16 PROMOTIONS TO INCREASE SALES OF YOUR BEAUTY PRODUCTS THAT DON’T INVOLVE DISCOUNTING
Whether it be a slow winter season or a pandemic, there comes a time for almost all brands where sales slow down and you want to increase sales of your beauty products quickly. While it might sound like a good solution to offer discounts, I’m here to urge you to think otherwise. Discounting your products is a dangerous and short-sighted strategy that’ll impact the way your customers perceive your brand in the long run.
If there’s one thing I want you to learn from this article, it’s that discounting your products whenever you want an instant bump in sales can result in some long-term consequences.
WHY YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE DISCOUNTING YOUR PRODUCT:
Your profit margins will be significantly smaller:
Running a successful business isn’t easy. As a brand owner, if you choose to discount your products by 50%, how will that impact your sales revenue? To be able to reach your original revenue goals, you’d need to sell twice as much. Would you be able to do that and meet your quotas?
The pricing of your products has carefully factored in certain costs and risks like product damage, potential increases in ingredient pricing, employee salaries, marketing fees, giveaways, shipping, fulfillment, and much more. Discounting your products can really hurt your brand’s profit margins and leave your business at risk in the long-run.
It creates an expectation of future discounting:
Once you’ve opened the door of discounting, many customers will wait until your next sale before making another purchase. If you find your customers only purchasing during sales, that’s totally on you. It’s very easy to train customers to shop only during sales. Instead of encouraging bad habits, why not lead your customers to respect and value your products at their full price? Your brand and your products are worth it. Embody that mindset.
Your reputation for the long run is impacted:
Customers perceive the actual value of a product by the price they pay for it. By discounting your product, you’re also discounting the perceived value of your brand.
You may start cutting corners:
Brands that are constantly discounting their products need to find other ways to keep their businesses lucrative. Most of the time that involves cutting corners to lower their costs like sourcing from lower-quality manufacturers that ends up lowering the overall quality of what they sell. Don’t be that brand.
KNOW THE VALUE OF YOUR BUSINESS. IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE AUTHORITY AND REPUTATION YOU’VE WORKED HARD FOR, LIMIT YOUR DISCOUNTING.
I typically advise my clients to limit to two discount campaigns a year maximum and make a really big deal out of those campaigns by priming them far in advance.
If you’re in a slump, there are other ways to make more sales other than discounting your product.
HERE ARE 16 PROVEN WAYS TO INCREASE SHORT-TERM SALES WITHOUT DEVALUING THE REPUTATION OF YOUR BRAND:
1. BOGO
BOGO sales are a win-win for both businesses and shoppers. A BOGO deal like “buy one get one 50% off” equates to 25% off the total order, but it feels like so much more.
Companies like TOMS and BeautyCounter swear by BOGO promotions like these.
INCREASE SALES OF BEAUTY PRODUCTS FOR YOUR BEAUTY BRAND
There’s no doubt that a good BOGO promotion is one of the easiest ways to motivate customers to purchase more products and help them feel like they’re getting major value from their order. It turns out that 66% of shoppers prefer BOGO to all other kinds of discount promotions. What’s more, 93% of shoppers shared that they’ve taken advantage of a BOGO sale at least once.
2. BUNDLES
Offering bundles is a strategy that’s similar to the BOGO concept. Bundles provide value to your customers who choose to buy multiple products from you. Bundles like gift sets and package deals are ideal for buyers looking for good deals or simply convenience.
Glossier is big on product bundles. They’ve even dedicated an entire tab called “Save on Sets” where they show exactly how much customers can save when they buy one.
By offering a small discount on a set of several products like 100 Percent Pure, you make your customers feel like they’re getting more value while generating sales for your business. Another great benefit of offering bundles is that it also ends up promoting products that your customers might have otherwise never thought about buying.
Baby care brands can also greatly benefit from offering bundles. Babo Botanicals offers a newborn and baby gift set that contains all the essential must-haves so moms can shop everything they need to wash, moisturize, and soothe their babies in one value-earning set.
Zoe Organics is another example of a natural baby care brand that offers skincare bundles for both pregnancy and babies.
Next Level: Another way to take your bundles to another level and experience steady sales is to offer your kits on a subscription basis. Menstrual care company Rael offers essential kits that can be renewed every month with an added 10% discount.
