{"id":3616,"date":"2018-04-16T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/?p=3616"},"modified":"2018-04-15T11:19:28","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T18:19:28","slug":"how-to-use-coupons-and-discounts-effectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/how-to-use-coupons-and-discounts-effectively\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Coupons and Discounts Effectively"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coupons.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3617\" src=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coupons.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coupons.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coupons-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an e-business owner, using coupons and discounts is an excellent tool to help your site increase its conversion rates and create an upturn in customer loyalty. But, as you would expect with any investment, it\u2019s not efficacious to just randomly put some of your products on sale and hope for the best. There\u2019s a science behind offering coupons and discounts, and if you do so at the right time and in the right way, you can increase the likelihood that doing so builds and strengthens your customer base the way you it want to.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Categories of Coupons and Discounts<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are multiple options at your disposal if you plan on offering a coupon. For example, the offer can be for a percentage off of the purchase price, or for a dollar value discount. Percentage discounts can be anywhere from 5%, if you think your product just needs a little incentivizing, to something more significant like 50%, if you\u2019re trying to rapidly liquidate your inventory. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another possibility is to offer free shipping. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/amp.businessinsider.com\/images\/53b2f8d7ecad04c83948e9f2-750-562.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shipping costs are the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Depending on your business, including how it affects your margins, offering free shipping may be in your interests. You can also offer free shipping with a minimum purchase as a means of driving up order sizes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is also the alternative of offering an extra product or gift with a purchase. If you have a product that\u2019s not moving anyway, that might be a good choice to offer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>When to Offer<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are as many choices here as you can imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weekly, monthly, or seasonal coupons<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incentives for social media likes, follows, and shares<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Referral promos<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minimum purchase discounts<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer loyalty offers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First-time shopper deals<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those are just some of the instances in which you can offer customers deals. Naturally, they all target different needs. Incentivizing social media activity is great for creating a buzz. First-time shopper offers can be an effective tool to boost struggling conversion rates as a discount could be just the push someone needs to be transformed from a visitor to a customer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Balance<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When offering deals, balance is paramount. If used properly, coupons and discounts create positive brand recognition, but they can also damage your brand if they\u2019re overused. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Likewise, while they\u2019re good for quickly moving stock, if done too regularly, they can train customers to wait for sales. And while they increase conversion rates, in doing so, they decrease margins. That means that if your margins are already razor thin, offering too many deals or significant discounts might not be feasible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you need help deciding if and when to offer discounts, or want to know more about technical side of adding offers to your website, please contact <\/span><a href=\"mailto:support@numinix.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Numinix<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you offer discounts on your online store? Let us know in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As an e-business owner, using coupons and discounts is an excellent tool to help your site increase its conversion rates and create an upturn in customer loyalty. But, as you would expect with any investment, it\u2019s not efficacious to just randomly put some of your products on sale and hope for the best. There\u2019s a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":3617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[851,852,255],"class_list":["post-3616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversion-rates","category-miscellaneous","tag-coupon-codes","tag-discounts","tag-ecommerce"],"modified_by":"Smita Ramphul","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coupons.jpeg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}