More unlucky than Friday the 13th

Many believe that Friday the 13th is unlucky. For our house, we always enjoy the day. My husband and I, following in my parents’ footsteps, got married on the 13th. They always said it was an excuse to have a good argument.

This month, we will get to see Friday the 13th. It’s also unfortunately not our anniversary but perhaps we’ll get a fight in for good measure.

Friday the 13th, for those who perhaps don’t know, is a day where many fear that if something bad is going to happen, it will be on this day.

Irrational fear or not, some people believe in the superstition and stick their heads in the sand hoping to avoid the day altogether.

Another irrational fear I’ve seen from merchants is giving too much of a discount. They fear that if they offer a “large” discount, they won’t make any money.

Sure, highly plausible. However, keep in mind that “large” is subject to the beholder. What you see as “large” may be minuscule to the buyer.

When offering incentives to sign up for a newsletter, for example, some merchants offer a 5% discount on their next purchase. If the average product cost $15, that’s a discount of $0.75.

$0.75!!

What kind of incentive is that? Seriously do the math! Even at 10%, that’s still only $1.50. This doesn’t even cover the cost of shipping so why would a customer be excited about that?

It’s like you’re begging them not to sign up.

I understand the need to make money and not wanting to give products away. You do need to consider the value to your customer though. If it’s their first time purchasing your product, offering a larger discount is more impactful for them than someone who’s already bought from you.

Instead of a percentage off, ease their fear of trying the unknown, and the need to do the math, by offering a dollar amount.

If your average product is $15, consider offering $5 off $25 or more. Not only does this reduce the math (which is 20% off) but it also helps your average order value go up!

Don’t let your fear, irrational or not, of giving too much away stand in the way of winning new customers.

If you’re concerned about conversion rate issues like this that are possibly impacting your site, you might consider buying my Website Rescues. I find conversion rate killers like this and clean up dozens of other problems that impact Shopify and Squarespace sites.