How to Effectively Use Amazon Coupons, Discounts, and Promo Codes
November 30, 2022
With inflation on the rise, consumers are becoming more price sensitive. Utilizing promotions and discounts appeals to shoppers who are looking to save and can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. Amazon offers a variety of options to sellers for discounting products, including coupons, promotional codes, and deal programs.
Amazon Coupons
Amazon Coupons provide a way for consumers to save money by clipping digital coupons to receive either a percentage or dollar discount for eligible products. These coupons can be found directly on product listing pages or on the Amazon Coupons dedicated page where customers can see the most popular coupons and product categories.
One advantage to Amazon Coupons is their immediate visibility to shoppers. The platform displays a bright orange tag on both the search results page and the product detail page, prominently advertising that a discount is available. This visibility may result in additional traffic and higher conversion rates as bargain hunters will easily be able to recognize your discounted offering.
Another advantage of coupons is that no discount is applied unless a shopper actually “clips” the coupon by clicking the available checkbox to apply. Studies have shown that as many as one-fourth of shoppers may forget, miss, or mistakenly add the product to cart without applying the coupon. The result for the seller in these cases is a full-priced sale that may have been incentivized by a perceived discount.
A drawback of coupons is the associated fees. Amazon charges $0.60 each time a coupon is redeemed. Depending on your margins, this fee may add up fast when combined with the discount given.
Amazon Promotional Codes
There are several types of promotional codes that Amazon allows sellers to create. While some of these options allow for direct advertising of the promotion on the product detail page, promo codes are generally utilized outside of Amazon with the goal of directing traffic to the listing.
Percentage Off Promotional Codes
Percentage-off promotional codes allow sellers to create a percentage-based discount between 1-99% of a product’s sale price. They can generate a code that the customer can enter at checkout to take advantage of the offering. Sellers can take advantage of several percentage-off promo codes depending on their sales strategy.
Tiered Promotional Codes
Sellers can utilize tiered promotional codes to incentivize shoppers to buy increased product quantities (ex. buy two, get 15% off), or they can combine the promotion with additional products in their catalog (ex. get 15% off when you buy x product and y product). This strategy is a helpful promotional tool when aiming to incentivize additional sales or cross-sales for complementary products.
One-Time Use Promotional Codes
If you want to limit the number of times a promotion can be utilized by a single shopper, one-time use promo codes give the seller additional control. While one-time use codes allow a customer to use the discount for only one purchase, it does not limit the number of units to which the discount can be applied. For example, if a shopper decides to buy five units of a single item, the discount may be applied to all five units as long as the purchase is made in a single transaction.
Buy One, Get One (BOGO)
Buy One, Get One (BOGO) promotions are a popular way to influence customers to purchase multiple products or pay a higher price for a product while still feeling as if they are snagging a deal. BOGO promotions can be based on quantity (ex. buy one, get one free) or amount spent (ex. spend $100, get x free). These promotions reward shoppers for purchasing, which creates a win-win scenario for both sellers and customers.
Unique Claim Codes, Group Claim Codes, or No Codes
There are several ways to set up a promotional offer. Depending on your strategy and distribution method, you can choose to offer unique claim codes to each shopper, a group claim code used by all shoppers, or no claim code.
Unique Claim Codes
Unique claim codes are designed to be utilized as one per shopper. When creating these types of promotions, Amazon will provide a list of individual codes at the quantity you’ve specified. Shoppers may only use these codes on a single account, and they cannot be shared. This option gives the seller more control over discounts. If you only have a specific number of units you want to discount or you have a specific target market for the promotion, this setup helps keep your preferred parameters in place.
Group Claim Codes
Group claim codes are designed to be used by anyone. When creating this type of promotion, you can create a single code that can be widely distributed and used within any account. This strategy is a great setup for offering a discount code on a publicized social media promotion, insert, or email broadcast. Unlike Single Use promo codes, you have little control over where the code is shared and who uses it. You may specify one-time use or choose not to put limits depending on your strategy.
No Claim Codes
You can choose to have promotions that automatically apply to the shopper’s cart without the need to manually enter a code or clip a coupon. These discounts are shown directly on the detail page and can be used for percentage-off, tiered, and BOGO promotions.
Lightning Deals
Lightning Deals are specialized promotional offers on Amazon with a limited number of discounted units offered for a short period of time. Specific requirements are evaluated on a per-ASIN basis. Sales volume, star rating, and inventory levels are all points of consideration for determining eligibility. An eligible ASIN must be discounted by at least 15%. Additionally, the seller will need to choose the number of units they are willing to offer at the discounted price. Once live, the deal will run until all discounted units have been purchased, or for 24 hours – whichever comes first.
7-Day Deals are a version of Lightning Deals that work in a nearly identical fashion, varying only in the duration of the promotion. While Lightning Deals only run for 24 hours, 7-Day Deals run, as the name implies, for a full week. This setup gives your product the opportunity to gain higher levels of traffic and a larger sales boost.
Live Lightning Deals and 7-Day Deals display a deals badge in red on both the search results page and the product detail page. Additionally, they have the potential to be featured on the “Today’s Deals” page, which may drive additional traffic to your listings. Similarly to coupons, the visibility of these deals is an added advantage and may contribute to higher levels of sessions and conversion rates. After a successful deal, brands may experience residual benefits in organic ranking due to potentially improved metrics from the sale.
THE ZQUARED ADVANTAGE
ZQUARED helps Brand Partners understand their consumer audience and assists in conceptualizing and establishing sales strategies. We provide end-to-end solutions that focus on growing our clients’ businesses through advanced brand optimization and marketing, strategy execution, logistical support, and more.
To learn how ZQUARED can help you stay ahead in the Amazon game, request a comprehensive assessment of your Amazon channel. Your audit results will focus on your listings, category, competitors, reseller landscape and more with an individually-tailored strategic plan for capitalizing on opportunities.