Promotional pricing – an incredibly easy method that will boost your sales
- 19 November 2022
Promotions are loved by everyone. On the one hand, vendors find them handy to attract new customers. On the other hand, buyers often search for special offers and indulge themselves with shopping sprees. Nowadays, retailers may find various kinds of promotion tactics, but in this article, we’d like to focus on one of them – promotional pricing. What is promotional pricing and how it can help your business? Let’s find out!
What is promotional pricing?
If you are looking for a method that will bring you new customers you should definitely consider promotional pricing. Promotional pricing is a strategy used to attract new buyers by lowering the price of already-available items for a certain period of time. It allows the clients to purchase a product or a service at a promotional price and brings your business more traffic and customers interest.
At first glance, it may seem similar to penetration pricing. However, whereas both of these pricing practices focus on captivating clients’ attention, penetration pricing is used for new-launched items, mostly by companies without strong recognition in the market. On the other hand, promotional pricing regards already recognized businesses and ongoing offers.
The most popular pricing promotion strategies
Though the definition of pricing promotion is uncomplicated, putting it into practice may be a bit challenging at the very beginning. Therefore, let’s take a look at the most common strategies you can use in your shop, and how they actually work.
By one get one free
As simple as it sounds, the BOGOF strategy implies that after the purchase of a particular product the customer gets one article extra. There are no specific rules about which item you should give for free. Nevertheless, most BOGOF promotions regard two of the same products. Also, the items can differ, but still belong to the same brand, yet what’s essential – the price level of the items should be similar.
Seasonal sales
Christmas, Halloween, or maybe Black Friday? Just choose a certain time of the year and launch a promotion! However, a seasonal sales strategy doesn’t refer to seasons with high market demand only. It’s easy to sell products when many customers are willing to buy them. But what to do when the demand is low? Well… start cutting prices. At least for the time being.
By the way – have you read our latest article about How To Make Your Product Stand Out with 15 Black Friday Strategies in E-commerce? If not, give it a try, and win Black Friday this year.
Loyalty programs
Did you know that loyalty programs are also a part of pricing promotions? For sure you came across them in your favorite grocery stores, traveling services, or even banking institutions. Think about which areas of your business may be included in the loyalty program, and what benefits you can offer your clients. Not only will it increase sales volume, but also improve the brand loyalty of your current customers.
Coupons & vouchers
Entitle your customers to buy products at promotional prices. You can give them coupons after they subscribe to your newsletter, after the very first purchase – it’s entirely up to you. Be creative!
Flash sales
Noting else creates a sense of urgency better than time limits. That’s what flash sales are all about. Flash sales resemble seasonal promotions to some extent, but they last much quicker and are much more dynamic. Some of them are valid for a day or two, or even for a few hours. Nevertheless, when launching flash sales remember that your discounts should be higher and more attractive than the regular ones you offer during seasonal promotions.
Market segmentation and pricing promotions
In one of our previous articles, we explained what is market segmentation, and why it can be useful for your business. Correct segmentation allows you to adjust pricing strategies better, so you can also apply it to your promotional practices. With such an approach you are able to get faster to your target audience, e.g. female customers between 25-30 y/o, and display them suitable offers to maximize the profit.
Price promotion – examples
After mastering the theory, it is a reasonable idea to find already existing examples of promotional prices, and try to implement them in your store. Below we present you with a few illustrations of price promotions in practice.
Supplement Xpress By One Get One Free promotion
This is a classical example of the BOGOF strategy employed by Supplement Xpress – a company offering nutritional supplements. After buying one product, the customer receives the second one from the same price range entirely for free. What’s more, as the promotions are nicely displayed, the clients can see how much money they saved which can be also considered another purchase incentive.
Amazon Loyalty Program
Amazon mastered e-commerce trade to perfection. There have been a few loyalty program offers so far, both for buyers and vendors, but Prime Membership is one of the most popular ones. For $139/year, users can enjoy plenty of benefits at a promotional price, including Amazon Prime unlimited access, free two-day shipping, and more exclusive admission to Amazon services.
Bed Bath & Beyond Flash Sale
The promotion launched by Bed Bath & Beyond is a textbook case of flash sales. Apart from the obvious headline, all other boxes are ticked: limited time, specific products, and deep discounts. What’s more, the promotional purchase can be made online only, which additionally narrows possibilities and creates a sense of limitation.
Promotional pricing advantages
Now that you know what promotional pricing is and what are its types, let’s see how price promotions can contribute to your business.
1. An effective way of gaining new clients.
Low price is a huge incentive. Thus, it’s highly possible that dozens o new customers will find your items worth buying. However, if they decide not to finalize the purchase – don’t worry! As the buyers were attracted to your offer they will also remember your brand. Therefore, in the end, you still benefit from employed pricing promotions.
2. Short-term revenue increase
The main goal of launching the promotion is to sell more. If your efforts work well, you’ll certainly notice a significant revenue rise. Whether you decide to offer a few free items or hand out discount coupons, the results are the same – more inventory sold, and more money earned.
3. Long-term customer loyalty.
Low prices attract the clients, but also convince them to visit your store more often to catch another bargain. Various loyalty programs may come in handy to maintain gained trust for as long as possible.
4. You stay competitive.
Certainly, you are aware that e-commerce as well as traditional trade are highly competitive industries. That’s why you need a solution to stand out from your competitors. Price promotions are a good method to become noticed by clients and get on the top of price comparison websites.
5. Liquidate old or excessive inventory.
It doesn’t matter if you sell the material or digital goods. Still, you are limited in terms of inventory levels. It can be a storehouse or just a server. Nevertheless, old or excessive items can cause trouble and put you at risk of additional costs. Using promotional pricing strategies you can easily liquidate products that are no longer desirable.
Implement a promotion pricing strategy with Dealavo
Though price promotion is a well-known and commonly-used practice, you should always be aware of the risk it may bring. When offering promotions, retailers always need to monitor prices to control the margin as well as protect themselves from potential profit loss. Also, incompetent promotions in a long run may have a negative impact on the entire market, causing violent price changes.
That’s why before employing promotional pricing strategies you should understand the market and your competitors first. Fortunately, today you’ll find dozens of tools that will help you out with professional promotion tracking and market recognition.
Dealavo is a modern platform for price and promotion monitoring that enables you to simultaneously observe many forms of discounts as well as monitor your competitors. Thanks to our app you will be able to get a full picture of prices on the market. The acquired data will help you increase your sales volume risk-free and monitor margin levels.
Interested? Contact us to get a demo and launch your first price promotion!