Offering combo deals can increase sales, and customers are more willing to purchase multiple products if they can get a good deal. In addition, almost half of all online shoppers expect to see bundle deals. So, combo offers not only increase sales, but they can also improve customer satisfaction by offering customers the opportunity to purchase multiple products they want at a discounted price.
In this blog, we’ll show you what combo offers are, how to create appealing and profitable deals, and how to effectively promote them to your customers.
What are Combo Offers?
Combo offers are promotions bundling two or more products or services at a discounted price. They are a powerful marketing strategy to attract customers and retain the existing consumer base. For example, you could bundle a camera and tripod or create a Valentine’s Day gift bundle with chocolates, flowers, and a romantic card. You could also bundle slow-moving inventory with more popular items to help move them off the shelves.
Giant eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Snapdeal constantly put discounts and offers on their homepage, many related to electronic products. By selling expensive items like smartphones, laptops, television sets, and headphones in various permutations, they ensure an active interest from the buyer community. The biggest advantage of eCommerce platforms is the absence of a physical store. Instead, shoppers can view all the offers and sale announcements on their smartphones, which is more convenient than travelling to a shop or retail outlet searching for discounts or good deals.
Types of Combo Offers eCommerce Businesses Can Use
Buy One Get One Free
The “Buy One Get One Free” offer is exactly as it sounds; a customer purchases one item and gets another for free. It’s a win-win situation for both the customer and the seller. The customer feels like they’re getting a great deal, while the seller can move more inventory and make a profit. It can be applied to various products, including food items, makeup, and lifestyle products. Customers are always looking for good deals; this type of offer can appeal to impulse purchases and those looking to stock up on a particular product.
Buy Multiple Products at a Lower Cost
This type of combo offer involves grouping items that belong to the same family of products and selling them at a lower cost than if purchased individually. As a result, it encourages customers to purchase more items as they get a better deal. This can increase the average order value, which can be very beneficial for your business. For example, a makeup kit or a shaving kit. This provides convenience for the customer by offering a pre-packaged solution and saves them a significant amount of money compared to purchasing each item separately.
Buy X to Get Y Free
Many successful eCommerce businesses have implemented this type of offer with great success. The “Buy X to Get Y Free” offer encourages customers to spend more money to receive the free item. This increases your sales revenue but can help you move slow-moving inventory by pairing it with more popular items. Additionally, this type of offer can help you attract new customers and retain existing ones by incentivizing them to purchase.
Buy Worth X Amount to Receive a Discount on Future Purchases
This type of combo offer encourages customers to spend more money in one transaction by offering them a discount on their next purchase. For example, you might offer a discount of $10 on the customer’s next purchase if they spend $50 or more today. As a result, this offer can encourage customers to make larger purchases, increasing sales revenue. In addition, it can help you build a loyal customer base by incentivizing customers to return to your store for future purchases. It can also help you track customer behaviours and preferences, as you can offer tailored discounts and promotions to customers based on their past purchases.
How to Use Combo Offers on your eCommerce Stores?
Identify Your Target Audience and Their Needs
As an eCommerce business owner, one of the most important aspects of using combo offers on your store is identifying your target audience and their needs. This is because your target audience will dictate the type of combo offers that will be most effective for your business.
Firstly, you need to understand your target audience. Who are they? What are their demographics? What are their interests and hobbies? What are their pain points? By answering these questions, you can create a buyer persona for your target audience, which will help you tailor your combo offers to their specific needs.
Designing Combo Offers that Attract and Retain Customers
As an eCommerce business owner, you must understand how to design combo offers that attract and retain customers. A well-designed combo offer can drive sales, increase customer loyalty, and help you stand out. The key to designing effective combo offers is to ensure that the products or services included in the offer complement each other or cater to a particular occasion or theme. Another way to design effective combo offers is to pair slow-moving inventory with more popular items. This strategy helps you move slow-moving inventory while boosting sales of more popular items.
Timing Your Combo Offers
Timing is everything in business, and this is especially true when it comes to launching combo offers. As an eCommerce business owner, you must understand the importance of timing your offers to maximize their impact. One effective way to time your combo offers is to coincide them with seasonal changes or events. For example, launching a combo offer on summer clothing in the springtime will likely be more successful than launching it in the middle of winter.
Another way to time your combo offers is to launch them during peak shopping. This can include major holidays such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Christmas. Customers actively look for deals and discounts during these periods, making them more likely to take advantage of your combo offers.
Promoting Your Combo Offers
One of the most crucial aspects of running combo offers on your eCommerce store is promoting them effectively to your target audience. After all, if your customers aren’t aware of your offers, they won’t be able to take advantage of them. Therefore, you must develop a comprehensive promotional strategy that reaches your customers through various channels to get the most out of your combo offers. One effective way to promote your combo offers is through social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to share images and descriptions of your products with your followers, along with links to your store. You can also use paid advertising on social media to target specific audiences who may be interested in your combo offers.
