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Feb 9, 2022 | 5 minute read
written by Emily Kathi
eCommerce promotions play a part in the differentiated digital commerce experiences that brands strive for in today’s saturated market. Sweetening the offer at just the right moment can turn the experience from just browsing to converting. When you have less than 15 seconds to keep a customer interested in your app the action must be anything if not intentional.
Let’s look at a few methods and strategies as you evaluate promotions in your e-Commerce business:
Eighty-one percent of traditional loyalty program members would join a premium loyalty program at their favorite retailer if the benefits were valuable. Consider this when evaluating a loyalty program for your brand; and take note that getting a new customer is 7 times more expensive than convincing an existing customer to buy again. The difference is buying behavior. You have a leg up on an existing customer given the data you’ve collected.
Crafting custom offers to entice along every step of the buying journey is your ace in the hole. What traditionally looked like racking up points towards future purchases has evolved based on data analytics; you may consider putting the power back in the customers’ hands to exchange points for a select offer of their choosing such as a discount towards one of their favorite products or product category. Consider investing in CRM or loyalty software vendors if you haven’t already to further streamline your promotions, and one that will easily integrate within an e-Commerce platform.
Given you can afford the margins on bundling, it’s one of the easier ways to create value among your customers. Having a system in place to build out special pricing and manage inventory is key. Aside from that, the data will inform the story. Bundling and custom offers like BOGO (Buy one, get one) work well when you evaluate your product assortment and its performance.
Consider using this tactic with more popular items or bestsellers as a way of introducing new products from the same brand or product family. Bundling is useful when upselling or cross-selling items within a category and can also be of considerable value to a customer when packaged as a gift to commemorate a holiday or occasion. You save your customer time and money, two coveted commodities they will reward you for in loyalty. Elastic Path enables bundling within the platform and supports thousands of product variations to power up your merchandising strategy.
eCommerce Promotions, when executed correctly, capitalize on the online consumer behavior, which helps you to continuously boost sales and customer loyalty despite the competition.
The key to keeping a customer is to engage. The most highly visible ways are to engage when customers are entering or leaving your site. But consider the power of personalization; using the goldmine of information you have on your customers, craft an offer based on their shopping behaviors. Phrase the offer in an email with exclusivity; a VIP customer deserves a VIP offer. You may have seen such offers in the wild with an invitation to return; from we haven’t seen you in a while, to sorry to see you go, these offers correspond to bringing the customer back in the buying loop with an enticing discount or email/pop-up code.
Above all, keep it simple for your customers. The cart should be always in the line of sight, and when it comes time to checkout don’t require a login. If the customer wishes to checkout as a guest, so be it.
Cart abandonment is real, but the numbers range from 50-80% depending on who you talk to; even so those number are high enough to warrant a strategy. What to avoid? Silos. In an omnichannel experience that customers demand, you need to reach them in the way they prefer. Yes, you can sweeten the deal with a discount code as an exit trigger, but it will fall flat if the mode of delivery isn’t tailored to the individual.
Social media influences buying decisions so it’s crucial to have a presence there, but also reach out to shoppers via social media with offers and marketing. By 2021, the global social commerce market will increase by about 34%, and further researcher forecasts that e-sales will exceed $735 billion by 2023.
Consider shoppable ads such as what you’d see in-app from Pinterest or Instagram. These ads show the product and offer links to purchase without leaving the site. Social media affords you the opportunity to engage with influencers and provide additional authenticity to your brand. Consider unique promo codes for your social shoppers only; personalized offers to this segment create even more trust and meet the demand of where and how today’s shopper completes the purchase.
Offers to garner email addresses can be risky since you don’t know the shopper’s behavior yet. In this instance, consider the offer. Is it a promo code for a discount off the initial purchase? Is it buy one and get a gift card? Or maybe it’s buy one and get one at a reduced price. In any case, do the research into your offers and inventory and see what works best for your business model, in exchange for the opportunity to grow your email base.
This statement rings true across functions; from development to operations to marketing. When strategizing on promotions, consider your goals, and the information you currently have about your customers. A mix of promotions staged throughout a calendar year, across the sales cycle, and across channels is the best bet; and always, always, allow the data to inform your decisions.
Your customer will let you know what is best.