Isn't it true that when we talk about promotions, discounts automatically come to mind? But the truth is that there is a whole world beyond that. In this post we will talk about examples of promotions to increase sales without necessarily involving a reduction in the price of your products or services.

Promotions are one of the basic tools for any retailer, whether physical or online, and are often used to attract the attention of the target audience, reduce stock or face competition.

Advantages and disadvantages of rebates

I'm sure you already know the advantages: increased sales, attracting new customers, clearing stock, etc. Discounts are good for:

• Publicise your products or services during their launch phase or to incentivise people to try them out. It is especially interesting for services that have a monthly subscription, for example, by offering only the first month for free.
• Rewarding customers who have been with you for a long time, or to try to arouse the interest of those who have not been buying for a long time. Email marketing can help you do this.
• Get rid of products from other seasons or that have not been as successful as you expected. This is very common in the fashion and food sectors.

Dates closely linked to consumption, such as sales or Black Friday. Also to celebrate a specific event, such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, etc. It all depends on what best suits your business.

But have you thought about the drawbacks?

The first, of course, is that the profit margin you make on each sale is less. It is important when discounting to be clear about how much you are giving up and for how long you can afford to offer the discount.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will attract new customers, yes, but that discount will not be enough to keep them loyal. Moreover, if the product does not meet their expectations, it is very likely that they will be left with the feeling that cheap is expensive. In this other post we talked about some actions you can take to retain your customers through a good after-sales service.

It can also happen that if you have your products constantly on promotion, your audience starts to ask themselves questions like: Is it not good quality? Is it worth paying a little more somewhere else? This type of association does not suit your brand, so it is not advisable to abuse discounts.

In short, untimely discounts can have the opposite effect on your business. The key is to build loyalty among all those shoppers you have recruited so that they become regular customers.

Examples of promotions without using discounts

And if we don't do discounts, what do we do? Well, you have a variety of alternatives to combine, and many of them are based on FoMO (Fear of Missing Out). The FoMO syndrome is nothing more than the fear that we shoppers have of not taking advantage of that offer that interests us so much, or that someone else will beat us to it and take the product we wanted.

Now, let's move on to the examples of promotions:

1. Limited time

Make the promotion available for a certain period of time only, you can even incorporate a counter in your online shop that indicates how many hours and minutes are left. This will encourage your potential customers to make a purchase decision more quickly. For example: "Free shipping today only".

2. Limited editions

If there is room for them in your business, go ahead. For example, if you have a clothing shop and you know that there is a particular design that is going to cause a sensation, you can launch only 30 units on the market. This is a strategy that you can replicate from time to time.

3. Volume pricing

Try setting different price ranges, depending on the volume of products your customers buy. For example, if someone buys 5 units, you can stipulate a lower price per unit than if only 2 units are purchased.

4. Free shipping or returns

This is one of the factors we look at most when we shop online. You can include free shipping and/or free returns in your shop for purchases over a certain value.

5. Longer warranty period

Another example of promotions that do not include any discounts. Especially for technology products, this is something that is very much appreciated. Extending the warranty on your products for a period of time can generate a perception of quality.

6. Added value

Don't just focus on the product. For example, imagine you have a cosmetics website. For a certain range of products you can give away a free 30-minute consultation with an expert to show you how to get the most out of it.

Professional advice is suitable for almost all products on the market.

7. One unit as a gift

If you want the buyer to try a certain product, you can take the opportunity to give them a unit or a sample of the product with each purchase they make, starting from a specific amount spent.

8. Gift card

Also very common, it is great for customer loyalty. Think for example of those who have been with you for more than 5 years, or who spend "x" euros a year in your business. A gift card for them to buy other products can be a good gift.

9. Points with every purchase

Allow your customers to collect points for their purchases. The volume of points earned must be proportional to the amount spent in the shop, of course.

These points could be spent on future purchases on your ecommerce site, or you could establish a partnership with another brand in the sector to create a win-win relationship, where you both win. For example, the points that the customer accumulates for booking at your hotel can also be spent at a car rental company, and vice versa.

10. Raffles

So that with every purchase your customer makes in the online shop, he/she enters a prize draw for a certain product or service. The more money they spend, the more entries they get.

Bonus: use copywriting

Copywriting is a fundamental discipline to attract potential customers to your website and encourage them to complete their purchase. Two very simple tricks to apply:

• Limited units: If the buyer knows that there will be products left over, he will take it easier to make the purchase. It is good if below a certain number of units, for example four, you say on your website how many you have left in stock. This is a way of exploiting the scarcity principle and encouraging the FoMO we talked about at the beginning.
• "Other people are watching this".It is also another way of generating urgency. Hotel comparators often use it on their websites to encourage us to book as soon as possible.

Here are some other copywriting tips that are sure to come in handy.

We hope you get a lot out of these 10 examples of promotions that are not discounts. We are sure you can think of many others, so we'll read you in the comments 🙂