Measuring the Success of Your Combo Offers
Once you’ve launched your combo offers, tracking their success is important to determine if they’re effective and driving sales. There are a few ways to measure the success of your combo offers, and the first step is to track your sales and revenue generated by the offers. By doing this, you’ll be able to determine which offers to drive the most revenue and which aren’t as effective.
Strategies to Implement Combo Offers for your eCommerce Business
Have Clear and Specific Goals in Mind
Implementing combo offers can be a great way to boost your eCommerce business, but it’s important to have clear and specific goals in mind before doing so. By setting clear objectives, you can better target your ideal customers and create offers tailored to their needs and preferences.
By offering bundled products at a discounted price, you can encourage customers to purchase more than they would have otherwise. This can help boost revenue and grow your customer base. Additionally, you might aim to clear out slow-moving inventory by pairing those items with more popular products in combo offers.
Use combo offers to clear out slow-moving inventory
If you have slow-moving inventory, combo offers can be a great way to clear them out and make room for new products. Pairing these items with more popular products can create a win-win situation for you and your customers. You can offer attractive discounts on slow-moving items and encourage customers to purchase them along with the popular ones they are already interested in. This not only helps you get rid of unwanted inventory but also boosts your overall sales.
Bundle complementary products
Combining products that complement each other can create a cohesive package that appeals to customers who want a complete solution for their needs. For example, if you sell various home fitness equipment, you could bundle together a set of weights, a yoga mat, and resistance bands at a discounted price. This would create a package appealing to customers seeking a complete workout solution.
By bundling complementary products, you can also increase the average order value of your customers. Since the customer is getting a discounted price for purchasing multiple items together, they may be more likely to add additional items to their cart to take advantage of the offer. Additionally, bundling complementary products can help move slower-selling items by pairing them with more popular products.
Create a sense of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is an effective strategy to boost sales and encourage customers to act quickly. For example, you can create a sense of urgency and motivate customers to purchase by making combo offers time limited. One way to do this is by setting a countdown timer, which can be displayed prominently on your website or social media platforms. Another way is offering a limited quantity of products, such as “while supplies last” or “limited stock available.” This creates a sense of scarcity and encourages customers to act fast to take advantage of the deal. However, balancing creating urgency and not appearing too pushy, or manipulative is important. When used appropriately, creating a sense of urgency can be an effective strategy to increase sales and attract more customers to your eCommerce store.
Offer variety in your combo offers
Offering variety in your combo offers can help attract a wider range of customers and increase sales. You can cater to different customers’ needs and preferences by providing different types of combo offers. For example, some customers may be more interested in getting a free item, while others may prefer a percentage discount.
You can also offer variety in the products included in your combo offers. For example, try pairing popular items with slower-moving inventory to increase sales of the latter. Additionally, consider creating themed combo offers for special occasions or events, such as holiday gift sets or back-to-school bundles.
Provide exclusive deals for loyal customers
One effective strategy to implement combo offers for your eCommerce store is to provide exclusive deals for your loyal customers. These customers have already demonstrated their trust and loyalty to your brand, so rewarding them with exclusive offers can help strengthen your relationship with them and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.
To offer exclusive deals, you can create a loyalty program that rewards customers for their purchases or for referring friends to your store. You can then provide combo offers exclusively to these loyal customers, such as buy-one-get-one-free deals or discounts on specific product bundles.
Use social media to promote your combo offers
Social media has become an integral part of our lives and a powerful tool to promote your combo offers. By using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can showcase your combo deals to a wider audience. Creating visually appealing posts and ads with clear messaging about the value of the offer can grab the attention of potential customers. Also, consider partnering with social media influencers who can promote your offers to their followers. This way, you can reach a larger audience and increase the visibility of your combo deals.
Know your LTV and profit margins
When implementing combo offers for your eCommerce business, it’s crucial to deeply understand your customer’s Lifetime Value (LTV) and your profit margins. LTV is the total revenue you can expect from a customer throughout their relationship with your brand. Profit margins, on the other hand, are the difference between the cost of the product and the revenue you receive from selling it. Knowing these metrics is vital because they can help you determine the value you can offer customers through promotional campaigns. In addition, understanding your LTV and profit margins will allow you to offer engaging and profitable deals for your business.
Send different combo offers to different customer segments
One of the keys to effective combo offers is to target specific customer segments with tailored promotions. By targeting specific segments with tailored promotions, you can increase the relevance and effectiveness of your offers.
For example, you might offer first-time buyers a different promotion than your most loyal customers. First-time buyers might be enticed by a discount on their first purchase or a bundle deal. At the same time, loyal customers might be more interested in a loyalty program with exclusive perks, or a personalized product bundle based on their purchase history.
Conclusion
You can develop a healthy customer relationship and increase sales by creating a win-win situation for customers and your business. Discounts, coupons, and combo offers are great tools for increasing sales and attracting customer loyalty. However, discounts and combos should be tailored to customers’ expectations to make this eCommerce marketing strategy successful. These tools are awesome, but you should not limit yourself to this only. There are lots of other marketing strategies that work best to boost eCommerce sales. Curious to know? Here are the top 7 eCommerce marketing strategies for your online business.
