3 successful strategies to increase sales through discounts and offers

Successful companies know that offers and discount are one of the most effective ways to increase sales, increase customer satisfaction and increase brand awareness. Offers have been used for decades with great success, and regardless of your industry or the size of your business, there are promotion strategies that will definitely suit you. Here is a list of the most common and successful bidding strategies:

１. Buy one and get a second for free

These offers are the most popular and usually successful promotions especially for flash or shorter-term periods, as it creates a sense of urgency that can boost sales. It can also liquidate inventory, which is why it is called self-liquidating within the business community.

This type of offer is often used by restaurants and clothing stores because it speeds up the process of liquidation of the stock that has a specific time to receive new products, and such types of offers may seem similar to a 50% discount from the price, however, it is in fact better for a merchant to do a buy one get one instead. 

For example: Suppose your cost is 30 dirhams for a product that you sell for 100 dirhams. If you are offering 50% off then you get paid 50 dirhams, keeping 20 dirhams for yourself as profit (AED 50 - AED 30 = AED 20). For the same item, a buy one get one free offer means you get paid 100 dirhams, and give away two items. At the same cost of 30 dirhams each, the margin in this case is 40 dirhams instead of 20 (AED 100 - AED 30 - AED 30 = AED 40)

２. Flash discount sales 

Quick and time-limited discounts create a sense of urgency among your customers to buy now. Therefore, especially if you have a business that relies primarily on online sales, flash sales are one of the most effective strategies to get consumers to purchase especially if combined with effective marketing.

There are two ways that are considered effective to apply here, either an annual or bi-annual mega sale on all or majority of items that is well promoted in advance, or cycling through certain items and doing a flash sale multiple times per year (not on all items usually). In all cases, be sure to market the sale well in advance on social media and via e-mails.

３. Vouchers or discount codes

Usually, this type of promotion is presented to existing customers as an effective way to thank them and keep them loyal, or for first-time users of a service or product. Usually, such codes are applied at the payment or checkout page, and shared with a subset of clients only based on either their purchase history or inactivity (in case it’s a reactivation campaign). This is also especially effective in eCommerce for abandoned carts, where clients are enticed to come back and complete the purchase after some time of not returning (a few hours up to a day).

Some merchants prefer to also offer ‘surprise’ or mystery vouchers to shoppers especially with existing clients where the due discount is not visible or announced, however after the second purchase or at the time of next checkout it becomes known. These work especially well with repeat customers where clients have an incentive to come back and the process is more gamified. 

There is no doubt that there are more discount options and strategies to increase sales, but these three methods are considered the fastest in terms of increasing sales