Discount pricing is so much more than reducing the price and hoping for sales. Learn how to do it well and maximize the results!
Stimulating the sales volume with discount prices is a strategy adopted by almost every business, no matter whether it is online based or brick and mortar. However, simply announcing the new, lowered price in your usual communication channels may not be enough.
How to introduce a new product
There is no simple solution to discounting a new product in order to boost its start. Picking a good strategy to successfully introduce a product is crucial.
There are several reasons to offer discounts for new products. Most importantly, what you want to achieve is to make the premiere an event. It must seem limited both in time and number. The goal is to offer it in a better price for those customers, that are willing to respond and buy quickly.
The rush must be motivated by suggestive ad copy that motivates the customers to buy before it’s too late. It has to evoke excitement about the product, even by presenting the difficulty of obtaining your product as something worth overcoming. Creating a vision of elitism surrounding your wares is the ultimate goal.
After stating that what you are selling is exciting, your job is to provide some evidence. Explain what is so great about “the thing” you want to sell. Optionally, you may stress that getting people interested in the product is not an easy task, because of its innovativeness and uniqueness, since everybody uses these terms in regard to whatever they want to sell.
Your sales pitch may sound similarily to this:
“We decided to offer the first 100 pcs in a promotional price so low, we are not going to make any money selling them. It’s easy to guess why we are doing this: we want you to start using it as fast as possible and share your optimistic reviews with your friends! As soon as it happens, we are certain it’s going to become an instant hit and we can raise the price a bit and start making money!”
It may sound strange, but a similar strategy has already implemented by numerous successful brands, such as OnePlus, Xiaomi (especially when they were starting and now with their sub-brand Pocophone). The principle of scarcity is what boosts sales best in initial phases of the product life. The way it works is simple and scientifically proven (you can read more here). It is natural for humans to be interested in things that seem limited or hard to obtain (or available
Sales Getting Lower – How To React
Changing the pricing strategy is one of the best ways to react to declining sales numbers. Especially in case of products with a long sales
“Frankly, we’re dropping our price to compete with competitors who’ve seen our success and entered the market with a cheaper product. I’d like to get X into the hands of new buyers who can then see the difference between X and our imitators. This price won’t last forever, but for a limited time I’m going to not only meet but beat the low prices of our imitators.”
The second approach is perfect when a product is reaching the end of its life cycle and is soon going to be replaced with another one. Basically, what you want to communicate in this case, is that it’s the last chance to get it.
It’s not a bad idea to write the pitch around the product’s history and its heritage.
Bonus: types of discounts
Quantity discounts
When purchasing in bulk, it is not uncommon to have discounts based on the quantity of items you buy. We have this feature built in our online platform:
It is possible to have a best price guarantee, though. After implementing CodesWholesale API into your eCommerce website, you can make use of the best discount (“100+” price) irregardless to the quantity of keys you purchase.
Seasonal discounts
This discount pricing strategy is meant to boost sales of products that
Seasonal discounts are also all sorts of sales, such as the Summer Sale on Steam
Promotional discounts
Need to get rid of some products you have on stock? A promotional discount is what you need to do, just to boost sales in a short-term manner.
Loss leaders
Loss leaders are items offered in promotional prices in order to bring more traffic to your store. Even if you don’t make much selling them, you want the customers to buy something else, too.
Loss leaders should be recognizable and popular products that are certain to attract customers, as soon, as they scent the opportunity. These products should also change frequently to attract buyers on a regular basis.
The way it works is simple: you offer a cheap product, let’s say an iPhone. You don’t earn much on it due to low markup, but in addition to cheap iPhones, your customers order cases, cables, fast chargers, earphones and other accessories in regular prices.
Two reasons for discount pricing
Apart from rapid sales increase, discounts help to build customer loyalty and make them come back for more. In the ideal scenario, you can convince customers to consider your store, as their default place to start looking for things to buy, instead of googling for one.
Disadvantages of discount pricing
Obviously, lowering prices makes your margin significantly lower, but your goal is to increase your sales, so it’s hard to see it as a disadvantage.
What is more threatening, is the unintentional strengthening of a bad image of your product. You definitely don’t want your potential customers to assume your products are on lower quality only because their prices are attractive. You need to clearly signal why the price is lower than usual and that the discount is only temporary. Remember that a temporary sales boost doesn’t necessarily increase customer loyalty and as soon as cheaper alternatives appear, your whole client base can easily transfer to more cost-efficient places. And if you try keeping extremely low, promotional prices all the time, you risk making little to no profit. Moreover, after keeping your prices low for a longer period and having people accustomed to them, it might be hard to raise them back up.
A well-planned discount pricing strategy must include a sensible ending. Not like this post.
The end.
About the author
- Digital dropshipping propagator, e-commerce expert, linguist and cyclist. A literary blogger in free time.
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