9 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Running a Sale on Your Online Shop

If you’re thinking about running a sale for your online shop, there are many things to think about. However, generally speaking, sales can be a win-win for both retailers and customers. Naturally, customers will be happy to be paying discounted prices for your products. You, as a retailer, should be happy to sell more products and gain more exposure for your shop and brand. In today’s blog, we’ll look at some questions to ask yourself before running a sale for your online shop.

#1 What is the goal of your sale?

It should come as no surprise that the first question to ask yourself is “what are your goals?” Every successful project begins with this question. The answer to this will help guide you through the next questions that you need to figure out.

In the case of running a sale, you’ll probably be deciding between the following goals:

• Do you want to clear out some old inventory?
  
  
• Do you want to raise awareness for your site and win over new customers?
  
  
• Do you want to upsell to previous customers?
  
  
• Do you want to retarget shoppers who have visited your shop, but didn’t purchase anything?

#2 What should you sell?

After deciding what the goal of your sale is, you should have an easier time deciding what to sell. For example, if you want to get rid of older inventory that is taking up valuable space in your warehouse, place those items on sale.

If you want to attract new customers, you might want to focus on your best-selling item.

Perhaps you have an item that gets abandoned from shopping carts very often. Remarket that item to those shoppers and highlight the discounted price. This might just motivate them to finally complete the purchase.

#3 Who should you target?

Again, by answering our first question, you’ll have an easier time figuring out who to target.

Depending on the product you want to sell, you’ll probably be able to figure out what your targeting should look like. Try to stay focused and relevant when it comes to your audience. If you’re advertising online (more on that later), highly targeted ads keep your CPCs down.

Remember that both Facebook and Google offer ways to target customers that behave similarly to your previous customers. By using “Similar Audience” features, you’ll be able to aim for the right shoppers.

#4 When should you have a sale?

If you’re getting rid of older inventory, there’s probably a good reason that no one is buying it. Perhaps it’s off-season for your products and you want to clear up space to carry in-season products or prepare for next year. Either way, you can try to time your sales with the end the season.

For example, if you sell football kits, you could aim to sell your unsold products near or after the end of the football season. Similarly, unsold snowboards could be sold in March or April at big discounts. If your customers fit a certain niche, and you target them correctly, they’ll be super excited to buy products at big discounts even if it is the off-season.

Otherwise, you might want to get those items on sale around the time of other holidays or sales seasons.

#5 How long should your sale be?

As a general rule, the shorter the sale, the better. Having a short sale creates a sense of urgency for customers who visit your website. For a regular sale, you could let it run for two or three days.

You might also want to consider running a flash sale where you advertise one (or a few) products for just a couple hours. This will create an even stronger sense of urgency, but should be marketed well beforehand.

Don't run your sale for too long. A countdown timer added to your site can create an extra sense of urgency for your visitors.
(Shutterstock.com/Igor Kyrlytsya)

#6 How often should you have a sale?

Though sales can be profitable, the days of running your online shop with a flash sale business model are gone (remember Groupon and Woot?). Even if you’re not running flash sales, having too many regular sales can be damaging to your business. For starters, if you constantly sell your products at a discount, it devalues the value of your products and/or brand.

Secondly, running a sale can be beneficial in so many ways depending on your goals. If your main objective is to win over new clients (and eventually to turn them into loyal customers), then having too many sales will not help you reach those goals. Bargain hunters will take advantage of your sales and wait around for the next one to pop up before buying anything from you again.

Some online shoppers have no intention of becoming loyal customers. They are just waiting for a good sale to come along
(Shutterstock/Lightspring)

Besides that, if you’re running sales often, you’re probably also emailing your customer list often to promote them. You run the risk of people unsubscribing to your newsletter if you do this too often. One survey showed that 52% of respondents feel overwhelmed by the number of “bargain-boasting emails” they receive on a daily basis.

#7 How should you promote your sale?

Promoting your sale could be as simple as sending out an email to your contact list. However, if you’re a relatively new business using this sale to get exposure, try advertising online with Facebook or Google. Social media should definitely be part of your plan as well, through both organic and sponsored posts.

Don’t forget that retargeting is a great way to get interested shoppers back into your shop. Whether you retarget past visitors, past shoppers or abandoned cart visitors, there are a lot of options to get consumers back to your shop and a sale is a perfect incentive to get them to click on your ad.

#8 How much of a discount should you give?

Shutterstock/ASTA Concept

This is a tricky question. The answer to this will depend on your products and the goals you set for your sale. If exposure is more important than short-term profits, then make sure your discount is substantial enough to entice customers to buy, but not so much that you’ll end up losing money.

The other risk with providing too high of a discount is that this could negatively affect the perceived value of your goods. If you have too many sales or offer too low of a price during your sale, consumers might end up thinking that the “regular” price is way too high and might deter them from buying from you at all. In fact, studies have shown that customers who paid full price were more likely to be satisfied than those who bought the same products at discounted prices.

#9 What other things should I keep in mind when running a sale?

You now have asked yourself quite a few questions about running an online sale. What else is there to consider before going live with your sale?

For starters, you can add a countdown timer for your sale. This provides a reminder and more importantly, a sense of urgency, for your site's visitors.

You can also add an inventory quantity extension to your product pages. By showing shoppers how many units are still available for purchase, you’re doing two things: creating urgency to complete the purchase and minimising customer disappointment when they find out that a particular item has been sold out.

We recommend that you avoid slow shipping times no matter what. Standard delivery is fine, but generally speaking, customers shouldn’t have to wait 4-6 weeks for an item.

Remember that study we mentioned after question #8 about customers who purchase items at discounted prices being more likely to be unsatisfied? Just because you are offering them a great price on your products, don’t give them any reason to grieve about your business. In today’s digital world, sometimes a single complaint can be heard around the world.

Similarly, keep in contact with your customers if something does indeed go wrong with their order. Customers want to stay informed about their orders, especially if something goes wrong. The last thing you want is for any of your customers to feel like they’ve been ripped off.

Finally, if you’re expecting a lot of traffic to your website, make sure to load-test your site. If you have a big sale planned and your website crashes in the middle of it due to high-volume traffic, this could ruin the entire sale. Considering that sales are usually limited-time offers, you can’t run the risk of your website crashing on the big day.