Different discount ideas to encourage customer loyalty
Well-placed discounts can give your business a real boost. But sometimes it can be difficult to plan your discounts.
It’s not as simple as merely cutting down random items. Below, we explore different discount ideas to encourage customer loyalty.
Why retailers offer discounts
Discounts can boost retailers in a number of ways. For a start, by providing consistent deals you can encourage and maintain customer loyalty. At the same time, by making more sales, discounts can offer a welcome boost to your cashflow. Beyond this, if there are some products you’re looking to get rid of to clear space for new stock, a well-timed sale can help you achieve this. Ultimately, discounts can provide retailers with a number of benefits and it’s no surprise that they’re so popular.
Ideas for discounts
Special events
Special days and seasons can be an ideal moment to offer discounts. This could be as simple as joining in on the usual sales such as Black Friday and boxing day. However, you can be more inventive. For instance, if you run a wine store you could have a taster day where customers can enjoy free samples and get discounts on products.
Special groups
Running discounts for special groups in society can help boost your business’s reputation and boost sales. One common idea is to offer a health service worker discount. This is where NHS and health workers get access to special deals that the rest of your clientele can’t have. This can encourage sales and also highlight that your retailer cares about society.
Specific products
Another idea for discounts is to run some sales on specific products. If you time it right, you can choose products based on their popularity in the season. For instance, with raincoats you know that they’ll sell more in winter than in summer. With this information, you can either put them on sale in summer to stimulate interest. Or you can capitalise on the demand by putting a sale on in winter.
Focus on less motivated target markets
By focusing on less motivated target markets you can try and attract customers who are harder to engage with. Millennials are typically less discount orientated than generation x for instance. But by shifting your discounts and marketing towards millennial interests you might find that you engage with a huge market with emerging buying power.
Running discounts can seem like it would lose money for your business, but actually, they can offer a real boost. Cleverly placed discounts can boost cashflow and attract new customers. By running discounts on specific products, targeting specific groups and by focusing on indifferent markets, you can boost your profit margin.