How to Implement Discounts and Promotions on eCommerce Websites
Numerous e-commerce businesses provide their clients with a range of discounts, coupons, and specials. We assessed consumers’ experiences with several discounts and promotions on a range of websites as part of our research for the upcoming fourth edition of the Ecommerce User Experience report series.
Customers adore discounts, whether they come from coupons, site-wide specials, or specific sale items. However, in order for consumers to successfully use promotions, a website needs to do two things:
1) Effectively communicate these different promotions throughout the site.
2) Make it simple for visitors to take advantage of the discounts being offered.
Using Promotions and Discounts
The simpler the coupon application process, the better. This method not only keeps consumers satisfied, but it also keeps them from being interrupted or unduly distracted while checking out.
Method 1. If the website offers a discount or coupon code, let users click on it to have it applied automatically.
Give consumers the option to interact with discount ads so that they are added to their cart automatically. In our research, a number of customers clicked on discount advertising and tried—often unsuccessfully—to apply the coupon to their orders. For instance, a button-like promotional banner appeared in the Famous Footwear purchasing cart. Numerous individuals made futile attempts to click it.
For instance, Sephora aggregated in one place a large volume of beauty deals on Sephora.com. This way, users could rapidly scan offers; however, all the discount coupons-and the coupon codes to be used with them-appeared as images and not as text. And so the user had to memorize that discount code and cannot actually select it and copy it.
Method 2. The discount will be applied on the spot if you’re using it as an incentive for having people subscribe to a mailing list or to do some other behavior.
Provide the codes as soon as possible if codes need to be sent by email. When a user on Old Navy’s website noticed that she would receive a discount for 10% off her order if she signed up for their email newsletter, she did just that. When she immediately checked her email, the discount coupon message was there. “Now I can spend more!” she exclaimed.
Despite the fact that this customer was not a problem to remind her to pull out a discount from her email inbox, sending an email to the client with her code can be risky since it makes her go off the website and may take her elsewhere.
These options hold users on the site and minimize efforts. The email can remind them for a very long time about the offer if these users would rather not accept it at the moment.
For example, one customer at Minted.com commented that she appreciated the fact that the promo code was sent to her instantly via email as well as online. “It can be really annoying when they don’t respond to you in time for you to use it for your order,” she said. I like to have it so I can make this particular purchase, but I’m not a impatient person.
3. The payable amount must sum all the discounts, sales, or offers applied in one package.
Users want to know if they are eligible for an advertisement discount offer or special if they qualify for payment. Coupon codes must be validated and applied to the price before requesting the user’s payment information. The user must know how the total comes about and distinguish all the savings.
Conclusion
Displaying bargains and coupons on your website without considering the way your customers may want to avail and use them is not enough. Promos given to the customers in response to a certain activity (such as subscribing to their newsletter) should be given right then and there, while coupon codes publicized on the website should be active and used with one click of a button.
