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Smart, strategic discount pricing strategies can work wonders for your sales, customer acquisition, and long-term retention. If any of these are your goals, it’s worth considering launching your next discount campaign.
However, it’s not always that simple. Choosing the wrong type of discount or running them too often can hurt your margins and even devalue your products in the eyes of shoppers.
We’re here to help out! In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the most effective discount pricing strategies, when to use them, and how to implement them in your store. What’s more, we’ll show you how to maximize the visibility of these discounts through product feeds.
Exciting, right? Let’s get right into it!
What Is A Discount Pricing Strategy?
A discount pricing strategy is a promotional tactic that offers price reductions to increase sales. When implemented right, they help store owners:
- Attract first-time buyers
- Increase average order value (AOV)
- Clear out old inventory
- Reward loyal customers
- Stay competitive in a saturated market
Not all types of discounts work the same for every store. The key to success is choosing the right type of discount depending on your store’s goals. For example, offering a Buy One Get One (BOGO) deal can be perfect for increasing order volume, while a loyalty-based discount can help improve customer retention.
Thankfully, there are a lot of proven strategies you can choose from, depending on your store’s priority. Let’s go over them in the next section!
Most Effective Discount Pricing Strategies For Ecommerce
1. BOGO (Buy One Get One) deals
A list of effective discount pricing strategies won’t be complete without BOGO (Buy One, Get One) deals! It’s highly popular for shoppers—in fact, industry research reveals that customers often prefer Buy One Get One deals over other types of promotions. This is because BOGO deals increase the perceived value of a purchase: by giving a second item for free or at a discounted price, customers feel like they’re getting more while spending the same.
This type of campaign also offers immense flexibility for store owners. For instance, most of the WooCommerce businesses we work with run different types of BOGO offers depending on their goals. This can include:
- Buy One, Get One Free (BOGOF): A classic BOGO deal to move stock fast
Buy One, Get One X% Off: Offer the second product at a discount. This helps preserve margins while still rewarding the customer - Buy X, Get Y: Mix and match products. This BOGO type offers more flexibility, which is perfect if you have a wide range of product categories (e.g., Buy 2 shirts, get an accessory free)
If you’re a WooCommerce store owner, you can easily launch flexible BOGO deals using Advanced Coupons. This powerful plugin allows you to set up complex promotions and set specific cart conditions to control when and how discounts apply.
💡 When to use BOGO promotions:
- Increasing order volume and cart size
- Moving surplus or seasonal stock
- Promoting product bundles (especially for complementary items)
- Stores with strong margins or fast-moving inventory
2. Flash sales with countdown timers
Flash sales create a sense of urgency by setting tight deadlines on your discounts. They typically last anywhere from a few hours to 48 hours. This strategy taps into shoppers’ fear of missing out (FOMO), which encourages them to buy now instead of later.
Adding countdown timers is a simple but powerful way to make flash sales more effective. By showing a visual deadline (such as a ticking clock), you reinforce the sense of urgency. You can easily apply this strategy on WooCommerce using tools like OptinMonster, which lets you add countdown timers on banners, pop-ups, or product pages.
💡 When to use flash sales
- During slow sales periods or off-seasons
- When launching new collections or exclusive items
- Around key holidays or retail events (e.g., Black Friday, 11.11, Birthday promos)
3. Loyalty discounts
According to industry insights, returning customers spend 67% more than new shoppers. Loyalty discounts target these shoppers, letting you encourage repeat purchases and enhance brand trust.
This discount pricing strategy is often used as part of a loyalty program, where customers can earn points or unlock special perks after hitting certain milestones. For example, you can reward VIP shoppers with exclusive discount codes or let them redeem points for discounts or free items.
💡When to use loyalty discounts
- To increase customer lifetime value (CLTV)
- When you want to shift from acquisition to retention
- To reward repeat buyers and show appreciation
- To build a VIP program or membership-based tiers
📝Want to launch a loyalty program in WooCommerce? Check out WooCommerce Loyalty Program. This plugin allows you to launch a points-based reward system in minutes. Choose which actions earn points, and have full control over redemption options, points messaging, rewards expiry, and more.
