Growth Marketing Tips: Voucher Market Conversions from Online to Offline

Introduction

Coupons, vouchers, and gift cards have been in use for over a century. And it is not at all surprising that they have been continuously used by shoppers and accepted by vendors the world over. The fact of the matter is people like coupons. Who won’t like a discounted deal or a freebie, or a reward on their purchase?

When the trend of businesses around the world going digital was not so widespread, vouchers were handed over physically to buyers by merchants and retailers. But now, almost all businesses worldwide have gone digital, thus also increasing their reach. Owing to this, it is pretty obvious that digital vouchers have also become popular. Companies now send digital vouchers or coupon codes to their customers, which may be redeemed easily online as well as physically in their outlets. In fact, there are many companies, which promote special online deals that their customers can avail of by using their online vouchers. And the best part is that the entire process of redeeming these vouchers is extremely easy, quick, and painless.

It is worth mentioning that a lot of thought and strategizing goes into devising an effective plan for distributing vouchers among customers. Businesses have to think about a lot of things, including what kind of deals they want to promote, how many discounts they can offer, and most importantly, what channels are they going to utilize in order to distribute these vouchers. Here’s what Riky Boy Permata, Co-Founder & CTO of Ultra Voucher, had to say about how people can be encouraged to shift from traditional platforms to online platforms so that they can use more vouchers. 

Why a Shift from Traditional to Digital Vouchers is Required

Ever faced a situation where you kept a discount voucher from your favourite supermarket deep into your wallet and completely forgot about it? Everyone at some point or the other has been through the pain of finding a discount voucher in the purse after it has expired. The impact is both financial and emotional. Financial because you didn’t get to save money on your purchase and emotional because you felt bad you had to pay more. If only you had remembered!

Well, even Ultra Voucher initially started off as a company dealing in physical vouchers. They used to make paper/plastic vouchers for their merchants, which used to be then physically handed over to the consumers. This was way back in the year 2014. But as time passed and the analytics data relating to voucher usage began to flood in, they realized something very important looking at the trends. The number of vouchers redeemed by people at retail outlets was actually much lower than what was distributed. On investigating deeper, it was found that most people completely forgot that they had a voucher, which should be redeemed, owing to which they either ended up spending more money or missing out on exciting deals.

In 2017, Ultra Voucher made a decision to shift from traditional vouchers to digital vouchers, which could be placed on their merchant portals and apps. The purpose was to show all applicable digital vouchers to the buyer at the time of checkout. This not only ensured that the vouchers were used but also gave a choice to buyers to choose the most profitable or impressive deal before making the final payment. Nowadays, most online merchants, including global ecommerce giants such as Amazon, online display vouchers for their customers.

Distribution Channels Used for Selling and Distributing Digital Vouchers

Going digital is not as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of things that need to be considered, and one of the main ones is to identify the ways through which you want to reach your customers. In more technical terms, distribution channels play a very important role, and if you choose the wrong ones, you might end up losing valuable customers. Businesses always opt for using multiple distribution channels to cover more ground.

When Ultra Voucher rolled out digital vouchers in 2017, they also gave a lot of thought to which distribution channels they wanted to use. Finally, they narrowed it down to four channels. The first one includes corporate portals from where corporate companies can give out digital vouchers directly to their partners and customers. The second one includes mobile apps of merchants and retailers (such as apparel stores, etc.), which people can easily access through their smartphones. The third channel is the ecommerce sites, where applicable vouchers are automatically displayed to shoppers. Then lastly, there are the partner distributors for whom Ultra Voucher creates specialized vouchers with their brand name and logo, which are then distributed further among customers.

Using multiple distribution channels did enable Ultra Voucher to reach out to a wider audience more effectively. But it also did another very important thing. It enabled them to gauge the cross-channel customer behaviour through which they could better understand the preferences, needs, likes, and demands of customers. Owing to this, it became simpler to serve the customers in a better manner.

Encouraging Customers to Use Mobile Apps

Everyone these days uses a smartphone for online shopping, but not everyone downloads apps. Many a time, ecommerce merchants float online deals and discounts, which can be availed only if one makes a purchase through their app. Therefore, Ultra Voucher also takes the initiative to encourage online shoppers to use mobile apps while making purchases.

For this, they make use of various platforms to reach out to existing and prospective buyers. These include social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., chatting applications such as Line, and email marketing campaigns. Based on the recorded data, customers are informed about the special deals and discounts on their favourite ecommerce platforms and the like so that their online purchasing experience can be easier and more satisfying.