The science behind smarter promotions: RevLifter at eComm Live 2025
The RevLifter team recently delivered an eye-opening presentation at eComm Live 2025, cutting through the noise about promotional strategies. Here's what they shared about turning basic discounts into precision tools for eCommerce growth.
The 150-year problem with promotions
Promotional offers aren't new – they've been around for over 150 years. What started as metal tokens has evolved into digital codes, but the core approach hasn't changed much: broad discounts to boost sales and clear stock.
The problem? These blanket promotions damage brand equity and eat into margins. Nobody wants to be seen as a discount brand or train customers to wait for sales.
Why we still use them anyway
Despite the drawbacks, promotions remain essential because they work. RevLifter's research with IMRG shows they drive more than half of revenue and transactions. Perhaps most interesting was their finding that discounted products had an average price £14 higher than non-discounted items.
The intelligent alternative
The key question RevLifter posed: how do you get the benefits of promotions without the downsides?
Their answer: intelligent offers, which apply smarts in two critical areas:
- Targeting intelligence - Who sees an offer and in what context
- Optimization intelligence - Testing what works fastest
Smarter targeting in action
RevLifter showed how behavioral data creates precision-targeted offers. Instead of showing the same discount to everyone, they use traffic source, visitor status, funnel stage, product interest, location, and basket contents to determine who needs what offer.
Their most advanced approach predicts purchase likelihood, showing offers only to those who need that extra push. This saved Radley London 8% on promotional costs while still driving conversions.
The power of testing
The presentation demonstrated how testing reveals which offers drive the best results. Rather than guessing whether 5%, 10% or 15% off works best, they run experiments that measure not just conversion rate but also redemption rates, AOV impact, and incremental revenue.
Real campaigns, real results
RevLifter shared several impressive case studies. Their exit campaigns helped Radley London increase conversion rate by 15% and revenue per user by 28%. Stretch & Save campaigns, which give spending targets with rewards, helped Rowan Homes increase revenue per user by 16%. Their Offers Wallet solution improved AOV for both Nasty Gal and Club L by 15-16%.
The higher/lower quiz
In an engaging segment, RevLifter tested the audience with promotion optimization questions. They revealed that email visitors typically convert better than PPC visitors, people who browse more products generally have higher purchase intent, and customers who add recommended products at checkout are more likely to complete their purchase.
Perhaps most practically, they noted that while percentage-off and value-off discounts perform similarly in conversion tests, the value-off approach often costs retailers less.
The takeaway
The core message was clear: blanket discounts are outdated. Modern eCommerce requires intelligent offers that target based on behavior, test relentlessly for optimization, and protect margins by only discounting when necessary.
For those wanting to implement these strategies, RevLifter offers a 90-day free trial to optimize performance before commitment.
