Buy One Get One on Shopify is one of the most popular promotions. In these campaigns, customers must buy one product to take advantage of the offer. For example, if a customer buys product X, they might get product Y for free, receive product Y at a 30% discount, or buy two of product X and get a third one at 50% off. All of these setups are examples of BOGO promotions.
One of the best ways to increase your revenue and profits in your Shopify store is to raise the average order value. The popularity of BOGO campaigns comes from their strong ability to do just that. They encourage customers to purchase more items, which in turn increases the average cart value.
Just like with percentage discounts and fixed amount discount codes, having a start and end date for BOGO campaigns is very important. A clear end date creates a strong motivation for visitors to act quickly. Now, let’s look at the different types of BOGO promotions.
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Types of BOGO Promotions
You can design BOGO campaigns in various ways based on your products, customers’ past purchases, and seasonal preferences. First, let’s look at the most common BOGO promotions.
Straightforward BOGO (Buy One, Get One FREE)
The most common BOGO approach is the “Buy One, Get One FREE” promotion. Instead of giving a 50% discount on a product, you offer a second product for free when a customer buys one.
The biggest difference between a 50% discount and a BOGO deal is that a flat 50% off could greatly reduce the average cart value. With a BOGO campaign, you effectively sell two products at a combined 50% discount.
This type of campaign is good for products with high profit margins. Because it is a major promotion, it is usually recommended for clearing stock or during a seasonal sale. We try not to use BOGO more than twice a year.
Conditional BOGO (Buy X, Get Y at a Discount)
In this type of BOGO promotion, when customers buy one product, they get another product at a discount. This is one of our favorite types of campaigns at Growth Suite.
It is great for increasing the average order value while keeping your brand image. When a customer buys a product, you can offer a discount on another popular item to encourage more sales.
If you have good cross-sell products in your store, you can use this type of campaign to try to increase the average order value even on the first purchase.
Tiered Offers (Buy Two, Get One Free)
The last type of BOGO promotion we will discuss is the tiered offer. With tiered offers, you can give visitors more benefits as they buy more. For example, if they buy 2 items, the second one is 20% off; if they buy 3, the third one is 30% off.
This kind of campaign usually makes sense for functional purchases that people make regularly. You can use these offers for products that customers always need and consume regularly, such as toothpaste or coffee. For such products, tiered offers can be more meaningful and attractive.
However, for pleasure buying—where people buy items for enjoyment, like fashion or jewelry—tiered offers might not make as much sense and may not excite your visitors.
Setting Up BOGO Deals in Shopify
Creating BOGO discounts on Shopify is very easy. Click on the “Discounts” menu on the left side, then click the “Add discount” button at the top right.
You will see four options for creating a new discount code. If you want the BOGO promotion to apply to all products in your store, choose “Order Discount.” If you want it to apply only to a specific product, choose “Product Discount.”
After selecting an option, you can set up the rules for your BOGO promotion under the “Minimum requirements” section based on your campaign rules.
In the “Minimum requirements” section, you can set the number of products that need to be bought or a minimum cart value. For BOGO campaigns, it is common to set this based on the minimum number of products purchased.
Automatic vs Manual Discounts
At the top of the discount code creation screen, Shopify gives you two options: manual or automatic discount.
If you choose a manual discount, customers must enter the discount code at checkout to use the promotion.
If you want the discount to be applied automatically, customers only need to add the required number of products to their cart. Once the conditions are met, Growth Suite will apply the discount code automatically.
Combination Settings
Another setting to pay attention to is the combination settings for your discount code. Your store may have different discount strategies and coupons, like personalized discounts, welcome offers, free shipping codes, or repeat purchase discounts.
To make these work with your BOGO promotion, you need to adjust the combination settings so that your BOGO discount code can work with other codes. If you need this, open the relevant combination options on the screen.
Now, let’s see how to design an effective BOGO campaign.
Designing an Effective BOGO Campaign
To get the most out of your BOGO campaigns without harming your brand value, you need to design them carefully. Here are some key points to consider.
Defining the Time Frame
As I mentioned in previous articles, if you want to see results from your campaigns, you must set a clear start and end time.
For example, suppose you have a product that is out of season and you want to clear your stock. If your store has a lot of traffic and transactions, a short campaign of just a few days might be enough. You could set up a 48-hour Buy One Get One Free promotion with a clear end date to clear out inventory quickly.
However, if you want to increase the average order value and your store does not get a lot of visitors, you can extend the campaign up to a week. The key is to set a definite end date at the beginning of the campaign and stick to it.
This way, customers know the offer is only valid for a limited time. If they do not buy within that period, the offer will end, and they will not get the chance again.
If you run campaigns without an end date, over time it can harm your brand and store. When customers see that campaigns are always on, they might not feel motivated or rush to buy a new offer.
Strategic Product Selection
A common mistake is to make a BOGO promotion store-wide. The goal of BOGO promotions should be guided by stock levels, sales trends, and analysis of which products sell together.
