If you’re tired of stagnant sales numbers and concerned about unsold inventory, we’ve found a perfect solution for you: limited time offers can be your magic wand to transform a slow sales day into a revenue-generating frenzy.

However, no matter how easy it sounds, limited time discounts are more than putting together random offers to boost sales. It’s your opportunity to create urgency, build excitement, and give deals so compelling that customers can’t help but shift from window shoppers to loyal buyers.

To accomplish all these in one go—you need a well-thought-out strategy and a customer engagement software tool in place. In this blog post, we go over the top ten amazing limited time offers with real-life examples.

How do limited time offers drive conversions?

People have an innate fear of missing out (FOMO). According to TrustPulse, FOMO can serve as a powerful motivator, leading 60% of consumers to make purchases, typically within a day of experiencing it. 

Limited time deals tap into this human psychology to drive immediate action. The urgency created by a ticking clock compels customers to make quick decisions. Scarcity—like low stock alerts—increases a product’s perceived value and increases your sales.

Limited-time offers are proven to grow sales for your ecommerce business. A study on how limited time offers influence online shoppers' self-consciousness and purchasing decisions found that time-limited promotions can significantly increase impulse buying, especially for shoppers seeking enjoyment rather than purely price-driven deals.
The sense of urgency prompts faster decision-making, making it important for brands to tailor promotions to the specific motivations of different shopper segments.

Source: Global Academic Intelligence 

So, customers are more likely to take advantage of time-bound offers, especially those packed with discount offers. To get the maximum ROI from your limited time deals, you have to create relevant and irresistible offers for your customers.

Examples of 10 most popular limited time offers 

Go ahead and adopt these time-sensitive deal examples to increase customer engagement, boost average order value, and drive sales.

1.Flash sales

A flash sale is a quick, irresistible burst of discounts typically available for 24-72 hours. Shorter duration and lucrative deals ignite urgency and FOMO, motivating buyers to swipe their cards.

For example, this fall season flash sale SMS by Schutz’s hits three key elements of a compelling flash sale, it:

• highlights the offer
• Is time-bound
• ends with a clear CTA

While running flash sales, pay close attention to its timeline.

We talked to Manish Chimnani, the e-commerce manager at Hudson’s Bay, about the best times to run the flash sales. He shared, 

“Since flash sales trigger FOMO, you can’t run them for too long. And, you can’t run them too short as you need to give customers time to take action. Ideally, run a flash sale for 2-3 days.”

Therefore, focus on sending personalized, relevant messages for up to 72 hours to get the maximum ROI from your flash sales. 

To help you accelerate this process, the AI-powered customer engagement platform Plivo CX’s SMS marketing lets you leverage your customer data to send personalized SMS offers and promotions, leading to more sales and higher revenue.

Additionally, you can use Campaigns to select your ideal audience, choose their most preferred channel, and schedule messages when they are most impactful.

Source: Plivo CX Campaigns

What’s more, Plivo CX also comes with Copywriter AI, which helps you draft compelling sales messages that will definitely tempt customers to go ahead with their purchase.

2.Countdown timers

Countdown timers are regarded as the ultimate FOMO nudges. The ticking clock makes customers act fast as they see time running out. 

Here are some tips to properly set countdown timers on your website:

• Place times at the front or center of your product page or email
• Set up scroll-based or exit-intent pop-ups with countdown timers
• Make them bold, bright, and easy to read
• If possible, use a dynamic timer showing the actual time when a recipient opens the email

This countdown timer email by Kar, founder of Lomarketing, an email marketing agency, uses a creative tone to pull readers in. With a clear countdown timer and CTA, their team generated revenue of about $30k/email at a 5% click rate.

3.Holiday-themed offers

The holidays are the best time to attract buyers who are already on the hunt for the best deals and offers. 75% of holiday shoppers say they are looking for deals and discounts throughout the holiday shopping season.

To attract these customers, you can run limited time offers on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.

