Discounts and promotions: used badly they simply lower your reference price

The discount is the most used commercial tool and the one attracting the most mistakes, because it always seems a good idea and the result is rarely measured.

The first useful distinction is between a promotion, which reduces a product's price for everyone over a period, and a discount code, which applies only to whoever holds it.

They serve different purposes. A promotion gives an item visibility and pushes a purchase the customer was already weighing. A discount code reaches a specific person with a reserved condition.

The commonest error is using a promotion where a code was needed. Cutting the price for everyone when the aim was to convince one customer means giving margin away to those who would have bought anyway.

The second error concerns duration. A permanent promotion stops being a promotion: it becomes the price, and the old one disappears from the customer's perception.

The result is that you have lowered your reference price without getting anything in return, and putting it back up costs more than lowering it did.

A discount makes sense when it has a stated and verifiable objective. Getting a new product tried, clearing a batch nearing expiry, winning a first order from a practice that does not know you, raising the average basket.

The first order is where a discount pays best, because it removes perceived risk. A professional who has never bought from you is deciding whether to trust you, and an entry condition lowers that threshold.

The discount code is the right tool precisely because you can give it to whom you choose. To a contact met at a trade fair, to someone who asked for information without ordering, to a customer dormant for months.

On Oralzon codes are managed by the seller, who controls value, duration and conditions. Redemptions are tracked, and that lets you know whether a code worked rather than assuming it.

It is the figure that turns a discount into a decision rather than a gesture. A code given to fifty contacts and redeemed twice tells you something; without the count you would not know.

One final point concerns commission: it is calculated on the amount actually received, so a discount reduces that too. The cost of the discount is the margin you give up, not an additional penalty.

In summary: a promotion is for everyone and a code for one person, a permanent promotion becomes the price, a discount should be tied to a stated objective, the first order is where it pays best, and tracked redemptions tell you whether it worked.