Ecommerce companies often employ promo codes to attract customers and encourage purchase behavior. However, unauthorized use of these codes can lead to revenue losses and devalue promotional campaigns.
Fortunately, a few critical strategies for preventing this type of abuse exist. Retailers can set expiration dates to create a sense of urgency and boost sales.
Look for the Best Deals
People love to save money, especially when it comes to online shopping. They often search for the best promo codes to get the most bang for their buck. These offers are a great way to lure customers into your site and help you generate more revenue.
A popular type of ecommerce promotion code is the Buy One, Get One Free offer (BOGO). This discount encourages customers to purchase multiple items, driving higher average order values and increasing customer loyalty.
Other types of ecommerce promotions include free shipping. These codes remove the cost of shipping from a customer’s total order, increasing average order values and encouraging customers to spend more money.
Mystery deals are another popular ecommerce promo code strategy. By sending a secret deal to a customer, you can increase brand awareness and make them feel special. For example, some send VIP offers to loyal customers. These can be for a gift, a certain percentage of savings, or a limited-time coupon code. They also give back to their customers by giving them more loyalty points to redeem for future discounts.
Shop Around
Online shopping has become an everyday part of our lives. Whether to restock on toilet paper or buy that trendy pair of sneakers we saw in our Instagram feed, you can find almost anything you need with just a few clicks or taps. But it’s worth researching before pulling the trigger to score the best deals.
For instance, many online marketplace like Temu will offer savings opportunities to consumers who add items to their cart but don’t follow through on the purchase. This is because the retailer knows you’re interested in the product and will often send you a promo code to entice you back to complete the purchase.
Similarly, many apps and browser extensions can help you nab the best product prices. For example, an app can automatically check prices on your shopping list and apply any coupon codes that match to reduce your final total. You can use other tools, such as Google’s product search feature, to see prices for the item you’re considering at multiple online retailers.
Sign Up for Emails
Creating and sharing promo codes is an effective way to boost brand awareness and customer loyalty. However, it’s important to note that promo code abuse is a significant issue that can result in financial losses and strain customer relationships. This type of abuse occurs when the codes are shared publicly on social media or through coupon sites, are used by multiple customers, or are stacked (using more than one code per transaction).
Fortunately, there are many strategies for combatting promo code abuse. For example, businesses can stipulate that the codes are only valid for certain channels or specific customer segments to prevent them from being shared widely and used by non-targeted consumers. Additionally, they can implement code validation and verification on checkout or redemption to ensure that only valid codes are used and avoid fraud.
Another great strategy is to use promotional emails for customer engagement and retention. For example, some retailers offer a “super-secret” sale in their newsletter signup email to incentivize customers to shop. Or, a company uses a gift-with-purchase strategy to incentivize shoppers to buy their products.
Look for Discounts on Social Media
Social media is a prime location for e-commerce businesses to share promo codes. Facebook’s boosted posts and Twitter’s promoted tweets are great ways to reach an organic audience. Try using influencers with a small but engaged niche audience for a more targeted approach. For example, it frequently partners with YouTube creators to share discount codes and referral links. By attributing unique codes to each influencer, they can track how much business the code generates.
When posting on social media, include the promo code in the caption and the post’s creative. This helps ensure that your message is seen and understood by as many people as possible in the busy news feeds on social media.
Finally, e-commerce stores should track their social promotions to analyze what is working and what isn’t. Fortunately, this is usually easy enough using the built-in promo code features in their e-commerce platform or a third-party tool. This allows you to see which strategies work best for your business and focus your efforts on the ones that drive the most conversions.
Check Coupon Sites
A lot of customers enjoy sharing coupon codes with friends. Some even monetize sharing by creating tools and websites. However, if a coupon code is leaked, it can cause many problems for retailers.
Some larger companies will partner with these sites to mitigate the money they lose from leaked codes. However, it’s still time-consuming for marketers to keep up with these sites and prevent coupon leaks.
The best way to combat coupon leaks is to ensure that your promo codes are one-time. This makes it more difficult for customers to share or engage in unauthorized usage. Additionally, implementing code validation during the checkout or redemption can help protect against fraud and abuse. This includes verifying code authenticity, validity, and eligibility. It can also include analyzing and monitoring customer accounts for suspicious activity.
