What kind of offers should I make on my site?

Offers help you sell more stuff. They’re most often used just to get people to put something in a shopping cart.

But used judiciously through an eCommerce process, strategically placed offers can also be used to increase the Average Order Value (AOV) of your customer’s shopping basket which is a good thing for your bottom line.

Let’s look at some common website offers:

• A one-month free trial
• Buy-one-get-one-free
• Free shipping
• Extended warranty
• Pay in instalments
• Buy now, pay later
• First one free
• Automatic renewal

The idea behind these sorts of offers is to incentivise your visitor to take action, whether they put something in their shopping cart or call you. This is all about getting the trust and getting the sales process started.

Okay, so someone’s popped something in their cart, and they’re heading towards the checkout… The question is, how can we use another offer to encourage them to put something else in their cart?

A “Spend $X and get free shipping” offer is one of the most commonly used; and the reason for this is that it usually works a treat.

Here’s an example from local Melbourne-based online (and offline) retailer Sam Bear:

Sam Bear use a “Spend $120 and get free shipping” offer which I really admire. If you look through their online inventory, they have dozens and dozens of products which cost less than or close to $120, so there’s a good incentive to add more products to your cart to get the free shipping.

As regular “Levis jeans shopper” that’s precisely what I end up doing every time.

It’s great to see some ‘smaller’ online retailers adopting tactics the big guys use in the US.

I guess the basic rule of thumb is, if a huge online store in the States use these tactics, they probably work.

I often say it’s always a good idea to test, because obviously Australians might react differently to certain types of offers than Americans.

Some additional type offers you might consider include:

• Cashback offers (apart from helping you get the sale, I’ve heard that these can work even more in your favour, as many people just never get around to applying for the ‘cashback’).
• Cash discounts offered if a certain spend amount is spent by the customer.
• Cross sell other products and accessories.
• Create and offer product bundles.

For more Online Sales expert advice, click here.

Chris Thomas heads up Reseo, a search engine optimisation  company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.