E-commerce people must learn 6.18: 6 advanced "hidden discount" operation routines

Just now, Ele.me took advantage of me.

When it was lunch time, I opened Ele.me, ordered, and was about to pay when I found that I could get another 35 yuan off if I added another 25 yuan.

I didn’t wait until tomorrow to take advantage of the situation, so I ordered another serving of fried noodles without hesitation, feeling very happy.

It wasn’t until the delivery guy delivered the meal that I suddenly realized: Ele.me had taken advantage of me!

In order to get the full discount, I couldn't even finish the fried noodles I ordered.

Hidden discounts

In order to induce me to overconsume, Ele.me used a very advanced marketing promotion strategy - hidden discounts.

The so-called hidden discount means that you won’t see the word “discount” at all in the promotional copy . Instead, the discount is disguised using various psychological illusions or legitimate reasons to make you feel like you’re getting a good deal.

Let's look at an interesting experiment. Suppose we are eating at a restaurant and the merchant offers two promotions (both 20% off):

• 1) Direct discount: 20% off for purchases over 200 yuan.
• 2) Hidden discount: Get a 40 yuan discount for purchases over 200 yuan.

Which one do you think is more cost-effective?

It has been verified that most people’s first reaction is that the second one is more cost-effective. But think about it calmly, huh? wrong! In fact, the discount benefits of the two methods are the same. If the consumption is over 200 yuan, 40 yuan will be reduced immediately, 160 / 200 = 0.8, which is also 20% off!

So, if they are both discounts and the discount amount is the same, why do we first react to think that the hidden discount is more cost-effective?

The above example is presented in the following table:

Let’s look at the third column: inner feelings. Direct discounts make you feel that the product is cheaper, while implicit discounts make you feel that you are getting a good deal. There is only one word difference between cheap and taking advantage, but the effects are very different.

Getting a bargain is more likely to make users buy, because "customers don't want a bargain, but the feeling of getting a bargain."

Hidden discounts capitalize on this very fact: customers love to get a bargain. By taking advantage of this, sales of hidden discounts also increase rapidly.

How powerful are hidden discounts?

As mentioned above, hidden discounts can increase sales. In fact, it also has these benefits:

1) It is helpful to maintain the brand image

For example: If you pass by a store and it keeps saying “50% off everything, don’t miss it if you pass by!”, you might be attracted.

But when you pass by this store again and the video "50% off everything" is still playing, would you wonder if there is something wrong with the quality of their products? Why is it always sold this way?

The above-mentioned direct discount will create a feeling that "the quality is poor and can only be sold at a low price", and will also make customers form the habit of "not buying without a discount".

2) It helps the store to get more new traffic

Sometimes customers will ask others to buy in order to complete the order and get the best discount, so this kind of discount method can effectively drive sales and bring new traffic to the store.

For example, if McDonald’s offers a half-price ice cream cone for the second one, would you bring a friend to split the bill?

3) It is helpful to increase the average order value

For example, I went to a restaurant today and originally ordered a total of 70 yuan, but I saw that there was a 20 yuan discount for orders over 100 yuan, so I ordered another 30 yuan dish, and in the end I spent 80 yuan.

This kind of discount promotion by the merchant ultimately made me spend 10 yuan more, which increased my average order value.

What are the tricks behind hidden discounts? How to use?

When we do product marketing , discounting is a common method. However, if you use the wrong method, it will be useless to offer discounts. The more you discount, the worse your business will be.

Therefore, here are 6 specific operating techniques for "hidden discounts":

1) Buy X, Get X Free, Buy X, Pay X

The most familiar buy one get one free and buy two get one free are of this type.

Since you need to buy several of the same item at a time, this discount method is very suitable for consumable products with "stocking" attributes, such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, facial masks, etc.

Merchants can directly put a "buy one get one free" label on the product to increase the attractiveness of the event.

2) Send coupons or gifts

The more commonly used coupons include: KFC coupons, Meituan takeout red envelopes, Didi Taxi cash discount coupons, etc.

