Motivating Shoppers with Online Coupons (Part 1 of 2)

Online shopping continues to grow at leaps and bounds. Depending on who you ask, the numbers for increase in e-commerce have been consistently coming in at 20-30% year over year. These numbers present a great opportunity for online stores of both products and services. But despite these staggering figures, increasing competition continues to dilute the marketplace. One great opportunity for sellers to increase traffic and revenue in their virtual stores is to offer online coupon codes and discounts through an affiliate program and their advertising. Coupons and discounts have always been a great way to motivate buyers in brick and mortar stores, and now that opportunity has migrated to web shopping!

Coupon codes with expiration help motivate buyers into taking advantage of a one-time discount. Suggesting creative such as "10% off home and garden orders over $50," for instance, gives not only buyers a great opportunity for a deal, but it allows sellers to push a sale or take advantage of seasonal fluctuations in the marketplace. Online coupons can also be a great way to push a specific product in excess inventory or a service that is high demand. By offering a coupon like "Save 20% on Rossignol Zenith Ski's," or "Web hosting only $3.99 a month ? hurry expires in 5 days," sellers are able to create a real or fictitious supply or demand by offering these deep discounts to their website visitors. A great place to find examples of these online coupons for some of the web's top merchants can be found at Coupon Chief.

Another great opportunity to use coupons is with free shipping discount coupons. Many smart online shoppers are beginning to realize the incremental cost to purchasing online due to shipping, sometimes increasing their end price by 10 ? 20%! One source of substantial motivation to these buyers can come from giving a free shipping deal. This allows those customers who can't leave the house or prefer to shop in the privacy of their home to realize the same (or even discounted) cost to making their purchases online.

And don't forget the code! Offering a coupon code or promotion code that a buyer can enter at checkout is a great way to give them a sense of entitlement and make them feel like they're getting the best deal out there. Think about it to yourself for a minute ? when you're using coupons at a grocery store, don't you feel that you're getting the most for your money and stretching your dollar in the most significant way? Shoppers of any product or service get this same feeling when they can input a special coupon code into a box to get an additional savings at checkout.

Another great aspect of coupons is expiration dates. Coupons with expiration can give a sense of urgency to a sale. Again drawing on an analogy to grocery coupons, when you have a coupon for toilet paper that is expiring within the week, do you go ahead and make that purchase knowing you will eventually need to buy the product [without the coupon]? Of course you do, you want to make sure you're getting the best deal! It's easy to see that by putting a time limit on a coupon or discount, you easily can add a sense of urgency to the sale to get a higher conversion.

Online coupon codes can be a great way to market your web store, and is a unique tool to increase sales and boost traffic to your e-commerce website. Next time we'll talk about landing pages and the use of affiliates to further maximize the benefits of online coupon codes, so stay tuned!

Gary Gray - http://www.couponchief.com - provides free online coupon codes and discounts for hundreds of popular internet retailers. With a newsletter and RSS feeds, they syndicate new coupon codes and discounts to motivated online shoppers.

---

How To Create an Offer Your Buyers Will Love

With the creation of the Internet, it has become easier... Read More

Marketers: Are We Getting Dumb?

Good morning, you fellow marketers! Well, you do not have... Read More

Web Internet Marketing: 10 Magical Secrets To Make Your Ad Appealing

Do you want to make your ad appealing and increase... Read More

5 Ways Al-Quaeda is Using Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing is not dead. But it may have caused... Read More

How To Cheaply and Powerfully Reposition Yourself On the Web

It goes without saying that all of us would like... Read More

Raising Your Rates Can *Increase* Your Business

How many times have I heard literal horror stories from... Read More

Making Money Online: What You Really Want To Know

So you've been thinking of doing some internet marketing or... Read More

Internet Marketing Strategy: Online Joint Venture Ideas To Increase Your Business

A joint venture is when two or more businesses join... Read More

Free Marketing = Effective Marketing

According to Google.com there are over three billion web pages... Read More

What is Pay Per Call? How does it work?

Pay Per Call is the next wave of advertising on... Read More

5 Keys To Making Money Online

Would you believe there are tens of thousands of people... Read More

What Businesses are Succeeding on the Net?

The most basic question any Internet business owner will have... Read More

Keys To Successful and Profitable Niche Marketing

The market world is increasingly becoming specialized. Instead of offering... Read More

The Real Key To Happiness, Peace of Mind, and Massive Internet Success

Do you know the secret that allowed 100% of the... Read More

Secrets to Business Success on the Internet

Secret Number One: The Key Is A Niche MarketIdentifying a... Read More

Strategic Internet Marketing Using Joint Ventures

The goal of most webmasters is driving more traffic to... Read More

Can You Really Make Money While You Sleep?

If you've been utilizing the Internet for any length of... Read More

10 Things You Should Try To Barter For Before Buying

1. Information Products - it could be ebooks, "how to"... Read More

Seven Golden Rules Of Internet Marketing

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto... Read More

How To Increase Your Profits By 40% Or More With No Extra Work!

Before I expand on the above heading, I do have... Read More

How To Make Money Online With Your Website

So you have a website that has been a white... Read More

List Building Through Cooperative Partnerships....

This is a little tip I got from Alex Sampson,... Read More

Internet Marketing Online: How To Eliminate Your Competition Without Bloodshed

Business thrives on competition.You've to be aware of your competition... Read More

3 Services Your Online Business Cant Live Without

It doesn't make any difference if you're promoting your own... Read More

10 Sure-Fire Viral Marketing Strategies To Increase Traffic To Your Website

"Viral Marketing" is giving something away for free and allowing... Read More

Five Step In To A Successful Online Shopping Business..

Before you set out to explore the online shopping market... Read More

How to Turn Your Articles into a Viral Traffic Stampede

By writing articles you can send targeted traffic to your... Read More

Local Search Makes Your Business a Big Fish in Your Local Community

The Internet Contains Billions of Website Pages - All Clamoring... Read More

Internet Marketing On A Budget

Establishing a web presence on the internet is based on... Read More

Online Business Mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes, but nobody likes to talk about them.... Read More

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet

"Where do you work?""Planet Earth."Sound familiar? No? Well, it should.... Read More

The 2 Best-Kept Secrets Of The Internet

It's a difficult task creating a website that brings you... Read More

You Attract Who You Are On The Internet!

Being online is not only about getting your piece of... Read More