Amazon has many great benefits to it, although one caveat sellers have to accept is a lack of creative control. To go with their huge reach and instant brand recognisability, merchants can’t always customise their pages as much as they would with their own pages. But this by no measure means they have to stick with the same template as everyone else, as they’re left with tons of space on their Amazon page to attract buyers in unique ways.
One of the methods we here at RepricerExpress love most is using coupons on Amazon, or at least the concept, which, when manipulated the right way, works out to be a big win for both merchant and shopper.
Where Did Coupons Come From?
We can trace coupons back to 1887 when Coca-Cola retailers mailed out thousands of letters to people, promising them a free glass of Coke. They didn’t start off couponing with half measures, though, because they also enlisted their employees to hand out these coupons on the streets, as well as placed them inside of magazines.
You can imagine what a huge success that was.
But where did the name for it come from? For the answer to that, we have to look at the French and their word ‘couper’, which means to cut. Coupons — up until recently — had to be cut out of pieces of paper to be used because the surrounding space was filled with advertising unnecessary to redeem the coupon. With the stellar reputation the French have for shopping, it’s no wonder we owe this word to them.
How Quickly Coupons Took Off
Thanks to the success of Coca-Cola’s inaugural couponing campaign (over 8.5 million Coke coupons were redeemed from 1894-1913), the world wanted more — much more.
However, and despite the massively good receipt of coupons, we wouldn’t see the second swell until 1909 when Grape Nuts cereal got on-board. But what really threw coupons into a whole new stratosphere was one of the most catastrophically bad periods in recent history: the decades following the Depression and World War Two. Consumers needed to save money badly, and coupons were one of the best ways of doing so.
Coupons and Amazon: Two Worlds Collide
Now, coupons are largely digital, although you can still certainly find them in paper form. Amazon, unfortunately, has very little to do with paper, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t use couponing to your advantage.
If we take a look at just what coupons do, then there are many ways you can try to use the concept on Amazon:
- Free Shipping: Arguably the most popular form of couponing on Amazon, free shipping is one of the most excellent ways of sweetening the pot to tip the sale in your favour.
- BOGO: When you can offer buyers a second product at a reduced price, they’re much more liable to go in on the first one.
- Bundling: Instead of only offering a discount on the second or third products, offer to knock the price down a bit on all items if they buy into a package deal.
The Types of Coupons Shoppers Like Best
You’re really only limited by your imagination as to what kind of couponing adventures you can send your buyers on, although we have discovered the most effective form of it.
Receiving specific dollar amounts off their purchase.
Almost a third of buyers (31%) will make a purchase if you include this form of coupon on your Amazon page, as it’s straightforward (no calculating a percentage of any price), it’s flexible (can be used on theoretically any product), and it’s freeing (the control is entirely in their hands).
But buyers like coupons so much, 91% of them report they’ll visit your (Amazon) page again simply because you offered them a coupon. Even more telling? Over half (57%) say they would have never bought that product had you not had a coupon in place.
Final Thoughts
Couponing is a strategy every Amazon seller needs to get in place, especially if they’re looking to increase the number of buyers they have. People like thinking they’re getting things for free, and coupons are a highly visible way of satisfying that desire. But one offshoot of couponing that’s not always as visible — but still powerfully effective — is repricing, which automatically gives your buyers a bit of a coupon rush without them having to do a thing. It’s even easier than posting coupons on your Amazon page because RepricerExpress will do all the work for you. All you have to do is start your 15-day free trial now. Discover 15 reasons to use Amazon repricing software.