For example, Murad Skincare’s taps into customer FOMO with its Cyber Week Sales SMS. It offers a package of deals—30% off, shipping, and an enticing bonus.

Here are some fun ways to create holiday-themed deals:

• Lure in new customers with first-purchase discounts
• Offer free shipping to lure in last-minute shoppers
• Package and bundle complementary products to ease decision fatigue
• Give exclusive holiday deals to your loyalty program members

As noted above, to quickly write personalized holiday messages, try Plivo CX’s AI copywriter. Simply enter your campaign’s goal, provide a short prompt about the offer, specify your brand voice, choose timing and urgency, and add a CTA.

Within minutes, the AI assistant will draft SMS copies, which you can fine-tune and send to your customers.

4.Exclusive early-bird discounts

Reward loyal and frequent shoppers with early access and exclusive discounts before the public sale.

When people get early access, they feel they might miss out if they act slowly. Exclusive deals for members make them feel valued and excited. A combination of both these elements makes customers act quickly.

For example, Amazon offers early bird access to its Prime Day sale to all Prime Members. Such offers create a premium feel and encourage members to shop before items run out of stock.

Steal these early-bird discount ideas:

• Stir up excitement for a new product with exclusive discounts
• Offer rewards or store credit for customers who leave reviews within 48 hours of receiving early-bird purchases.
• Offer tier deals such as 30% off for the first 100 buyers, 20% off for the next 200, and 10% off for the rest.

With Plivo CX, tap into your buyer's data to deliver more compelling and relevant deals. It tracks your shopper’s behavior across various channels, including emails, SMS, marketplace, and WhatsApp. 

Once you have enough data on your buyers, use the Audiences to create buyer segments with as many rules as you like. The segment builder is code-free, so anybody on your team can do it. 

Once you create customer segments, you can send targeted deals to each customer.

5.BOGO (Buy One, Get One) deals

Buy One, Get One deals work very well for products that customers frequently use. These include groceries, hygiene, makeup, and personal care items that people buy every week or month.

Providing BOGO deals on such products makes buyers think they’re getting something for free, making the offer more appealing. 

BOGO deals are also helpful in clearing out excess inventory. Pair slow-selling items with top sellers. Customers are likely to purchase them, feeling like they’ve won a deal.

Here are some creative variations for BOGO offers:

• Offer discounts: Buy one, get one 50% off.
• Free samples: Offer free product samples for a minimum purchase.
• Surprise deals: Add an element of surprise by offering a BOGO deal where the free item is a mystery.
• Offer tiered deals: Buy one, get 10% off the second; Buy two, get 20% off the third.
• Create product bundles: Package similar and low-priced items in bundles and offer a certain number of items free.

Check out this BOGO offer by GoRaw Honey. They offer bundles of honey packages and lucrative deals like buy 3, get two free. Bundling similar items together entices bulk purchases, leading to higher average order values.

6.Mystery discounts

Mystery discounts are part of gamification strategies to boost e-commerce sales. Customers have to finish certain tasks or purchase a product to unveil the offer. 

These limited time offers play on customers' curiosity gap between what they know and what they want to know. This gap triggers a psychological response and builds anticipation, motivating customers to take specific actions, such as adding items to their cart or clicking through an email, just to uncover the discount amount.

For example, Fatty15 taps into the curiosity trigger via its mystery email. It motivates buyers to seal the deal before the time runs out without mentioning what’s in the offer.

Charlotte’s Web promotes mystery discounts using a countdown and sale offers packed with website pop-ups. They reveal a maximum discount offer and gamify the reveal by urging customers to pick a tile to reveal the discounted amount.

7.Limited-time free shipping

Baymard Institute’s research discovered that 50% of cart abandonment is due to additional costs, such as shipping. To tackle this, offering free shipping for a short time is a great way to win back those buyers and get them to load up their carts.

