10 types of sales promotion

When it comes to promotions for your ecommerce store, how can you be sure you’re getting it right? Do you struggle for ideas on what you should do and when? We’ve put together a list of 10 popular sales promos to help steer you in the right direction…

1. Discounted products

Adding a discount to your products is possibly the most popular type of promotion. Customers love to grab a bargain, so it makes sense to offer discounts every now and then. When it comes to deciding the way you choose to promote - % vs $ - think about what will look more attractive to the buyer. Always consider your bottom line and be sure to not constantly have a sale, as people will just come to expect this as the norm.

• Make sure your discount is attractive
• Consider your bottom line
• Don’t do it too often

2. Free Shipping/Free Returns

According to this WalkerSands infographic, 80% of consumers would be more tempted to buy from Amazon if they were offered free shipping. 66% would buy if they were offered next-day delivery and 64% said they would buy if they were offered free returns. Free shipping and returns gives the customer a sense of security that they wont lose out if they wanted to send the product back.

If you are worried about your margins then you can always incorporate the shipping cost into your product, or think about offering free shipping when a customer spends over a certain amount.

• Free shipping/free returns creates customer security
• Makes it hassle free
• Incorporate shipping cost into your product

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Types of sales promotions

What is sales promotion?

Sales promotion is a type of Pull marketing technique. If you have a product which is new in the market or which is not receiving a lot of attention, then you can promote this product to customers via sales promotions. You can use various techniques like giving discounts on the product, offering 1 + 1 free schemes, etc etc.

When a brand wants to increase the sales of its products, it uses Sales promotion. The brand can increase the sales by attracting new customers to their products or by retaining the old customers by various means. The company can also motivate the dealers and distributors of their channel to perform better for their brand, and to get their stock moving.

There are two types of Sales promotions

a) Consumer sales promotions

Any sales promotion activity that you do keeping the end consumer in mind is known as consumer sales promotions. Example – if an E-commerce website gives 10% discount on its products, then it wants the consumers to make the best of this deal. This is a consumer focused promotional activity and hence can be called as consumer sales promotions.

The objective of Consumer sales promotions might be various. A consumer might be asked to test a sample of a completely new perfume in the market and rate it. An existing customer might be asked to use a Scratch card so that he receives a gift.

At the end, the result should be an action from the consumer. Either the consumer should purchase the product right away, or he should come to know about the product so that further awareness is created for the brand.

b) Trade Sales promotions

If your promotional activities are focused on Dealers, distributors or agents, then it is known as trade promotions. There is a lot of competition in any field. And in channel sales, to get the products moving and to motivate the dealer to perform better, trade discounts are given.

Example – You are a dealer for Televisions. Now Sony comes and tells you, you will be given 5% discount if you cross a sale of 100 televisions. Naturally, you will be very motivated because 5% in television sales is huge. Plus selling Sony TV’s is easy because it is already a brand. Thus, you divert all potential customers to Sony Televisions so that you can achieve the target.

Similarly, there are other types of trade sales promotions which can be used to motivate the dealer and distributor. More such techniques of sales promotions are discussed below.

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Sales promotions

Consumer sales promotions encompass a variety of short-term promotional techniques designed to induce customers to respond in some way. The most popular consumer sales promotions are directly associated with product purchasing. These promotions are intended to enhance the value of a product purchase by either reducing the overall cost of the product (i.e., get same product but for less money) or by adding more benefit to the regular purchase price (i.e., get more for the money).

While tying a promotion to an immediate purchase is a major use of consumer sales promotion, it is not the only one. As we noted above, promotion techniques can be used to achieve other objectives such as building brand loyalty or creating product awareness. Consequently, a marketer’s promotional toolbox contains a large variety of consumer promotions.

Next we discuss the following 11 types of consumer sales promotions:

1. Coupons
2. Rebates
3. Promotional Pricing
4. Trade-In
5. Loyalty Programs
6. Sampling and Free Trials
7. Free Product
8. Premiums
9. Contests and Sweepstakes
10. Demonstrations
11. Personal Appearances

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