Limited time offers play an important role in customer acquisition and converting new customers to repeat customers. In addition, limited deals offered in a certain period of time stimulates customers’ desire for the products and motivate them to quickly purchase. Therefore, the question is, should you offer the daily deals on your ecommerce website?
Latest Update: We’ve just released the version 2.0 of Claue Multipurpose Magento 2 Theme, with with a bunch of performance improvements and exclusive features. Check this theme out now: Claue Magento Theme 2. 0
Claue – Clean, Minimal Magento 2&1 Theme is an excellent template for a modern and clean eCommerce store with 40+ homepage layouts and tons of options for shop, blog, portfolio, store locator layouts and other useful pages. Claue version 2. 0 comes with a bunch of exclusive features including:
- Being based on Luma theme.
- Meet all standards of Magento Theme
- Significant performance improvement
- Compatible with most third-party extensions.
- Fully compatible with Magento 2.4.x
This second advanced version completely differentiates from its previous one. Thus, if you are using Claue version 1 and want to update to Claue version 2, you can only rebuild a new website no rather than updating from the old version. Now, let’s get back the main topic.
What is a Limited-Time offer and it’s advantages ?
Limited time offers are promotions, specials, or deals provides for a limited amount of time. There are many advantages for both owner store and customers to running limited time offers, which are:
Attract first time or infrequent shoppers
If you want to target a demographic you’re not seeing much business from, a limited-time offer could be just the thing that gets them to do business with you. A limited-time offer not only generate a sense of urgency (which we’ll get into in a sec), but it also lowers the barrier of entry for purchasing from you.
Test new services
Limited time offers can be utilized as an effective tool to test a new product or service you’re hoping to roll out permanently. If you try the promo and it’s a dud you won’t have wasted time and resources investing in a full-time offering. On the flip side, if it’s uncontrollably successful you’ve just found a new moneymaker!
Coach your customers
Offering daily deals on your website helps your customers see that your site is a place where a bargain can be found. When visitors come across a website and get feel that they won’t ever get a good deal. Then they are less likely to ever return. Furthermore, the interesting of daily deals is that they create the shopping habits for customers. They can take advantage of great deals and keep coming back in buying more.
Improve your customer base
There is nothing quite like a great deal to gain new customers and clear out inventory fast. For example, on Nov. 4 , 2014, one of the Android device manufacturers of HTC has been struggling in recent years. Therefore, they took advantage of an opportunity they had launching their Nexus 9 tablet.
Just one day after the product was launched, they ran a “hot deal” promotion strategy . The tablet was 50% off or down to $199 from $399. This promotion was incredibly successful because HTC sold out of their inventory within the first hour. Although HTC offers deals on a daily basis, this particular sale proved one thing. To be more specific, HTC was able to turn themselves around and sold their devices to the new customers who otherwise would not have chosen HTC
Take advantage of social media
How do you think all of these new customers will be telling each other and share the great daily deals on your website? Most likely through social media that gives benefits for your website including:
- Your number of followers growing
- More external sites linking to your content
- As a result, your website moves up the search engine results
Urgency Drives Conversion
Daily deals helps you control your website sale when it is in effect. If you customers don’t feel a sense of urgency, they are more likely to postpone their purchase decision. This increases the rate that they will forget to purchase or decide not to altogether.
Successful promotions do not have to be a race to the lowest possible price. Strategic and well-planned offers such as daily deals can help you focus on your markdowns on a specific product or category . These drives traffic to your store effectively. Once that traffic arrives, you have the opportunity to sell them the products they bought and hopefully even more
How to promote limited time offers to boost sales
After reviewing some benefits of limited time offers for high-converting eCommerce websites, we uncovered some ways top eCommerce brands are using limited time offers to drive store sales.
Ask yourself before planning daily deals
There are two question you need to ask yourself before planning daily deals
Do you have the right products?
The most important factor when determining whether daily deals are suitable for your store is the products you sell. When the customers are being rushed to make their decision, you should give them “ impulse purchase “ with the products at a lower price point and tend to work best.
There are some product types fitting for daily deals include:
- Consumable items like chocolates, candles or makeup
- Things that people wear like jewelry or clothing
- Gifts, trinkets, small-ticket items that people buy on a whim
Install the “Free daily deals” extension for your ecommerce website
What kind of products should you avoid?
Generally, items that are expensive or require more consideration aren’t ideal. Besides, for technical products like cameras, electronics, computers or devices, the buyers will do a lot of research, read reviews and compare prices, specs. Therefore, it is difficult to make someone buy them on a countdown timer.
Do you have the right assortment?
