Online Giveaways – How They Can Benefit Your Shopify Store

Giveaways are an amazing marketing strategy. They can benefit both you and your customers, bringing in more sales and spreading the word about your product or service. Online giveaways are a great way to attract new customers, build brand awareness, and increase online sales. The main purpose of online giveaways is to generate traffic by attracting new visitors to their website, as well as loyal customers who want to enter their contest.

The greatest benefit of giving away prizes on your e-commerce store is the buzz it creates. The more people that know about your giveaway, the greater chances you have of getting more people to your store and increasing sales. Giving away a prize also helps build up a customer database, so if you want to be able to reach out and communicate with them in the future, this is one way for you to do it.

Additionally, giveaways are very effective at increasing social media following as well as email list growth—and both are important factors in any online business!

We’ll share with you the benefits of doing giveaways, best practices, and examples you can try to follow for your own giveaway promotion.

Best practices for doing online giveaways

Here are a few best practices for doing an online giveaway:

Make sure the entry process is easy, straightforward, and takes minimal effort from participants.

The more hoops you make them jump through, the less likely they will be to enter, especially if they have to fill out a long-form or complete multiple tasks like sharing your Facebook page on Twitter.

Provide a prize that customers will want to win.

Set a prize before the giveaway so customers know what to expect. You can also offer different tiers of prizes so that people who don't win first place might still get something nice.

When choosing a product to give away, it's important to consider its value. The more expensive the product is, the more likely people will be willing to take part in the giveaway.

You'll also want to make sure that this product fits nicely into your brand identity and aligns with your products in some way. For example, if you sell clothing, then giving away sunglasses would make sense because they're related to summer and sun-related products. On the other hand, if you sell makeup, then giving away a beach towel probably wouldn't make sense since there isn't any connection between beach towels and makeup.

Don't make winners pay for shipping costs

This defeats the purpose of giving away products in exchange for entries! You should also avoid charging high fees or requiring expensive shipping methods if you're doing physical products (e.g., no overnight shipping).

Benefits of doing online giveaways for your Shopify store

Increase in sales

Online giveaways have been proven to help increase your overall e-commerce sales. This is because people will be more likely to buy something if they've already won it and feel like they're getting a good deal.

Increase brand awareness

Giving away free products or discounts will help you build your brand’s reputation as a generous company that cares about its customers’ well-being, which can lead to more sales down the line when those customers visit your store again looking for something else they may want to purchase from you.

Increase customer loyalty

Offering free services or products on social media platforms allows you access into their lives outside of just sending emails and ads about what deals are available at the moment for them to check out later this week before making their next purchase online through Shopify stores like yours (which could also lead up towards higher conversion rates).

Kinds of eCommerce giveaways you can do on Shopify

If you're a first-time eCommerce store owner or have been in business for years, you can use giveaways as an effective way to grow your audience and generate sales.

Some of the most common types of giveaways are:

• Products - Physical or digital products, such as t-shirts, stickers, or even a free product sample.
• Coupons or discounts - Discount codes or coupons that can be redeemed at checkout. These are especially useful if you're running a flash sale and want more people to take advantage of it.
• Gift cards or free delivery - Giveaway gift cards to popular brands like Amazon or Starbucks so customers can get their hands on something they otherwise couldn't afford. You could also offer free shipping on orders over $50, which would encourage shoppers to spend more at your site.

How To Do A Giveaway For Your Shopify Store

1. The first thing to do is come up with a good giveaway idea. The best giveaways are the ones that people will actually use, so make sure to pick something relevant to your customers.

You have to come up with an idea that will resonate with your customers and make them want to participate in it. If it's not interesting enough, people won't be interested and you'll get very few entries for your giveaway.

One way to come up with ideas is to look at what other people are doing on Instagram or Facebook and see what types of giveaways they're running. For example, if you sell pet supplies, maybe you can partner up with a local shelter and give away free dog food or cat food as prizes. This is an easy way to get engagement from your audience when they see that you're supporting another cause in their community.

It’s also a good time to promote your products including those that do not generate sales.

Here are a few strategies you can incorporate:

• Giveaway a new product to bring awareness
• Giveaway a product that is already in stock and on sale.
• Give away something that is trendy, related to your niche and your brand
• Give away a bundle of products instead of just one single product to encourage more customers to join

2. Next, determine how you want to run your giveaway. You can make it free or paid, but most people opt for free because it's easier to get more people involved and share their products with their friends. How you choose to run your giveaway is totally up to you.

