Very big discounts (60% off or more) reduced sales on Groupon instead of increasing them. Avoid heavy discounts when it’s difficult to verify your product’s quality before buying it.
Exceptionally strong warranties (e.g. 10 year warranty for a sweater) are a powerful way to signal high quality for unfamiliar brands and boost purchase intentions.
The space-to-product ratio effect: use more empty space between products on display to increase their perceived value and beauty. In one of the experiments sales increased 98%.
If your product is hedonic (e.g. fashion, high-end electronics), promoted posts from small influencers (10k to 100k followers) drive more sales than those of large ones (>1m followers).
Large referral rewards (e.g. Get $50 if you invite a friend) boost the referral rate (+750% in one experiment) but lower the average profitability of newly referred customers (-48%).
Frame a product as the ‘free gift’ in a bundle instead of the main product (e.g. “Buy softener and get Ariel detergent [primary product] free”). Sales were up to 78% higher in a series of experiments.
If your brand is prestigious, place products far from the customer or model in an ad. If your brand is mainstream, position them close.
After a service failure, use appreciation (“Thank you for your patience”) instead of an apology (“Sorry to keep you waiting”) to improve satisfaction, repurchases, and word-of-mouth.
Display some sold-out options to increase quality perceptions of your products and increase sales (31.1% more people said they would buy in one experiment). Don’t show too many or the effect backfires
Promotions on unusual ‘Special Days’ (e.g. World Tourism Day, anniversary of first purchase) are more effective at increasing sales. In one experiment, people were 25% more likely to buy.
Sustainability initiatives signal trust and product quality for small businesses and startups. People were 82% more interested in products from a sustainable startup.
If your launch is far away, use free gifts rather than discounts to encourage pre-orders (in one experiment they were 125% more effective). If it’s less than a week away you can use either.
