Using Business Gifts as Purchase Incentives

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Business gifts have a wide variety of uses, and are particularly useful when used as purchase incentives. Everyone loves to feel that they’re getting something for free, and many people will happily spend more money in your store, or buy from you rather than from a competitor, if they know they’ll be getting a free item to go along with their purchases. There are many ways in which you can use business gifts to promote your online or retail store, although some methods will be more appropriate than others for a web-based business.

Give Business Gifts to Promote a Sale or Celebration
If your store is having a sale or celebrating an anniversary, you can take this opportunity to generate some additional publicity and get more people through your door (or on your web site!) by offering free gifts in addition to your reduced sale prices. Offer a free gift to the first ten (or more people) who purchase an item, and perhaps include a more expensive item to give out as a random spot prize on each day of the sale. This approach means you’ll be more likely to get increased traffic throughout the day, rather than only in the morning with people vying to get gifts for being the first customers.

Use Business Gifts as Part of a Long-term Incentive Plan
Many retail and online stores offer purchase incentive plans where free gifts are offered after a customer makes a certain number of purchases with the store. For example, a plan might offer a free gift of the customer’s choosing (up to a certain value) after they’ve made ten purchases. You can make sure you’re not giving out gifts that are too expensive by choosing price ranges that correlate with the total amount the customer spends on their ten purchases. For example, if a customer’s ten purchases total ₤200.00, you could let them choose a free gift worth up to ₤10.00-20.00 depending on your profit margins and how valuable you want your gifts to be.

Offer Business Gifts as Immediate Incentives
These types of purchase incentives take two main forms. In the first, you use free gifts to try and increase sales of out of season items or of a particular product that may be selling slower than you want it to. In the second, you are simply trying to increase sales overall.

If you are trying to increase sales of a certain item, a good general rule is to offer free gifts that relate to the product you want to increase sales in. For example, if you’re selling pre-built computers or laptops, you might offer free software or accessories such as a USB drive or similar item. To increase sales in general or to raise public awareness of your store, consider offering a free gift with every purchase over a certain amount. Choose a small variety of promotional gifts, and give your customers the option of choosing which they’d prefer.