If you have a business and would wish to utilize ebay deals and come up with your own deals for your customers, it is best that you avoid the pitfalls of coupon websites which include the following:
Losing a lot of money on discount offers
It is one thing making losses which are manageable on an offer on coupon so that you attract some new customers. It is something else losing too much money which takes several months of trading to be able to recover your losses.
A recent study of 3 small business which utilized coupon sites found out that their losses on a monthly basis from the offers of coupon amount to about $6300 at a car wash sale which is equal to their profit on a monthly basis, to about $11760 at a beauty spa which could be equated to double normal monthly profit.
According to another study of about 150 small business which utilize coupon site, it found out that about a third became unprofitable and 40% said they will never repeat the same again. To ensure that you avoid losing a lot of money on coupon offer, it is important that you pick your offer and product wisely, build some opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell and consider to set a cap on the coupon numbers that should be redeemed.
Attracting deal finders only
Most customers who utilize the coupon site are what marketers refer to as shoppers who are price sensitive. They will go wherever they would in getting the best deal for their money. They are normally royal to the coupons instead of to your business. Such shoppers are unlikely to come back to shop for the products which are full-priced.
If you are out to discourage such deal finders, you should avoid offering large discounts on items that are utilized on a daily basis, try setting a minimum spend so that you can redeem a discount, putting a cap on the total number of vouchers which can be redeemed.
Not retaining customers for coupon
The reason behind many coupon offers is because of drawing new customer into your business, with a motive of converting them to become repeat customers. But there are several businesses that don’t have a strategy in place of encouraging repeat customers. In effect, they end up to provide their product at a lower cost for no benefit in the long term. Before you begin an offer for a coupon, you need to have in place a strategy of encouraging new customers to return.
Damaging the reputation of your business
If you are not in a position of handling several customers whom you are going to attract via the website for coupon, or you end up disappointing your coupon customers in one way or the other, then the process is likely to end up in your business image getting damaged, not helping it. It is recommended that you start your coupon campaign when you are sure that you are going to satisfy the customers whom you are going to attract.