Giving away gifts is the most common method in the cosmetics industry, such as giving away samples when purchasing a product.

Merchants can increase appeal by clearly marking the value of the "gift". For example, “Get a sample with a purchase of 300 yuan or more” can be changed to “Get a sample worth 150 yuan with a purchase of 300 yuan or more”.

What do you think? Do you think the gift is valuable and buy it immediately?

3) Free recharge and free gift

This type of prepaid consumption not only binds customers, but also allows newly opened stores to quickly recover funds.

However, most customers think that the set recharge amount is too high, or the gift is not attractive, and are unwilling to recharge.

For example, a barber shop offers the following promotion: recharge 1,000 and get 200 off for the first order.

Customers will think: If I recharge, I will have to spend 1,000 this time, and you will tie me down and require me to keep coming here to consume; if I don’t recharge, I will only have to spend 200 this time, so I’d better not recharge.

There are two solutions for merchants at this time:

• ① Set a reasonable recharge amount by calculating the cost, such as recharge 800 and get 200 free;
• ② By increasing the value of the free “product”, for example, if you recharge 1,000, you can get 300 off for the first order, so that customers will think they have made a great deal.

4) Full discount

The most common one is the discount promotion launched by food delivery merchants such as Ele.me and Meituan ; another common one is the X discount for X purchases when buying clothes.

Merchants can push "discounts" information to customers when they enter the store, so that customers will unconsciously add and purchase goods toward the amount of the discount.

5) Special price for single product to attract customers

I don’t know if you have ever encountered this situation when you went to a restaurant.

From Monday to Friday, there is a special dish every day. For example, the milk oatmeal porridge which usually costs 18 yuan is only 2.9 yuan that day.

Isn’t it a loss to do this? There was indeed a loss on a single point, but not overall.

Although this product did not make a profit or even lost money, it played a role in attracting traffic to a certain extent.

When consumers learn that this restaurant has such cheap dishes, they will choose it without hesitation and order the special dish. Of course, ordering one dish is not enough, they will order two more.

Therefore, consumers not only ordered special dishes, but also other dishes. Although the special dishes lost money, they brought more traffic to other dishes, so there was actually no loss.

This is the discount technique of "special price for single product to attract traffic", which is a hidden discount strategy that makes one party lose money while the other gains money. Merchants can select the most popular products as special discount items based on customer consumption to attract customers to consume.

6) Discount for legitimate reasons

There are so many ways to discount, why do we still need to find reasons to discount?

Please note that the legitimate reason for discount at this time is not a random discount. It does not mean that the product is on sale, but we want to give back to customers and pass on the benefits to customers.

There are mainly the following ways:

① Specific holidays

The largest discount festivals include: Double 11 and JD.com’s 6.18 mid-year sale, with participation from everyone.

② Rewards for completing tasks

Only consumers who complete a certain task can enjoy N discounts. For example, tasks such as collecting N likes, posting to Moments , counting steps on WeChat , and counting the number of trees planted in Alipay 's Ant Forest.

③ Member discount

Member discounts mean that you have to become a member to enjoy the discounts.

For example, if I buy a product in a supermarket, the regular price is 100 yuan and the member price is 90 yuan. Because I am a member, I won’t feel that this product is sold 10 yuan cheaper to me because of quality issues.

Websites like Amazon and Costco supermarkets are using this "member discount" approach to promote user consumption.

Summarize

1) Simply put, hidden discounts take advantage of consumers’ desire to get a bargain. The word “discount” is hidden in the copy, and psychological illusions or legitimate reasons are used to disguise the discount, making consumers feel that they are getting a good deal.

2) There are six main methods of hidden discounts: "Buy X and get X free, buy X and pay X", "Buy one and get one free", "Discounts when you spend a certain amount", "Recharge and get free gifts", "Special price for single products to attract customers", and "Discounts for legitimate reasons".

3) Correct use of implicit discounts can increase average order value and product sales, maintain brand image, and attract new customers.

The author of this article is @操作研学社 and it is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games