Make sure that the mechanics are easily understood, short, and can be followed by anyone. Establish a deadline and an announcement date to give your customers transparency.

3. Create promotional material to promote the giveaway. Now that you have an idea of what kind of giveaway you want to do and how you want it to work, it's time to create some promotional materials!

Whether that's blog posts on social media or email newsletters promoting the winner after they've been selected, make sure that everyone knows about this awesome opportunity! If possible, try and get some influencers involved as well!

4. Post it during the most strategic time (i.e. when your customers are online) so that you get more eyes on it. 

The best time to post your giveaway is during the week, on a Monday or Tuesday, between 12-2pm EST.

This is because there's less competition for attention online - people are busy working, commuting, or at school and will be more likely to see your post.

You also want to post it during the week because weekends have less traffic. People are either out with friends or doing chores around their house and not spending as much time on social media.

5. Make sure to follow your deadline and post the winner for transparency. The last thing you want is for people to think you're not following through on your promises. So make sure that you post the winner's name in a timely manner, and be honest about why you might have had to delay posting it. If someone asks about it, be transparent about the situation.

Here are a few amazing examples of online giveaways done by winning eCommerce brands that you can take inspiration from:

1 Year Supply of Products by Glossier

 

Glossier is a beauty brand that has mastered the art of creating organic, buzz-worthy content. They use social media as their main platform to promote their products and to increase brand awareness. One example of this is their ‘365 days of dewy’ giveaway.

This particular giveaway was highly successful because it was not just about promoting their own product, but a whole line of their new skincare collection. This way, they were able to showcase what makes them unique and possibly reach new audiences who are curious about the brand.

Win a Free Pair of Toms

 

Shoppers who visited the TOMS website during this promotion would see this popup: win a free pair of TOMS!

Of course, their eyes would immediately go to the text that’s written in bold. It also helps that it is short and easy to read, capturing the attention of prospective customers.This e-commerce giveaway is clear and simple, offering interested people all the details they need without being complicated.

If they're interested, all they need is their email address. If not, they can exit and continue browsing. If they want to know more, TOMS provides links below in little blocks of text.

The popup also adopts simplistic aesthetics and mechanics, so buyers don't need to think about it too much.

We think this is an excellent giveaway especially because TOMS already gives away shoes on the regular. Meaning, that this e-commerce freebie doesn't hurt their margins and provides them with valuable conversions. 

Acme Business Refer-A-Friend Giveaway

Acme Business Refer-A-Friend Giveaway is a great example of an effective giveaway strategy. It's a referral program giveaway, which means that it rewards customers for referring their friends to the store.

You can do the same by encouraging your customers to join your affiliate program or to refer a friend for a chance to earn big discounts and rewards. In order to get your consumers to go the additional mile, the prize needs to be worth it.

The benefits of this strategy are many: it drives more traffic to your site, increases sales, and builds brand awareness in the process. It also provides you with your own referral network that can continue to grow as more people join.

Shea Moisture & The LipBar Giveaway Collab

 

Shea Moisture and The LipBar are a match made in heaven. Shea Moisture is a natural hair care company, while The LipBar is an organic lip balm company. This type of collaboration allows you to expand your social media audience, increase engagement, and build an email list.

The Shea Moisture Giveaway is a great example of how to run a successful online giveaway campaign. They partnered with influencers like Kylie Jenner, who shared their products on Instagram and drove thousands of users to their website where they could enter the contest by submitting their email addresses. By running this kind of promotion through influencers like Kylie Jenner or KJ Apa (the actor who plays Archie Andrews on Riverdale), you can reach a wider audience than ever before.

Conclusion

Now that you're aware of the basics, it's time to set clear rules and create an effective giveaway concept. Make sure your rules are clear! You don't want your customers to get confused or feel like they missed out on something. Do not start a contest with too many rules as it could scare away people from participating in your giveaways (e.g., "winner has 48 hours after the announcement").

Giveaways are an easy way to promote your Shopify store and grow your business quickly. By providing people with a reward for engaging with your brand, you can gain momentum for new product launches or just increase awareness of your e-commerce store in general.