To inspire customers to buy, combine free shipping offers with other discounts, as MVMT did in their SMS. They launched their free shipping with sitewide sale offers for a limited time of two days.

To recover abandoned carts, track your customer’s activity on the storefront using the Journeys. Based on the data collected, trigger campaigns can be set up easily. You also take control of your messaging timeline. You decide when messages are sent, whether it's instantly in response to an event or strategically scheduled for a later time.

For example, if you find that a customer abandoned their cart, send a time-bound free shipping offer to nudge them to buy.

To effectively recover abandoned carts, you can once again utilize the Journeys. It monitors your customers' activities on your storefront and provides insights into their behavior, such as:

• Which products they viewed
• How long they spent browsing
• At what point did they leave their cart

With this data, you can set up personalized trigger campaigns that respond directly to their actions. 

For instance, if a customer abandons their cart, you can immediately send a time-sensitive offer, such as free shipping, to encourage them to complete their purchase. 

8.Social media-exclusive deals

Run limited time offers on social media by creating urgency and excitement through interesting posts and reels.

Use engaging captions, countdown timers, and eye-catching graphics to draw attention. Each platform provides unique features that you can use to spread the word: 

• Instagram Stories for quick updates
• Facebook Events for broader reach
• Twitter for real-time engagement

You can also offer incentives to engage with your content, such as extra discounts for referrals or entries.

For example, Portland Leather ran a limited time giveaway of their circle crossbody bag and a mystery box. The brand outlined the giveaway’s instructions on their Instagram posts, including offer details, duration, and winning criteria. Within three days, the post generated over 7k comments.

Here are some more fun ideas to offer exclusive social media deals:

• Partner with influencers and ask them to promote specific coupon codes
• Run creative contests, such as asking your followers to post reviews of your product to win
• Provide exclusive early access to new offers to your social media audience
• Use shoppable posts on Instagram and Facebook with exclusive deals, giving followers direct and quick access to buy

9.Scarcity tactics: low stock alerts

Low stock alerts make products seem scarce and more valuable to customers. These alerts prompt them to act out of loss aversion, leading to higher sales.

Promote low-stock inventory on the most visited product pages through email or SMS alerts.

Alma Coffee builds urgency among its customers by sending a low-stock alert email. The company intensifies the scarcity level by highlighting that it will only restock the item for a while if it runs out.

To set up low-stock inventory alerts, follow these three easy steps:

• Set a threshold for each product (e.g., 15% of the initial stock or 10 units left)
• Use your point-of-sale (POS) or inventory management system to track stock levels
• Set up trigger alerts when the stock reaches the predetermined threshold

💡Pro tip: If an item runs out of stock, ask customers to share their email address or contact number. Send them restock messages once the item is back in stock.

10.Loyalty program time-sensitive rewards

45% of customers shift to a different brand that offers exclusive deals to their members. You don’t want to lose such shoppers to your competitors.

Offer member-only deals to attract new customers, keep current ones loyal, and boost repeat purchases. By creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity, these offers motivate members to buy repeatedly.

Here are some limited time promotion ideas:

• Offer double or triple loyalty points during flash sales
• Promote daytime happy hours with bonus points or discounts
• Launch exclusive deals for loyalty members in the first week of each month

Bath and Body drives new member sign-ups with two offers—a free product and a $10 off coupon with 30 days validity.

Make the most of a limited time offer with Plivo CX

The key to getting the maximum ROI from limited time offers is sending the right messages at the right time. Plivo CX helps with just that.
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Being a web-based omnichannel customer engagement platform, Plivo CX allows you to track your customers' journeys across various touchpoints and send targeted messages on multiple channels, including email, SMS, and WhatsApp.

With the Journeys feature, send event-based messages to precise audience segments. You don’t have to write these messages yourself. Use the AI copywriter to craft compelling, time-sensitive offers. Finally, launch your campaigns and track their performance through a dedicated dashboard.

Book a demo today for Plivo CX to get started