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It’s not just a matter of economics but of science that makes consumers feel good about buying with coupons.

By August 14, 2020April 12th, 2021eCommerce Trends, Email Marketing

67% of consumers have made a purchase they weren’t originally planning to make solely based on finding a coupon or discount!

Science proves that coupons are not only effective at converting customers but at making them feel good and more connected to your brand. That means the investment in a discount can deliver long term as well as short term returns on the investment. Want to turn subscribers into customers, win back inactive customers, recover abandoned carts, or incentivize repeat sales?

Nothing makes new customers feel more welcome than getting a special discount. 

The proof is in the results for welcome email campaigns where the conversion rate is 1.63% without coupons and  3.97% with coupons, which is more than double the conversions!

Want to turn subscribers into customers, win back inactive customers, recover abandoned carts, or incentivize repeat sales?  A personalized dynamic coupon can make it happen.

Statistics show that coupons are extremely effective at converting shoppers, not just for the initial purchase but as long term customers. That means the investment in a discount offers a return that grows over time.

 Segmentation + dynamic coupons = more conversions and greater ( LTV ).

The coupon concept  

Savvy marketers have tapped into the power of coupons for well over a century. Coupon Sherpa reports that Coca-Cola co-owner and marketing wiz Asa Chandler coined both the concept and the term from the French couper.

Coupons for free drinks mailed out to people near the pharmacies that ordered the syrup from the company were a hit. And a new marketing medium was born.

For online shopping, we don’t have to cut coupons out. But we still look for them to save money on our purchases.

Abandoned Carts Stats: Campaign Performance with/without Coupons 2019 – 2020

The growth of digital coupons with dynamic possibilities

Statista estimated that 31 billion digital coupons were redeemed around the world in 2019. In the United States more than half of adult shoppers use them regularly.

There are 2 types of digital coupons: Static and Dynamic (personalized). Static coupons work like your traditional paper coupons and are a good option for inclusion in newsletters.

For example, a back-to-school promotion that gives any shopper who types in  “SchoolSavings” at checkout 20% is a static coupon.

Dynamic (or personal) coupons, on the other hand, deliver different “unique” coupon codes that correspond to specific customer segments. They can be used to win back inactive customers or incentivize customers to take a particular action.

For example, if you want to incentivize SMS opt-ins, you can extend a unique code of 15% off to the customers who sign up for it. Dynamic coupons with offers for a free upgrade on shipping can also incentivize customers who abandon carts to close the deal.

Because they are unique to individuals and campaigns, dynamic coupons help identify what pushed a particular customer to convert to understand if they respond better to percentages off or free shipping offers.

The coupon conversion 

This year Juniper Research predicts a value of $51.6 billion for the total value of mobile coupons redeemed, an amount that it anticipates to grow to $67.6 billion in 2023. That’s a huge amount to give up from total sales, but it’s an investment that pays off for retailers.

Coupled with your automated email marketing program, the savings incentive grabs your customer’s attention and motivates conversion.  Remarkety’s stats show that they garner a 76% improvement over the average open rate and an 82% improvement over the average click rate for email marketing.

More specifically, for Abandoned Cart campaigns,  the conversion rate is ~3% without coupons VS ~4% with coupons. That translates into  25% more conversions resulting from coupons.

Welcome Email Stats: Campaign Performance with/without Coupons 2019 – 2020

Additional coupon benefits

While a business can know how many shoppers bought with a coupon, it can be more difficult to quantify how many failed to buy because there was no coupon offered. Nearly half of shoppers admit that they wouldn’t have made their purchase without a coupon, according to  RetailMeNot, and the  benefits of coupons extend far beyond that:

  • 67% of consumers have made a purchase they weren’t originally planning to make solely based on finding a coupon or discount.
  • 4 in 5 consumers feel encouraged to make a first-time purchase with a brand that is new to them if they found an offer.
  • 69% of millennials say they cannot complete a purchase without first searching for a deal or offer.

The payoff for retailers extends beyond the first purchase incentivized by the coupon. Nearly all customers (93% according to the RetailMeNot survey) said they’d buy again from the retailer that proved itself to offer good discounts.

When a coupon wins over shoppers and they start to identify as your customers, they are much more likely to buy again — even without a discount.  That’s because the probability of selling to established customers ranges from 60 to 70% as opposed to the 5-20% odds of sales to new customers.

Learn how easy it is to automate personalized email campaigns with dynamic coupons with Remarkety see the instructions for Magneto 2 and for  Woocommerce.