Discount Culture – Live We

I am not sure when it happened, but our Discount Culture is becoming more prevalent with every Christmas that passes. No joking… people seem more and more to only buy when things are at a Discount and then they don’t claim it.

Yes – I wrote that – now let me back it up.

Black Friday 2021 – a Flop

It’s not the first year that we’ve seen websites struggle with Black Friday – literally, all the big websites do it and while it is an entirely American holiday with very dubious origins – there was a Black Friday in the 1950s called so because of the chaos caused by Traffic as people shopped after Thanksgiving – it firmly arrived in the UK around 2010.

At first, all seemed good… it was a Sale just before Christmas, perfect timing for Christmas shoppers – except it was at the end of the month and many people did not quite have the funds to make the most of it.

Psychologically, what happened next is that retailers saw the demand for Black Friday prices stretch into December to accommodate all those who needed to wait for their paycheque. Thus Black Friday became a weekend event and even stretched into the following week.

To make matters still more complicated, Retailers traditionally put their end of line stock into their Sales, except offloading the remaining Summer Season did not cut it. Instead, Retailers needed to buy in stock to put on Sale. This was a major event as it transformed the whole concept of Discounting. Now it was legitimate to buy in products specifically to put into a sale.

And that could be done at any time of year. The world of Retail had been shaken up. It was not a particularly environmental way to offload old stock, but for consumers, it meant discounts could happen at any time.

And so, in 2021, what happened, actually due to all the other influences beyond shopping, consumers have proceeded with caution. They have become savvy that the discounts won’t stop, and there are plenty of stories of consumers even bargaining with retailers and never before has the phrase ‘price match’ been so muted. We’ve seen a total shift in Christmas sales from the last week of November to the 1st week of December.

Coupon or Sales

Practically for Website Masters, Owners, Businesses there is a major question to be asked about how to actually ‘do’ the sale. Coupon Code or Discounted Price. Coupons are quick and easy to create and relatively flexible, i.e. you can pick and choose the offers.

A Sale though allows you to expose your Price Points – 30% off looks better than nothing off but use this code. Visually a Sale is considerably more professional and presentable.

Both are good when it comes to promoting them and are also easily trackable.

I’d also go one step further and suggest a Coupon Code has a slight negative effect in that once the offer is over – people may still try to use it. Whereas a Sale will be gone from your web pages.

Our philosophy here is determined by the length of the offer you are about to put on… if it’s short and sweet like Black Friday a Coupon Code will work better, but if it’s a true January Sale and you need to free up warehouse space then a Sale Price will last longer. More work goes into putting on a Sale, but then for that reason, a Sale tends to produce more results.

Back to the last Black Friday when we ran a number of promotions for clients using a Coupon Code, it was surprising to see so many orders come in where the Coupon Code had not been applied. it seems those that did want to buy – just brought anyway.

Our Take on Discount Culture

It is here to stay – no question – and it can be applied to any product or service at any time, anywhere.

We think a website benefits from having something on Sale at all times… either as a Coupon or a proper Discount. What we’re after is sales and if someone is worried the Blue version is at full price they can buy the Red version at a discount.

Permanently having something on Discount means that your customers can buy something – which is better than nothing.

Some Hints and Tips

• Change Frequently at least once a month… change things around – it’s good for Google SEO
• Swap between Coupons and Discounts – keep it alive
• Go big in January and August when potentially sales will be quiet
• Go deep on Black Friday/Pre Christmas – there is a alot of competition and 50% or more is recommended.
• Make Coupons last longer, do you really want a disgruntled customer because they tried your Coupon two minutes after midnight. Leave it running

The biggest and final question to consider today is Discounts on a Discount – should the coupon work on a Sale item? We think what’s the harm – happy customer. And it’s true the number of customers who are savvy enough to work this out and make it happen is tiny. But they will have done their homework – they deserve the additional boost and you can feel free to ask something from them in exchange, a recommendation for example.

The Discount Culture is a dangerous one because consumers still expect the same level of service, returns, guarantees and quality as if the product was not on Sale. That will grind with many business owners, but you cannot fight it, or rather you should not try to.

I hope these rather random notes can be untangled somewhere along the way you can pick up on some of the concepts contained in this Post and make use of the ideas contained herein.