Everyone loves a good, unbeatable deal, hence why consumers take extreme measures to secure their savings. Have you ever camped out in front of a store? Waited in a line that wrapped around the block? Spent over an hour in search of a parking space? For millions worldwide, such factors are mere trivialities when faced with a hot, limited-time sale.

So what does this mean for you as an online retailer? Well, if you’re looking for a way to increase your store’s revenue and traffic, promotions – when strategically implemented – are a surefire, easy marketing strategy that can elevate your store to the next level of success. And the best part of online promotions? You can offer them year-round!

That’s right – promotions don’t have to be holiday-exclusive events. Who wants to wait until Labor Day, Memorial Weekend or Cyber Monday for an awesome, store-wide blowout, anyway? If you’re looking for new and repeat-traffic, sporadic, random sales are a great way to keep your shoppers hyped year-round. It doesn’t matter what your promotion is in celebration of – consumers only care about what you’re offering them, not why you’re offering it.

Here are some popular promotional ideas that, as a consumer, you’ve probably encountered countless times before:

Consumers love a bargain, and what’s a more appealing discount than FREE? Offering a buy one, get one-free deal is a great way to rid your inventory of surplus-stock, last season’s items, or a holiday/time-sensitive product. Regardless, it doesn’t matter what you’re offering for free, the word alone will capture eyeballs like metal to a magnet.

Whether you’re looking to offer 25% off an entire order or 25% off a specific category, a flat discount is the tried-and-true promotional offer that will continue to stand the test of time.

Customize your promo’s rules and restrictions as necessary; i.e., if you’re looking to offer a flat discount, you may want to set up promotional tiers, such as $5 off an order of $25+, $15 off of $50, etc. Remember, your goal is to increase traffic and revenue – so be mindful of your discounts!

For many consumers, shipping cost is the ultimate, critical factor when determining whether or not to place an order. In fact, high shipping costs is one of the leading reasons behind cart abandonment. Offering free shipping, when and if practical for your business, is a great way to convert potentially-abandoned carts into sure sales.

Whether you’re offering free standard or expedited shipping, free shipping is a great way to combat consumers growing resistance to shipping fees. Furthermore, research indicates that shoppers spend, on average, 30 percent more per order when free shipping is included.

If many of your shoppers order items in bulk, you may want to consider offering a bulk discount. You can set this up any number of ways, but the gist of the promotion is, purchase X number of product A and receive Y% off of product B. Bulk discounts offer shoppers an incentive to purchase more than they initially intended, bringing you in bigger, more profitable sales.

Similar to the buy one, get one free promotion, this deal instead relies on the shopper spending a certain dollar amount in order to qualify for a free item. The value you set as your threshold as well as the free product is entirely up to you, but remembers to use your wits and common sense when determining a promotion’s rules and restrictions.

What type of promotion you’d like to offer is entirely up you! These are just some basic ideas that you may or may not decide to implement.

When creating your promotions, there are a few important things to consider. Do you want multiple promotions running at the same time? If so, do you want the promotions to be non-stackable? Carefully manage your promotions to ensure you’re always making a profit. Having to cancel an order due to mismanagement on the merchant’s end is something you’ll want to avoid at all costs – it’ll result in poor customer satisfaction and a bad business reputation.

There are many ways you can advertise a promotion; you can add an image to your store, send out a newsletter, have a blurb somewhere on your home or category page – it’s entirely up to you.

If you’re looking for a flashier, more obvious means of advertising your promotion, then you’ll want to look into 3dBoost, which allows you to advertise promotions via three ad formats: page peel, side/bottom bar and modal pop-up. Furthermore, 3dBoost also allows the following:

User Triggered. Initiate offers or promotions when the user’s cursor abandons your page.

Time Based. Initiate offers after the user has been on a specific page for a certain amount of time.

Persistent offers. Set offers that appear on specific pages, categories or even sitewide.

Increase your store’s traffic and revenue today with a well-planned, tested promotion. Remember, be creative! Shake things up by offering new, exciting promotions from time to time. The success of your business rests solely in your hands.