When you’re setting your discount levels for a promotion, obviously you want to check the profit you’ll make at each discount level. There’s no point increasing your sales dramatically if you’re not making any profit.
But another thing you’ll want to bear in mind is how effective a given discount level might be in the market. Will a 10 percent discount, for instance, make your customers sit up and notice, or will they sigh “Just ten percent? That’s not much”?
If you’re in a sector that’s having a tough time, you may see discount stickers all around. In that case, of course, you’re going to have to work harder. If you’re in a boom market, possibly no one’s discounting at all.
We wondered whether simply Googling “Amazon discounts” would be a good way to find out what customers are seeing. It was an interesting exercise, and it gave us several ideas which we’re sharing with you this week.
First of all, it’s worth noting that Amazon doesn’t miss a trick. Amazon.com came top of the search results. Clicking through to Amazon’s discount page showed discounts mainly around 10-15 percent, mixed up with a lot of “Save $$$$” ($2, $10, and in one case, $300) offers.
However, the second thing we found was that the other Google search results showed much more significant discounts. The table below shows how many times each discount level appeared on page one of the search results.
| Discount | Number of times shown |
| 25% | 3 |
| 30% | 2 |
| 50% | 3 |
| 70% | 1 |
| 80% | 1 |
| 90% | 1 |
That’s interesting. Google doesn’t show any discounts below 25%, and the area between 25% and 50% is a sweet spot accounting for the vast majority of results. The second page of results showed rather more of the higher (70% and above) discounts, and one 5% discount. So Google obviously thinks people who are looking for discounts are looking for big ones.
Where do those search results refer? In most cases, to a coupon site, or a newspaper. If customers are looking for discounts, this is where Google thinks they’ll want to go – after Amazon itself. (In fact, if they’re looking for big discounts, this is where they’ll want to go first, of course, given the relatively small discounts on Amazon’s discount page.)
So if you want your discount noticed, you’re best off using a coupon site like Vipon, rather than just promoting it on Amazon. (Of course, it’s also an advantage that Vipon is a membership site, full of members who are looking for discounts. Many of them won’t necessarily bother checking Amazon, they’ll come to Vipon first.)
What happens if you look for your own product? “Amazon discount stationery” featured 20%, 25% and 40% off deals. Stationery is a consumable product with usually quite a low price, so we’d guess the discount needed to motivate buyers is relatively low.
“Amazon discount toys” showed 5% and 10%, but also 70% and 80%, giving a very mixed message! It looks as if some toys may be end-of-line, as some toys do date. You might remember crazes like yoyos and cabbage patch dolls; one year’s hot toy is the next year’s fire sale.
On the other hand “Amazon discount beauty” did feature discounts, though without as many numbers being specified, but it was particularly notable for having quite a high proportion of results from fashion and women’s magazines focused on Prime Day discounts.
That’s intriguing. If you’re in beauty products, maybe it’s worth sending out a couple of press releases if you have good Prime Day discounts or a good holiday offer! And obviously, in this sector a Prime Day discount can help you get sales even after it’s ended, if women end up reading the article and seeing your product!
Try out your own product or brand, and see what discounts pop up on the search results page. It’s a great way to see what’s going on, and where Google sends people who are searching for a particular type of product.
