How to Offer Discounts to Increase Revenue: Top Tools & Strategies

10 min read

Smart businesses know that strategic discounting isn’t just a temporary rush — it’s a revenue driver that can revitalize sales figures and influence customer loyalty.

However, when discounting, there’s a fine line between boosting profits and devaluing your products or services. To make the most of this powerful revenue-generating strategy, it’s crucial to have a solid plan and use the right tools.

In this article, we’ll explore the art of offering discounts and shed light on how to spend less time managing discounts as a busy business owner. Read on!

Discounts as a Tool for Growth

Discounts are much more than a straightforward reduction in price. When employed strategically, they can be the driving force that injects a surge of sales into any business.

However, understanding the nuances of effective discounting is a must. It’s about finding the sweet spot that maximizes revenue without devaluing your products or alienating your brand.

Knowing when and how much to discount is essential for small business owners. Offering seasonal discounts, flash sales, and customer loyalty rewards are proven ways to stimulate customer spending. These promotions create a sense of urgency and exclusivity that nudges potential buyers to make a purchasing decision.

Big sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are significant for a reason — they represent concentrated opportunities for business growth. During these events, consumers are primed to take advantage of offers, opening the floodgates for potential sales. Planning your discount strategy around these events can yield substantial returns.

Last year in the US, 78% of consumers planned to shop during November sales events, a trend also seen in Canada, Poland, and Germany (Source: Statista)

How to Simplify Discount Management

While slashing prices can supercharge your promotions, navigating those discounts can be a real headache, especially for online shops juggling massive product catalogs or during the year’s craziest shopping frenzies like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Here is where Ecwid by Lightspeed comes in. Apart from providing sellers with a robust online store, it offers many business growth tools. That includes the rich tool set for discount promotions, such as:

sale prices
discounts based on order subtotal
discounts for specific customer groups
bulk discount pricing
discount coupons
advanced discounts.

Advanced Discounts are a game-changer for businesses with complex needs. It caters to growing stores that demand more control over their discount strategies and campaign management.

With features like quick rule setup and easy scheduling, Advanced Discounts simplify a process that can often be tedious and time-consuming. Let’s discover how:

Discount Management Made Easy with Ecwid

No matter how vast your product catalog or how packed your schedule is, it’s a breeze to set up and go with Advanced Discounts.

With just a few clicks, you can create sophisticated discount rules that resonate with your target audience, offering them the best value for money.

Save Time on Discount Setup

Create and customize discounts for your products or categories in a flash. The simple 3-step process has you covered, all in under a minute. Set discounts in absolute values or as a percentage.

It takes just three quick steps to set up an advanced discount

Set It and Forget It

Plan your discount campaigns and schedule your sales. Prices will automatically reduce at the start of the sale and return to their original amounts once the sale concludes. Set it once, and you’re all set to dazzle.

Schedule your sale with convenient date and time pickers

Keep Your Discounts Organized

Are you struggling to keep up with all the ongoing discount campaigns? Consider it done:

Easily tweak the rules for your discounts anytime, keeping your offers fresh and exciting.
Switch discounts on and off as needed, effortlessly reactivating them anytime. This feature is handy for sparking quick sales all year round without the hassle of setting up new discounts each time.

Easily manage all your discounts by editing or toggling them on and off as required

Using the Advanced Discounts feature effectively can lead to higher conversions, increased customer engagement, and ultimately enhanced revenue. It’s a dynamic tool that gives small businesses the competitive edge to succeed in an increasingly crowded online marketplace.

Ready to set up your first Advanced Discount? Check out these instructions from the Ecwid Help Center.

How to Offer Discounts without Going Broke

While discounts are a powerful tool, they’re not without risk. Offering too many discounts can negatively impact your profit margins and devalue your products in the eyes of consumers.

To leverage discounts effectively, consider the following strategies:

Start with Strategic Budgeting

To avoid a negative impact on profit margins, it’s a must to set a clear budget for discounting and stick to it. It means carefully considering the type and amount of discount you offer, as well as setting a time limit.

Offer Tiered Discounts

Implement tiered discounts, where the savings level increases with the purchase size. It incentivizes larger purchases, rewarding your most loyal customers with more significant savings, encouraging repeat business, and fostering a stronger customer relationship.

Pro tip: Implementing tiered discounts is an excellent strategy for introducing a loyalty program to your online store.

Run Time-Bound Promotions

Create urgency with time-bound promotions that encourage immediate action. This way, customers are more likely to make a purchase before the discount expires.

Offer Value Bundles

Pair complementary items to provide greater value to your customers. It helps you increase the average order value and promote the purchase of multiple products. This is a strategy commonly used by retailers like Amazon and Sephora, known as “bundle pricing.”

If you sell online with Ecwid, you can offer product bundles via Upsell and Cross Sell Product Kit or Product Bundles apps from the Ecwid App Market.

Pairing complementary products enhances the appeal of discounted product bundles

Provide Selective Discounts to Certain Customers

Another way to mitigate potential risks is by offering discounts through targeted marketing efforts. This could mean sending personalized offers to specific customer segments.

For example, offering discounts to customers who have abandoned their cart or sending exclusive deals to customers who bought a specific product. (The latter works best with upselling or offering complimentary items.)

Pro tip: Use Ecwid’s Customers dashboard to segment customers by products bought, order count, total order value, and more.

Filtering customers who made three or more purchases

Discount Subscriptions Rather Than One-Time Purchases

If your business offers subscription-based services or products, consider offering discounts for subscriptions instead of one-time purchases. This can increase customer loyalty and provide a more stable source of income for your business.

Pro tip: Use Ecwid’s subscriptions to manage recurring payments and offer discounts on subscription plans easily.

An example of a “Subscribe & Save” promotion from the McNabb Microfarm store

Track Discount Campaigns Performance

It’s also essential to track the success of your discount campaigns. By analyzing data such as sales figures, customer feedback, and website traffic during a discount period, you can determine which discounts were most effective and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Pro tip: Use Marketing reports in Ecwid to track the performance of your promotional campaigns.

View the breakdown of sales sources in the Marketing reports

Wrap-Up: Use Discounts Strategically

Discounting isn’t just about cutting prices to get rid of excess stock. It’s a sophisticated system designed to foster customer relationships, drive traffic to your store, and, most importantly, increase revenue. The time invested in honing your discount strategies will pay dividends in the form of a more robust and profitable business.

With a firm understanding of your audience and the right tools — including Ecwid’s Advanced Discounts feature — you’ll be well on your way to achieving your sales goals and fostering a community of loyal, satisfied customers.

Take the next step in your ecommerce journey with Advanced Discounts, and save time on setting up and managing your campaigns.

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Apr 25, 2024

About the author

Anastasia Prokofieva is a content writer at Ecwid. She writes about online marketing and promotion to make entrepreneurs’ daily routine easier and more rewarding. She also has a soft spot for cats, chocolate, and making kombucha at home.