4. First purchase discounts
First purchase discounts (or welcome discounts) offer a clear incentive for new customers to make their first order. By offering a small discount or perk (e.g., 10% off or free shipping), you ease hesitation and turn casual browsers into customers.
Many brands tie welcome discounts to an email opt-in to grow their subscribers. Once subscribers are onboarded, you can further nurture the relationship with follow-up offers, product news, and exciting brand updates.
💡 When to use first purchase discounts
- To increase conversions from new visitors
- When launching opt-in offers to grow your email list
- During product or brand launches
5. Volume-based discounts
The principle behind volume-based discount is simple: buy more, save more. It’s an excellent discount pricing strategy if you want to encourage bulk orders in your store or aim to increase average order values. There are several ways to format these discounts, such as through:
- Tiered pricing: Offer bigger discounts based on quantity thresholds
- Bulk purchase incentives: Apply a flat discount once a minimum number of items is added to the cart
- Spend-based tiers: Offer a discount based on total spend
If you’re selling to B2B buyers or wholesale customers, volume-based discounts are a must. These types of customers often expect wholesale pricing that rewards them when ordering in larger quantities. Tools like Wholesale Suite allow you to easily set wholesale prices, minimum order requirements, and bulk discounts that automatically apply depending on cart content.
💡When to use volume-based discounts
- To increase AOV and reward bulk purchases
- When selling to wholesale or B2B customers
- To move large quantities of stock (e.g., seasonal items or bundles)
How To Maximize Discount Visibility With Product Feeds
Product feeds are one of the best ways to increase the visibility of your discount campaigns. They allow you to showcase discounted products across shopping platforms like Google Shopping, Pinterest, and other marketplaces. Instead of waiting for customers to find your store, product feeds push your offers where shoppers are already browsing!
AdTribes makes product feed creation and management seamless for WooCommerce store owners. With this plugin, you can easily:
- Include discounted and sale-priced items in your product feeds
- Automatically sync your regular price and sale price, so shoppers can see the discount before even visiting your store
- Apply filters and rules to showcase only the products with active promotions
- Schedule feed updates to match the timing of your flash sales, limited-time offers, or seasonal campaigns
By keeping your product feed fresh, you can increase the visibility of your products, drive more traffic to your store, and increase conversions.
Pretty cool, right? If you want to learn more about how product feeds work, check out our guides:
- What Is A Product Feed And How Do You Create One? (Ultimate Guide)
- The Best Way To Create A Custom Feed For Product Listings (Ultimate Guide)
- What Is Product Feed Management? (How To Enhance Data Distribution)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best method to provide discounts?
The best discount pricing strategy to use depends on your store’s unique goals. If you’re aiming to move seasonal inventory and increase sales volume, BOGO and volume discounts are the best. However, if your goal is to increase customer retention or boost loyalty, consider offering loyalty discounts or exclusive offers for VIP customers.
What is the most common type of discount?
Store owners commonly run percentage-based discounts, free shipping offers, and fixed amount discounts. They’re easy to understand and apply in ecommerce stores. Other popular discounts include BOGO offers, tiered pricing, and minimum spend discounts.
What is a discounting strategy?
A discounting strategy offers price reductions to support specific business goals. They’re designed to encourage purchases, attract new customers, and boost customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Smart discount pricing strategies are powerful tools to support your store’s growth. By running a discount campaign, you can attract new shoppers, foster loyalty, and increase sales. In this simple guide, we walked you through some of the most popular and effective strategies:
- BOGO (Buy One Get One) deals
- Flash sales with countdown timers
- Loyalty discounts
- First purchase discounts
- Volume-based discounts
We also showed you how to maximize the visibility of your discounts using product feeds. Tools like AdTribes help amplify your promotional efforts by letting you showcase discounted products across different sales channels like Google Shopping and Pinterest.
We hope this guide helped you out! 😊
