Every customer loves getting retail promotions. The popularity of websites such as Couponcodesme is not a coincidence. People love to do shopping, but what they love even more is making good deals.
It’s likely that you also have a place where you shop regularly and use coupons not to pay the full price. And, honestly, even if you’re a loyal customer, you probably noticed that you’ll postpone your shop visit unless you get a good promotion. Retailers send them so often that it simply pays off to wait for them.
It’s one of the most common practices that U.S. retailer store owners use. Sending daily or weekly codes for sure attracts people to buy from your store, however, when you think about it, codes can bring you profits, but at the same time, cut down a significant part of it. People are intelligent, and they will wait for a long time until they get a coupon.
These promotions are certainly driving sales. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be a thing. But, at some point, it can become a dangerous cycle. Customers will wait and visit retail only when they get coupons. As a result, you have to offer more and more of them. A perfect scenario for you would be to keep a high customer base and at the same time, cut down the value of the coupons. But is it even possible? It could be if you implement the strategy, and tips listed down below.
More is not Necessarily Better
It’s okay to run promotions in order to increase the purchase amount. The problem arises when you do it in a way, where it’s totally random. The very first negative consequence that it brings is the fact that some customers feel overwhelmed with the spam, that regularly arrives at their emails.
As a result, they are more likely to unsubscribe and stop shopping at your retail store at all. You don’t want a situation like that, so what can you do to avoid it?
You have to target more Effectively
Try to aim the promotions to those clients, who really need them. Of course, it sounds and is challenging, not to say, utopic. But the very first step you need to implement is better segmentation. Once you gain a new subscriber, offer him a broad discount – it’s always a good idea. He is more likely to take some action immediately, and purchase at your store.
When it comes to more loyal customers, you can offer them promotions in their favourite categories, but at the same time promote new items that they haven’t bought yet. Some of them will surely purchase them, even without getting any discount at all.
Once you start, proceed with further segmentation. Create a database of clients who haven’t purchased anything for longer than 60 days. Think of a promotion that can encourage them to come back and buy a product again.
Offer special online discounts for those who were purchasing in-store only. Because of the ease of access, and the possibility to read reviews, online shopping has always been more effective than traditional shopping. You should find a way to increase their online shopping activity, as much as possible.
Also, pay attention to people’s favourite categories. Once you have a database of people who tend to buy clothes mainly, offer them a discount for a product that doesn’t belong to the clothes category, which they haven’t bought before. It should be strongly connected, though. In this case, it could be shoes.
Implementing this strategy benefits you much more. Why is it? First of all, you encourage clients who are already loyal, to buy a wider variety of products that you offer. In this case, customers got a discount for shoes, which they might want to go for, and at the same time, they are still likely to buy things clothes, because that’s what they would do anyway.
How to automate the Process
Analyzing it all is obviously very time-consuming. It’s possible to do but why would you struggle? It’s possible to implement machine-learning algorithms that will do the job for you. Machine-learning algorithms base on patterns and information that you provide them with.
You’ll never again have a dilemma of choosing what’s the best promotion for a specific client type. Everything will be automated, and the time that you saved can be used to develop a sales strategy further.
Effective targeting retail promotions is essential for every company’s success. Many retail business owners realize how powerful promotions can be, but they don’t put enough effort into developing the system. As a result, they are stuck in a limbo, because a too big part of the profits is simply given back to the customers. Now that you know the essentials don’t waste more time and start targeting your promotions more effectively. Good luck!
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Interesting related article: “What is a Coupon?“