As consumers have more access to choice and better deals, they demand more from their online shopping experience. This has led to brands trying to catch and keep the attention of these shoppers in any way they can.
It’s no longer enough to expect new customers to take a chance on you or existing customers to keep coming back to you without an incentive. When they can get a better deal elsewhere, what reason do they have to purchase from you?
One way to keep consumers enticed is to offer coupons. Coupons have become vital in eCommerce where consumers are trying to get the best deals they can. In fact, 60% of the public ‘love’ receiving digital coupons. Still not convinced coupons are the future of eCommerce? In this article, we’ll cover exactly why you should be using coupons in your campaigns going forward.
Consumers want a better deal
We’re not here to say that brand loyalty is dead. But it would be fair to say that brands need to work a lot harder to earn it in the digital age. After all, today’s consumers have been conditioned by the internet to believe that no matter how good a deal they’re getting, a better one is never more than a few clicks away so long as they know where to look.
Give them what they want
Success in eCommerce lies in giving customers what they want — discounts. And coupons can help to remind prospective customers that the best deal is the one that’s right in front of them. If you aren’t prepared to give them what they want, don’t be surprised if they spend a long time sitting on the fence or, worse still, filling a shopping cart on your competitor’s website.
And make no mistake. Today’s consumers don’t just want discounts, they expect them! In 2014, there were an estimated 560 million global mobile coupon users, which has risen to 1.05 billion people in 2019. These numbers serve as a pretty compelling illustration of how badly online shoppers want coupons.
And if they don’t get them from you, there’s a good chance that they’ll be able to find a competitor who will offer them within minutes.
Target cart abandonment while ensuring brand loyalty
Shopping cart abandonment continues to be a big deal in 2019, with almost 76% of carts abandoned globally. Offering coupons to customers who typically spend too long on the fence ensures that they not only complete purchases with you but also stay loyal to your brand. When they know that they get the best deals on the best products with the best service from you, why would they bother giving your competitors a chance?
Consumers want personalisation
How do you bring the personal touch to something as inherently impersonal as online shopping? Just because they’re buying from you online rather than in a physical store doesn’t mean that shoppers don’t value their customer experience.
In fact, in an era where they can click away from your site much more quickly and easily than they could leave a physical store, drawing customers in with a great customer experience is more important in the digital age than ever.
Consumers don’t want to feel like just another order number. They need to feel recognised and valued as a customer. If they have given your brand their loyalty in a competitive landscape, they’ll feel short-changed if that loyalty isn’t rewarded.
The good news is that coupons can give customers the personal touch that they want.
Just for you!
Collecting data on your customers’ past purchases and browsing history allows you to provide special offers and discounts that are tailored to their needs. It also allows you to be there for them and position yourself in the right place at the right time.
Customers appreciate personalisation and the numbers say that they’ll reward you for it. 48% of customers spend more when their experience is personalised. Personalised offers make sure that they’ll not only be more likely to give you their patronage, but more likely to keep coming back.
Timing is everything
If a customer has abandoned a shopping cart, send them an email with a coupon code half an hour after cart abandonment. And again 24 hours later. You could even suggest similar items they may like to go with their most recent purchase.
Or perhaps you might want to send them a special treat in their inbox for their birthday? Or maybe you’d rather celebrate the anniversary of their first ever purchase from you with a unique gift that’s just for them.
Well-timed and meaningful personalised coupons can make a meaningful difference to customers.
Consumers trust other consumers
Consumers will never truly trust your word over other consumers. Don’t take it personally. They don’t trust your competitors either.
That’s why influencer marketing is such an important part of any comprehensive digital marketing campaign. After all, influencers are essentially just other higher profile consumers . Consumers, especially younger consumers, care about what they say. Indeed, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.
Target those hard to reach areas
The great thing about leveraging influencers to market your brand is that they can help you to tap into markets that are tricky to reach by other marketing methods like PPC or Google Ads. And because consumers trust influencers’ opinions, they’ll be more likely to buy from you if their favourite influencers say all the right things about you — especially if a discount code is offered.
Coupons and influencer marketing
Combining coupon codes with influencer marketing may not be the newest trick in the book… but it works.
Think of all those podcasters offering Audible trials or YouTubers offering discounts on Casper Mattress or Blue Apron. That’s influencer marketing and coupons working hand in hand.
The best way to go about this is to offer influencers their very own promo codes to give to their audiences and make them more likely to try your product. These kinds of unique promo codes are especially reliable as they can not only make discounts feel exclusive, they also prevent code misuse.
You can give each influencer with whom you’re working with their own website to give to their following. This can then be clicked through to generate a unique code for the customer, making it easy to track which influencers are working well for you and whose followings simply aren’t warming to your brand.
Companies can’t afford promo code misuse
Even the most carefully considered coupon campaign can carry an element of risk without the proper precautions. Promo codes can be leaked and therefore misused. And this can cause disproportionate dents to your eCommerce profit margins while offsetting the benefits of your campaign.
In short, promo code misuse isn’t something that companies can afford. If the purpose of your promo code campaign is only to raise brand awareness then a code leak might not be too bad. Still, it’s a good idea to do whatever you can to mitigate your risk.
If you hope to increase brand loyalty and make your loyal customers feel valued with exclusive promotions that are just for them, a unique promo code generator is an essential investment.
The software that creates these unique single-use codes can be integrated with your CRM to automate the generation of as many single-use codes as you need. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Brands can also track the performance of their coupons with sophisticated analytics and then use the data gleaned to ensure that coupon campaigns are always improving and adding value to customers whether loyal and familiar or brand new.
This is the future of eCommerce — and generating unique promo codes manually simply isn’t plausible. So, like any forward-thinking brand, you need to invest in the right software that will help launch your brand into the future of eCommerce.
Futureproof your brand: Get coupons right!
Is your brand is doing all of the above? If it's offering unique codes, personalising them for maximum impact, targeting cart abandonment and using influencers to motivate new clients (while, of course, delivering quality), your business is ready to face the future.
You’ll not only gain new customers, you can turn those consumers into brand evangelists who will help you to reach even more new customers.
Coupons are the future of eCommerce. But as in all things, your delivery makes all the difference. You need to keep up to date with marketing trends and know how to retain customers in eCommerce.
This means it’s more important than ever to make your coupons appealing. Mix up the way you offer them. Don’t stick with the boring “10% off everything” deals that your competitors are dishing out. Implement gamification on your offers such as mystery discounts and diminishing discounts that reward shoppers the faster they click on a link. Or how about “blink and you miss them” pop-ups that give awesome offers to fast-fingered shoppers?
Get coupons right and you can futureproof your brand by ensuring your customers are engaged with you!
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