With the economy still not at peak performance, apparel retailers went to the old standby this past holiday season, discounting. We all know that, if not done well, this promotions strategy can quickly erode margins and add little value to the customer, especially loyal ones. For the online channel, free shipping (the oldest promotion used in eCommerce) was still at the top of the heap this past holiday season.
Customers have come to expect free shipping, especially for orders of significant value (over $100). If you’re like many retailers, you’d like to stop this practice of giving customers free shipping all together. Free shipping decreases margins and, in many cases, can’t be used alongside other more attractive promotions for both the retailer and the customer. Avoid offering free shipping as a site wide promotion; it limits your options due to double-dipping on promotions that will ultimately shave your margins.
Moving forward, retailers must implement a comprehensive promotions strategy to maintain a high level of consumer satisfaction toward their brand. Savvy retailers know their promotions strategies must be innovative, creative and customized to meet the shopping habits of specific consumer segments. When building a comprehensive omnichannel promotions strategy, it’s important to create offers targeted at four key elements:
- Acquiring new customers
- Increasing average order size
- Moving excess inventory
- Satisfying customers
Without a well-thought-out strategy, and the systems to deliver and measure success, it’s virtually impossible to know whether or not your promotions are generating true return on investment.
Five Actions for Successful Retail Promotions
Using today’s available tools and technology – like a strong eCommerce platform, mobile devices and robust order and inventory management systems, omnichannel retailers can create customized promotions plans that deliver offers to consumers based on the segmentation of both preferences and shopping behavior. To execute a winning promotions strategy, retailers should follow these five essential actions:
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Segment Customers
Segment customers into groups, particularly if your products attract a diverse group of shoppers. By collecting customer data, merchandisers can better understand the triggers that make a consumer react to a specific type of promotion. Tracking consumers by these behavior groups allows you to introduce specialized promotional programs and send relevant offers to consumers who are more likely to buy. Online capabilities facilitate the collection of information provided by consumers when they register on a site and by their shopping habits. Consumers can then be grouped by price sensitivity, product class, order size, number of visits and other relevant characteristics.
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Try New Types of Promotions
The goal of promotions is to cut through the noise created by the market and ultimately inspire a consumer to make a purchase through a designated call to action. For this reason, promotions must be creative, offer real value and go beyond just discounting. New promotional concepts – like shipping destination, shipping methods, X first customers, every Nth customer, every X order, items per promotion, apply offer to Nth item, returns-based, payment method, free product choice, rebates, multiple bonus products and many others – are starting to be used by some innovative apparel retailers on their eCommerce sites. Retailers are even starting to use stock-level based promotions to move excess inventory. Although there’s a lot of diversity in online promotions, a word to the wise – be sure to have rules in place for managing promotions to avoid pitfalls (like giving away double offers or unintentionally not providing a consumer with the best available promotion).
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Test and Track Promotions
Once customers are organized into relevant groups and the list of promotions has been created, you can better determine the effectiveness of specific promotions by performing A/B tests. A/B tests are a comparative form of testing that allows you to test several promotion types against a typical offer to determine which will yield the best results. For example, different promotions can be offered to a single group of consumers to find out which is most effective. This can be as simple as offering a 20 percent discount versus a 30 percent discount to determine discount thresholds. Or, it can be as complex as offering 10 unique promotion types. Since A/B testing can deliver real-time results, it’s the best vehicle for gathering data on time-sensitive offers. Testing is also an import measurement tool for safeguarding against over promotion and protecting margins.
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Synchronize Omnichannel Promotions With Your Order Management System (OMS)
Over the years, consumers have been trained that they can shop through any channel, and thereby get the same promotions no matter where they shop. Synchronizing promotions across channels has been a huge challenge for retailers, especially when we’re talking websites and stores. Order management systems that offer a diverse set of promotions can provide the unification of offers across channels. Unfortunately, too many eCommerce platforms and order management systems do not offer the same promotion types, therefore creating a disconnect and weakening creative offer-based strategies. Review your systems to make sure your OMS software tools offer a diverse set of promotions to maximize your ROI.
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Go Beyond Discounting to Connect with Customers
Deep discounting across the board used to be the norm in the apparel industry. However, retailers are getting hip to the fact that offering significant discounts to all customers will ultimately only lower margins and cheapen the value of the products for many customers who would probably have purchased anyway. Armed with more precise promotions technology to track effectiveness, today’s retailing strategies are moving towards loyalty-based promotions, such as “surprise and delight” giveaways. Time has shown that customers appreciate receiving something for free, especially when they’re not expecting it. Using these promotions will help create repeat customers. Little things can go a long way – sending customers a thank-you message after the purchase has been made, or sending out a loyal customer offer for their next purchase can really seal the deal.
The Bottom Line
Today, retailers must vary the types of the promotions they offer to maintain a high level of consumer satisfaction toward their brand. Success is a simple recipe: learn about the most loyal shoppers, promote to a targeted audience, keep customers happy and loyal and sell your products. And of course, remember to be creative. The key is getting consumers to interact with your brand based on their typical shopping practices. Executing effective promotions combines using the best technology with the fine art of truly knowing your individual customers.
Feeling a little overwhelmed? We’ve got you covered – Freestyle’s MOM V11 can help. Learn more about the power of the most robust order and inventory management software on the market. Request a demo today.
