As an online vendor, one of the most powerful ways to drive potential customers and traffic to your online store is to do promotions. Promotions can come in several forms from price slashing to sweet promos to bonuses when products are bought. If you are familiar with the online shopping sphere in Nigeria, then you know that Jumia, a Nigerian shopping website got popular primarily from their Black Friday sales. Although Jumia was already well known in Nigeria, the Black Friday sales made their popularity go up a higher notch. There is no potential customer of a service whose ears won't perk up at the mention of promotional offers. Although promotional offers are not a 100% guarantee to business success or making a lot of sales, they do increase your chances.

With all that being said, below we will be dishing out some major points or guidelines that you should follow while using the promo/bonus bait to get more customers.

1. Know the different types of sales promotions

Sales Promotions can be very useful to publicize your online store or business and also in gaining new customers. And sales promotions are more like an investment rather than an expensive give-away. It is usually for a short period of time while the promotions last. As an online vendor, you will soon discover that your sales promotions and bonuses will attract a huge number of new customers who previously did not know about your brand. Before applying the technique of sales promotions, you should know the different types of it.

A.  Discounts

Discounts are deductions in the normal price of a product or service offered by a company to a customer. Discounts attract a lot of people as they would be glad to get a particular product at a much lesser price. Discounts could be in form of free shipping, prepayment discount, bundle discount, volume discount, seasonal discount and more. Discounts bring more customers and drive more sales. If you have an overstocked product that you wish to get off your shelf quickly, discounts are a great tool to use.

B.  Buy 1, Get 1 free

According to a research report, a huge ratio of 2 out of 3 consumers prefers the buy 1 get 1 free promo offer to all other forms of promotional offers. Who wouldn't jump at such an offer? Everybody loves a good deal. And as an online vendor in Nigeria, it is your best bet to getting free customers and marketing your brand.

C.  Coupons

Coupons are a traditional way to go out promotional bonuses and they still work in this day and age. So, don't be afraid to try it.

D.  Gifts

Gifts can be used to attract new customers to your brand. For example, if a lucky customer qualifies to win a particular gift after meeting certain conditions, gifts should be given to them as a reward. As a vendor, you can highlight the types of gifts to be given when your products are bought. If consumers are excited by the prospect of winning your gift, they will buy your products.

2. Limit the availability of the promo offers.

One of the best ways to make a promo offer be extremely successful is to put a time stamp on the validity of the promo offer. Give a deadline-based sense of urgency to your potential customers and watch them rush you. You have probably seen a few online stores even have the ticking countdown clock on their website to alert new website visitors that the promotional sale will expire on a particular date. Usually, promotional offers are given a deadline of a few weeks or days.

3. Promote and market your company's promotional sale everywhere possible.

Places to take advantage of in promoting your price slash or bonuses is your company website, the front page of your online store, your social media pages, your email newsletters, online advertisements, and more. The more people can see your promotion, the more likely you will be successful with your promotional sale will be.

Conclusion

The 3 tips above are very brief yet straightforward points to help you hit that nail on the coffin when it comes to the success of your online store. Remember that, the reason you are investing in doing promotional offers in the first place, is to bring more traffic and loyal customers to your brand. Good luck.