The Beginner’s Guide to Running Sales and Promotions on Your Ecommerce Store

Since online shopping is more popular than ever, studies show that 60% of users enjoy finding discounts, coupons, and other promotional offers. About half of customers are more inclined to visit an online store when they are aware of a chance to receive a discount or when they have a valid coupon code to apply. Flash sales and promotions are some of the most acceptable ways to increase traffic to your eCommerce store and increase revenues if you run one. What you should know is as follows.

Why use promos for e-commerce?

1. Improve Sales

When appropriately used, e-commerce promotions take advantage of online consumer behavior, making it more straightforward for you to sell to customers regardless of how fiercely competitive the retail sector is. A frequent misperception about sales promotions is that you must provide outrageous discounts or incentives to increase sales. While more significant incentives could be more alluring, a smaller stimulus might still boost sales and won't require you to reduce your profits drastically.

2. Promotions Improve Sales Strategies

Although it is common knowledge that roughly 25% of all e-commerce sales occur in November and December, there are still additional chances that you may take advantage. Consider holidays like New Year's, Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc. Running specials around significant events and holidays will increase sales conversion and add value to entice customers to return.

3. Increase Your Conversion Rate on Traffic

Did you know that, on average, 98% of new visitors fail to convert into leads or sales? It implies that most of the traffic you ultimately direct to your website is wasted. Yes, some of these new visitors who don't convert might return later, but there's no way for you to estimate how much of your traffic that is. It implies that you should focus heavily on converting your present website visitors. Promotions are a powerful tool for attracting and converting traffic. "Welcome!" is offered as a service. Get 15% off your first purchase. You can increase purchases by saying, "Enter your email to obtain the code." Still, It will also collect email addresses for future free email campaigns that retarget visitors to your e-commerce store.

4. The Best Way to Engage People Is Through Promotions

Consider your e-commerce site as a physical store for a moment. Never let someone pass the front door without making eye contact with them. You must interact with that customer, whether it is by greeting them, informing them of current promotions, or giving them some information. The same is true of your online shop and your marketing campaigns. It is your chance to speak with each customer directly and offer them something that would be useful to them. Pop-up advertisements have their detractors, but the truth is that offering your customers something worthwhile (a discount, free delivery, or gift wrapping) will only improve their shopping experience.

Types of  Sales and Promotions

1. Percentage-Based Discount

A discount based on a percentage is the most typical type of discount. Small discounts (5–10% off) and higher discounts (15–25% off) are used by online stores as sales incentives. Brands frequently offer 50% or more discounts to eliminate obsolete and surplus inventory.

2. Dollar Amount Discount

You may choose to give a flat-rate discount rather than a percentage one. You will have a fixed discount amount and more control over your product margins. To increase the likelihood that customers would redeem promotions, these incentives can also be presented as credits (take a $15 credit!).

3. Free Shipping

The most significant sales motivator all year long. Free shipping was cited by 73% of online customers as the most essential consideration when completing a purchase. The majority of consumers find free shipping to be attractive, and it can significantly enhance sales conversions.

4. Gift with Purchase

A fantastic method to enhance the shopping experience and increase sales is to offer a gift with a purchase. The reward is a small, high-quality item, and customers must finish the checkout process to get it.

5. Contests

Contests are a great approach to increase engagement and email sign-ups, even though they aren't necessarily sales campaigns. Running a competition is easy! Give users who enter their email addresses the chance to win a costly prize. Your ideal buyer must be interested in this, whether one of your store products or something else. One thing to remember is that choosing one of your products can deter customers from buying right away because they'll wait to see if they win. If This is the case, send a second email to every participant who didn't win with a discount code for your website.

Best practices for Sales and promotions

•  Make a mutually beneficial promotion.

Offering sales promos that benefit your company and the visitors to your website is crucial. Examine your margins to determine the types of offers you can make. Next, determine which promotion is the most alluring to consumers and choose that one.

• Choose a Promotional Frequency

It will vary for each e-commerce company, but it is a crucial factor to consider. You might schedule a regular campaign on your website or severely restrict promotions to certain times of the year. Whatever you choose, you still need to interact with the website visitors. It might be a call to action during navigation or a pop-up email capture.

• Make things simple for consumers.

Remove obstacles and nagging concerns so that the customer may concentrate just on paying. Distribute the promo codes on your website if you're offering them as part of your promotion. It keeps customers on the path to making a purchase and prevents them from leaving your site to check their email or visit a third-party website.

• Become in charge of your branding

Any reputable e-commerce site will have in-store deals that are genuinely exclusive to the company. Customers are considerably more likely to interact with advertisements with eye-catching images, clever language, and a compelling call to action. Spend a few minutes creating a branded promotion to catch customers' attention rather than employing a generic-looking one!

A Few Tips for Running Discount Promotions

After discussing a few discounting tactics, we'll discuss how to run promotions as efficiently as possible.

1. Clear up the promotion terms

Make your discount terms very clear at the beginning. Transparency is essential for executing profitable sales and promotions. So, make sure to mention your discount right away. It covers the discount's terms and conditions. From the start of the customer's shopping process through checkout, you want to make this abundantly evident. If your consumer anticipates a discount, you must clarify that you gave it to them and changed the price to reflect it. If not, they may wonder how much they are being charged, which could lead them to remove items from their shopping cart. It doesn't offer customers the optimal user experience. It might even force you to waste time responding to needless customer service inquiries.

2. Perform some market and customer research

It would be best to conduct market research and client studies to comprehend the kinds of promos that persuade customers to buy something from your store. For example, although some online shoppers value free delivery more than a two-for-one promotion, others might take the opposite stance. Due to this, you must have a thorough understanding of how your target market interprets various discounts and promotions. Market research is helpful in this situation.

Conclusion of Sales and Promotions

To better understand the kinds of promotions that will appeal to customers and persuade them to purchase from your store, it's crucial to get to know your customers. For instance, while some customers might prefer free delivery over two-for-one offers, others might be content to pay delivery expenses in exchange for a free item. To grasp what your target audience will want, it is crucial to undertake market research. Flash discounts and other special offers are terrific methods to get customers to buy from your eCommerce company. Understanding your customers and determining the type of sale that would work best for them can help you get the best outcomes.