Online Ordering Coupons

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Seeking opinions on coupons/offers on Online ordering sites…

Do you post ALL your coupons/bundles up there? Do you create online only offers? Do you give anything FREE to entice people to use Online Ordering?

I have always been conflicted on the proper use. Big 3 does not post ALL offers from what I can tell but also post some web exclusive deals.

I know some of you don’t use coupons at all but I am just seeking for opinons on the subject.

 

[josh]

Hi Dale,
A few thoughts based on our online ordering customers, it is truly a mixed bag that seems to be decided by each owner’s preference. Some of our customers list their coupons for the world to see and some allow access to coupons only through the use of a special code. I am not sure that there is a one size fits all answer for that portion of the question at least based on our actual online ordering customers.

Personally, I would list some bundle offers but leave off my aggressive coupons. If I had a shop, I also wouldn’t give someone that came in to my shop a menu with a coupon on it. If they are in my shop I would imagine that they are 99.99% likely to already purchase from me so why discount them if they came in not expecting one. That said, I am not aware of a statistic of how many people go from online ordering site to online ordering site solely looking for coupons? I have never seen that statistic but would be very interested if someone has one. That in mind it would add some transparency and could sway my decision to show coupons.

That said to drive first time visitors to your online ordering site, I would suggest offering some type of coupon/special as incentive to get them to the site that may be a bit more aggressive but not visible to all. I think the initial discount is quite important for that first visit and the potential to capture their email address & phone number (if you system has an OPT-IN option for text messages) and then market to them in the future.

Josh Davis
Mail Shark
http://www.themailshark.com
Direct: 484-948-1611

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

I don’t post any coupons online…

I have ‘tweaked’ my BH site, mostly with pictures, and take the approach to upsell side items…

I do use SMS to call them to order, making them use a coupon code to get the special deal/discount…

In my market (college) I’ve had great success with online & SMS…

 

[NY_Pizza]

We offer a 16" 1 top for $5 with their 1st online order. When we get the order, our online ordering site automatically generates an email to me with their name, address, phone, & email. I then enter that info (normally have an employee do it during slack time) into my repeat returns reward program - automatically entering them into my rewards program. You do have to be a bit careful - there’s been a few that enter a different email multiple times to keep getting the $5 pie. If all they’re ordering is that, I bust them fairly quickly, but if they’re like some (mostly businesses) & are ordering another $30 - $40 worth of food I figure what the heck, I’m making good money, let em think they’re getting away with something. In 2 years we’ve added close to 2500 to our rewards program that way.

 

[bodegahwy]

We use very aggresive offers that are only valid online to attract first time online orders. When they order online, we get an email address that allows us to contact them free which is huge compared to having to use direct mail to reach other customers. We use promo codes rather than visible coupons for this and limit the use to one time per customer.

We also have our general offers that are always available online using a drop down coupon menu. That is 3-4 offers the we run pretty much nonstop. They are the same ones that a customer could use on the phone.

We have one very good offer that is only available online and uses a promo code so it does not appear on the drop down menu. Our most regular online customers all use it. It can be used over and over and saves them from having to find whatever the latest promotion is. They seem to like this no-nonsense deal and it is certainly easy for us to have these regular customers placing orders this way.

We do short term offers like this coming weekend that are limited to a short period of time and promoted with email and facebook. This has been very effective if there is a big pizza event like superbowl to tie it to.