Discount codes, flash sales and how to entice your customers

by VitaminCommerce
June 23, 2022

Discount codes and flash sales are a great way to boost sales and increase awareness. Who doesn’t love a deal? In the e-commerce battle to stand out a good sale or a new joiner, code creates the much-needed hype and urgency around your brand.

Planning in advance and building hype on social media and via email marketing efforts can significantly benefit your long-term business models. Getting people excited to talk about your brand’s activities is essential to attracting new customers or retaining existing loyal customers. Receiving discounts releases oxytocin, in turn making shoppers happier — and less likely to abandon their carts.

Flash Sale

The right type of discount can maximize sales, and prevent shoppers from abandoning their carts due to the time-sensitive nature of the sales.

Gymshark uses social media to create a much-anticipated buzz around their ‘drops’ so users eagerly follow their social accounts to ensure they don’t miss out.

By utilising FOMO, or the fear of missing out, a flash sale can drive customers to take action and complete a purchase and your brand can avoid abandoned baskets and missed opportunities. Introducing a discount can cause the consumer to perceive your product as more valuable and essentially perceive the bargain they’re getting as too good to ignore.

Shopify Plus brands can use Launchpad, one of the apps only available to Plus users to schedule discounts in advance and automatically change product prices on your ecommerce page for a set duration.

Discount Codes

Other brands ensure each new joiner and sign up to their newsletter receives a time-sensitive discount code to feel more welcomed with an air of exclusivity. More than 52% of consumers are significantly influenced to hit ‘buy’ when they’re offered personalised discounts.

Discount codes are a great way to increase your average order value (AOV) with codes that give customers specified deals such as ‘get 20% off when you spend £50’. They can also be limited to particular collections and dates to protect your brand and profit margins by limiting the number of times a code can be used, the minimum spend amount before the code can be used, and to which products, collections, or variants the discount can be applied.

An even better omnichannel strategy would be to permit your customers to use their codes online or in-store.

Buy one, get one free/ Free Gift

The word ‘free’ excited any shopper. Small, unexpected gifts are a cost-effective way to convert customers and earn loyalty. Gifts spark such joyful experiences across the customer’s journey with your brand and it’s a great way to get rid of older smaller stock items.

Even including a small free item with a purchase over a certain price threshold makes customers feel like they’re receiving bigger deals with the second item.