Everyone loves a deal when they’re shopping online. There’s always a sale somewhere, but for most deals online it means using a coupon code. While I believe most online merchants would prefer not giving coupon deals, it’s almost become necessary to stay competitive.
According to an ongoing study by The Integer Group ® and M/A/R/C ®, “60% of shoppers look for a coupon before entering a store.” Furthermore… “Coupons have a considerable influence on brand selection, with 86 percent of shoppers reporting that coupons are at least “somewhat influential.” Females tend to be more influenced by coupons than males, with 49 percent indicating that coupons are “extremely” or “very” important, versus males at 39 percent.
“Coupon value is ranked as the highest motivating factor driving a consumer to switch from their preferred product or brand,” said Craig Elston, senior vice president, Integer Group. “Shoppers also want simple, clean, and easy-to-redeem coupons, which increases the likelihood of their use by three times.”
Even though this study is more about brick and mortar stores, I believe it also applies to online shopping.
With the importance of coupons being obvious, the next question that online merchants have to ask themselves are, what type of coupons perform best for online merchants? Percentage discounts, dollar off discounts, bonus deals, premiums, free stuff… the types of coupons and deals can widely vary.
In my opinion each target audience will have its favorite type of coupon. Some audiences may want a simple dollar off amount so they don’t have to calculate the discount. Others may react better if they get something free with their order.
With my ecommerce store having a young target audience mainly consisting of women, I’ve found that there are two to three favorites. There’s almost a season to what coupon performs best. During the holiday shopping season the best performing coupon for my store is typically free shipping offers or free upgraded shipping offers. During the rest of the year dollar off and percentage discounts seem to work best.
What’s the best performing coupon for your store?
What type of coupon performs best for your different target audiences?
Share you comments below.
Hi, I'm Steve... an eCommerce merchant that writes about eCommerce, advertising, marketing, blogging, design, social media, seo, tech and other randomness.
[...] previously covered the topic of “which coupons perform best”, and I invite your suggestions on that post, but for this post it’s about what makes them [...]