.
- For example, a health pack for the month.
- Kits help boost AOV.
Subscriptions
- Subscriptions are repeat purchases of products.
- Customer chooses to get a product in a set frequency. For example, every 30 days.
- The subscription usually is subject to a discount. Usually % off or a fixed $ amount off.
- Subscriptions promote return buying.
- Subscriptions allow customers to set automated purchases without having to go through a purchase flow.
- Subscription engine reorders for the customer.
Checkout promotions
Coupon codes
- Coupon codes are a great way to urge customers to use a discount and purchase. Having a valid till date also urges customers to purchase within a timeframe.
- Coupon codes are not limited to promotions. They are often used as an appeasement for unhappy customers.
- Coupon codes are:
- Given a unique code or a generic coupon code advertised.
- Set for multiple uses or can be restricted using various logic.
- Coupon codes generally require the customer to enter the code in the cart/ checkout process.
- This will update the cart/ checkout to the relevant discounted amount.
- Some coupon codes will automatically be added to the cart/ checkout. However, this is rare.
Member Discounts
- Membership discounts are for customers who are a part of a membership program:
- These customers have registered accounts with the business.
- Either pay for or get assigned the membership.
- Example 1: assigned membership:
- Customers are added to a membership tier based on their monthly spend.
- Discounts applied could be to free delivery or subject to free products.
- Example 2: paid memberships
- Customers pay a monthly membership.
- These customers get access to free shipping or upgraded shipping at no additional cost.
- Example 1: assigned membership:
- Membership programs are a great way of providing exclusivity to the customer. To be a part of the group, some customers will pay to be a part of it.
- Memberships give customers the exclusive opportunity to purchase specialty items before going to market. Or attend exclusive events.
Example:
Free product
- Who doesn’t like getting things for free? Free products are a great way of enticing customers to purchase online.
- Some examples of these are:
- For orders over $X you get a free product Y.
- For purchase of any product in category X you get product Y free.
- Automatically add product(s) to the cart at $0.
- This type of promo is done with the free product added automatically. Where the product(s) is added to the cart at $0.
- This is a great way to improve customer satisfaction by offering something free.
- This is also a great way of getting rid of products with excess inventory.
Marketing Promotions
Email sign up
- Usually delivered to the customer as a popup when they visit a site:
- Customers are prompted to enter email to sign up for the newsletter.
- This allows the company to send marketing emails to the customer which is a great way to get repeat customers.
- A discount on first order is usually used to entice the customer.
Competitions
- Marketing teams come up with some great campaigns to get more sales, subscribers and leads. These are run online with great success.
- Some examples of marketing campaigns are:
- Social media channels are often used to promote brand and products.
- Post a picture of you wearing our product and the winner with the most likes receives a $1000 gift card to spend online.
- This is a great way to get more engagement with your product. It also makes the brand awareness extend to other potential customers.
Influencer marketing
- Brands use social influencers by giving them free products and paid social media posts with their product.
- Usually a coupon code or a custom link is used where followers of the influencer can make a purchase where the influencer gets a clip of the sale.
- Most of these links and coupon codes are marketed to the influencers network as a discount.
- This is a great way the brand can access huge networks of people to have as potential customers.
Example:
Promotion days during the year
There are various online shopping events throughout the year that see a large volume of online businesses take part. Here are some of the most important promotions days during the year.
Click Frenzy
- Online sale where brands can officially choose to participate in click frenzy.
- The sales periods for Click Frenzy are for 2 weeks in the months of May and November.
- Brands pay a fee to have their product advertised on the Click Frenzy site.
- Various tiers of payment get given areas of advertising on the Click Frenzy site. The more premium locations on the site, the more you pay.
- A lot of brands choose to unofficially partake in these sales by not advertising directly on Click Frenzy. However, they discount products and use paid search to get their campaign to the public.
EOFY
- End of financial year sale.
- Usually run from the months of May to the end of June.
- Brands heavily discount during these months online.
- Advertising through paid channels and social media.
Afterpay Day
- Brands using Afterpay can choose to participate in this marketing campaign hosted by Afterpay.
- Afterpay advertises the participants on their website and drives the advertising for the brands.
- This campaign is usually run in August for 2 weeks.
Black Friday
- Usually run at the end of November.
- Huge in the US but getting bigger in AU.
- Brands will run heavy discounts on site for a period of 24hrs (Sometimes extended a bit longer).
Cyber Monday
- Usually run the first Monday of December.
- Some brands will extend a weekend discount, from Sat to Mon.
Boxing Day
- 26th Dec and can run as long as a week.
- One of the biggest shopping days online, if not the biggest.
- Huge discounts usually by category.
Promotions is an important tool to help market online businesses and grow their customer base. Promotions used wisely can drive traffic and increase the average order value.
If you need help understanding how promotions can help your site. Speak to a member of our team and see how we can help you.