Drive not Discount – How to Boost Ecommerce sales without discounting [Infographic]

Discounting may boost sales in the short term, but might be bad for your brand and bottom line in the long run

All too often, e-retailers default to a flash sale when they want to boost limp sales. However, recent research has revealed that discounting can actually be a dangerous practice to your business’ profits, meaning that companies need to get to the root of their sales issues instead of relying on offering discounts.

As it turns out, discounting can cause your customers to devalue your product, and it doesn’t provide any long-term benefits. In fact, discounting can even be a slippery slope for businesses, snowballing until the companies are forced to offer discounts in order to get the same sales numbers they were previously getting. One study found that 81% of hoteliers are discounting more now than they were five years ago, and 75% said this had done damage to their brand.

Instead, e-retailers should step away from slashing prices and analyze what could be holding their sales back. Customers reported that they stopped buying because of shipping costs, not being ready to purchase, slow site speed, and a low-security site. By addressing these issues, you can increase your sales without resorting to discounts. For example, you might offer free shipping for orders over a certain amount, or you could add security logos to your checkout page to increase your customers’ trust in your website.

Customers also respond positively to customer reviews, social spending integration, and loyalty programs. Customers trust fellow buyers’ reviews nearly 12x more than product descriptions from manufacturers. You can also use “buy it” or “shop now” buttons on Pinterest and Instagram (respectively) to sell your products through social media; visitors from social media spend 8.2% more than other shoppers, on average. Finally, loyalty program customers spend 13% more than average customers; however, make sure that you tailor your loyalty program to your specific goals, whether it’s customer acquisition or customer retention.

Discounts are an easy trap for retailers to fall into. However, take the time to analyze your company’s selling strategies and your website, looking at these things from the customer’s point of view in order to improve your e-commerce site. Then, you can boost your sales without tying yourself to a discount-heavy strategy.

Thanks to Slant Marketing for this Infographic

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