When deciding whether using a daily deal sale , you should consider if you have enough product assortment or enough inventory to set you up for success. More specifically, one advantage of having a wide variety of products is that you can run daily deals in a series. This is great for encouraging customers to come back the next day and see what the new item on sale is. There’s nothing worse than having to tell customers that you are sold out of a product they really wanted to buy.
Utilize a Benefit-Based Call to Action
Call Now! Act Fast! Shop Offers! They are all traditional calls to action. They work well, but if you want to generate more excitement by calling attention to the benefits of your discount? Ask yourself what your customers will get by acting on your offer, and then tell them what it is:
- Get 50% Off Now
- Claim Your Free Handbag
- Sign Up for Savings
Highlight To Attract
An engaging limited time offers should catch attention of visitors at first sight. Here are some elements that should be considered in generating a limited-time offer:
- Highlight the deadline: Deadline in a finite-timing offer is the core determinant of urgency marketing that directly affects shopper’s purchase decision. The offers with bright coloring, bold text or any other special effects that make visitor see it.
- Use “time limit emphasis” wording: Statements such as “Hurry up”, “Today is your last chance”, “Don’t wait to buy” or “Expires tonight” bring a sense of urgency and stir up “butterflies in one’s stomach” if not catching the deal.
- Take the lead with command language: Urge your shoppers with time limit pressure using phrases such as “order now”, “buy now”, “take the chance”, “call today”.
- Attach a countdown timer: Place a countdown clock at the top of the web page to hurriedly remind shoppers about the offers.
Define your offer dates
When you see limited-time offers, you often see “Act Now” or “While Supplies Last,” as well. Unfortunately, these calls to action aren’t as strong as other alternatives. Without a clear timeline, your visitors may think — or hope — your offer will still be available when they check back the next day, or even the next week. The problem is that the whole point of limited-time offers is to get customers to act fast. You don’t want your visitor abandoning your offer; some won’t ever make it back to take benefits of it. Instead, draw attention to the offer’s deadline with copy like this:
- Ends Friday at Midnight
- Last Day
- Today Only
These types of phrases generate a higher level of urgency to get your audience to buy now.
For example, Office Depot is a great job of highlighting their limited-time Black Friday offers with their countdown clock. With only one day, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 28 seconds until their sale begins, and deals expiring even before that, don’t you feel compelled to make a purchase during Black Friday week?
5. Provide variety of limited-time offers
Offers should come in many forms and shapes. The flexibility in proposing offer ideas is one of the key functions determining the success or failure of a promotional campaign. Recent-year promotions have witnessed an increase in diversification of promotion forms. The followings illustrate the two most applied forms of offers that have seen the highest rate of effectiveness. Here are the best limited-time offers to try:
- Holiday-related limited time offers
- Anniversary sales
- Friends and family sales
- Inventory clear-out offers
- Weather-related sales
- Seasonal product promos
- New customer offer
- One-year customer anniversary sales
- Birthday promotions
- Free shipping
Some successful examples of limited time offers
We’re going to provide examples for limited time offers and break them down to see why each tactic works.
The Hurry-Up Limited Offer
Blue Apron’s a great example of a hurry-up limited offer. To announce the offer, this company use a so-called exit-intent popup. Also, it shows right when a website users is about to leave and suggests acting fast to grab a $50 coupon. If you agree to accept the offer, you’re prompted to generate an account with the discount already used.
Flash sale
Not only do they use the time limit and the limited quantity, but iHerb also adds an indicator showing how many discounted items have been claimed. Also, placing right below the product, the green bar starts filling up as shoppers make purchases. That bar telegraphs that the product is in demand and you have to be quick if you’re intending to get it.
Today Offers
Victoria’s Secret website “Today’s Offers” button showcased flickering on the bottom middle of it. This tab comes with a wide variety of daily deals such as free shipping coupons, limited editions, discounted collections or sale-off for the first purchase and there are alterations every day. Besides, this great offers not only attract website’ visits but also provide a sense of convenience in acquiring all promotions at once.
New customer offer
Entice some new blood into your shop by generating an offer for new customers only. Fitness studios pull in new clientele with this tactic all the time by offering a free week membership for new customers. For ins, this gym ran a limited-time offer for new clients to get a free week of workouts. Other services like Lyft offer ride credits to first-time riders, a double whammy since they’ll need to use the service again in order to claim the credits.
Bottom Line
Limited-time offers are a smart marketing move. Shoppers will jump on them like there’s no tomorrow. But it’s not the time-constraint alone that entices conversions and sales. If you’re seeking some professional assistance when it comes to building your website Magesolution can help you. We are a full-service web design and development company providing a variety of web design services. If you don’t make sure what you need? Schedule a free consultation and we can discuss it in detail