Before setting up a BOGO promotion, analyze your products’ stock, sales trends, and frequently bought-together items. Look at how much stock you have, when you expect stock to run out, and seasonal trends to shape your campaign.
Also, analyze profit margins in detail so that the campaign does not put your store in a difficult position. Never start a campaign that will put you in a loss, even in the worst case scenario.
Marketing & Promotion Tactics
After designing a BOGO campaign based on your products, sales trends, profit margins, and seasonality, the next step is marketing and communication. In this section, we will look at how to communicate your BOGO campaigns.
Email & SMS Campaigns
As with other types of promotions, it is important to have a pre-launch period before your campaign begins.
Use email and SMS to tell your past customers and email list when your campaign will start.
When the campaign begins, send a message announcing the big launch.
Finally, 24 hours before the campaign ends, send an email reminding customers that stock is running low and there are only 24 hours left.
Social Media & Influencer Promotions
Another channel you can use to get the most from your campaign is social media and influencer marketing.
Depending on your brand, share content on your social media accounts before the campaign, at the start, and just before it ends.
If you have a budget for influencer work, plan it so that influencers talk about your campaign during the campaign period. This extra shout-out can motivate more sales.
After sharing on social media, make sure that visitors who have been to your website see that the campaign is live, even with a small budget. This way, you reach as many people as possible.
On-Site Urgency & Countdown Timers
Another important step to maximize results is to communicate the campaign on your website.
When visitors know the details of the campaign, they are much more likely to take advantage of it.
Show a popup when someone visits your site, but make sure it only appears once and is not intrusive, to announce that a campaign is active.
After the popup, make sure that product pages clearly explain the campaign. On Shopify stores, product pages are where customers often decide to buy. On the product page, clearly show what the campaign offers, its benefits, and how much time is left until it ends.
Additionally, use countdown timers across your store to show visitors exactly how much time is left in the campaign.
Measuring Success & Optimization
After each campaign, including BOGO promotions, it is important to prepare a detailed report. This section will discuss the key metrics you should follow after a BOGO campaign.
First, report detailed metrics about your store. For example:
• Average Order Value (AOV): What was the average order value during the BOGO campaign? How did it change compared to before the campaign?
• Conversion Rate: What was the overall conversion rate during the BOGO period? How did it differ from before?
• E-commerce Conversion Funnel Report: On your Shopify store, track steps like how many visitors viewed at least one product, how many added a product to their cart, how many started checkout, and how many completed the purchase. When something significant changes in your store, these funnel metrics help you understand why. How did these funnel numbers change during the campaign compared to before?
• Sold Product Trend Report: Which products sold the most during the campaign? How did sales of the products included in the BOGO change compared to before?
By preparing a report with these metrics, you can understand the success of your campaign in more detail and learn important lessons for future campaigns.
Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
There are some important mistakes to avoid when running BOGO campaigns. Let’s look at these mistakes and how to prevent them.
Profit Margin Analysis
It can be hard to analyze the profit margin of products. But running BOGO campaigns without doing this analysis can put your company in a difficult position. Especially with a Buy One, Get One FREE campaign, it is a big financial risk. Make sure your company can handle the financial impact.
Another important and often overlooked cost in BOGO campaigns is shipping. With this campaign, you might not only sell products at a discount but also face changes in shipping costs.
So, during the campaign design process, carefully consider all costs, including shipping, and your profit margins before making a decision.
Overcomplicating the Promotion
BOGO campaigns are simple promotions. However, adding too many tiers (like tiered discounts) can make them hard to understand for your customers.
When designing your campaign, make sure it is easy to understand. As mentioned earlier, if you are not selling functional products like toothpaste or coffee, tiered discounts may not be a wise choice. Tiered discounts work best for products people need and use regularly.
If you sell pleasure items, such as fashion or jewelry, focus on clear and simple campaigns that can also encourage cross-selling.
Conclusion
BOGO campaigns are one of the most popular types of promotions on Shopify. They can increase both sales and average order value.
Like all types of promotions, a clear start and end date is very important for BOGO campaigns.
To have a successful campaign period, plan effective email & SMS marketing, social media promotions, and clear on-site communications before, during, and just before the campaign ends. Product pages are critical for conveying the campaign message. Explain your offer simply, and use countdown timers to show when the campaign ends.
Keep in mind that BOGO campaigns can bring unexpected financial burdens. The only cost is not the product discount itself but also the potential increase in shipping costs. Plan your campaign with all costs in mind.
If you want your store’s BOGO promotions to work well with your other campaigns, manage discount codes, popups, countdown timers, and clear product page messaging easily, check out the Growth Suite app on the Shopify App Store. Growth Suite allows you to run all your campaigns from one place, simply and effectively.
Also, don’t forget to check out our other articles.
Shopify Time Limited Offer Guide
Mastering Percentage Discounts in Shopify for Maximum Impact
Fixed Amount Discounts on Shopify: When and How to Use Them Effectively
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