Increase Your Online Sales With These Top 5 E-Commerce Discount Alternatives
Quick Summary As Cyber Weekend and the holiday shopping season draw closer, the competition for consumer attention will be heating up. Retailers often feel a lot of pressure to join in the discount madness of the season, but slashing prices isn’t a good solution for every brand. There are other ways to compete in the holiday madness and drive traffic to your e-commerce site. Here are some e-commerce discount alternatives that work well both during the holidays and throughout the year.
As Cyber Weekend and the holiday shopping season draw closer, the competition for consumer attention will be heating up. Retailers often feel a lot of pressure to join in the discount madness of the season, but slashing prices isn’t a good solution for every brand.
There are other ways to compete in the holiday madness and drive traffic to your e-commerce site. Here are some e-commerce discount alternatives that work well both during the holidays and throughout the year.
1. Loyalty Programs
These programs can work for anyone, but they’re especially well-suited for luxury brands that don’t align with bargain pricing.
The holiday shopping season is a great time to stress the benefits of your customer loyalty programs. Our partner Yotpo offers our favorite tools for this — they have superb apps for loyalty programs, customer rewards, reviews, and referrals.
2. VIP tiers
If you offer VIP pricing or other benefits for top-tier customers, unlock some holiday perks for them. Consider opening up your VIP tier to all your customers as a free trial for a holiday promotion.
3. Customer Experience Tactics
Another way to increase sales without discounts is to create a seasonal peak in your customer experience (CX) strategy:
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Use CX technologyto personalize site content and email marketing.
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Find creative ways to bring more value to your customers: style guides, how-to-use guides to get the most out of the product
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Get involved with your community, support a related charity, or participate in a #givingtuesday campaign. The holiday season is a perfect time to engage your customers with what your brand stands for.
4. Create Bundles
Curating bundles of related products is a brilliant way to create excitement and help your products get noticed during this season of heavy marketing.
Bold Commerce — another of our partners — offers apps that make it easy to create bundles, upsells, cross-sells, and more.
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Get creative with bundling: BOGO, package deals, mix-and-match offers (buy any two for X dollars)
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Create limited-time offers to create a perception of value and a sense of urgency
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Build unique bundles around your highest-traffic products.
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Create holiday gift baskets for specific people (the car enthusiast, the teenager, the techie).
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Bundle products around a theme: movie night, date night, girls night in
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Pull hard-to-move products into deals and bundles to breathe new life into them.
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Set a threshold for free or expedited shipping that’s just slightly above your average order value, then price your bundle in that neighborhood.
5. Provide Added Value
Another way to generate excitement and a sense of urgency is to offer extra value for a limited time.
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Promote a free gift with purchase.
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Roll out short-term shipping promotions (free or expedited)
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Offer gift-wrapping services.
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Publish gift guides or gift selection quizzes on your site.
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Share styling inspirations that make your products really pop as gifts
Catch the Customer’s Eye
If steep discounts aren’t a good fit for your brand, it can be tricky to catch the customer’s eye during the highly competitive holiday season. These tactics are some of the best because they allow you to maintain a stable price point while competing in the noise of holiday promotions.
Ready to see what your brand can do?
Reach out to learn about our CRO audit.
