Uniqodo PromotionGlossary

A customer loyalty program is a structured marketing strategy that rewards customers for repeat purchases, engagement, or advocacy. It gives customers a reason to return while helping businesses increase retention, protect customer lifetime value, and collect first-party data. Most ecommerce loyalty programs combine points, tiers, and personalised rewards.

A loyalty plan is a structured customer retention programme that rewards repeat purchases, engagement, or advocacy with points, perks, discounts, or exclusive benefits. In ecommerce and retail, a loyalty plan helps brands increase customer lifetime value while giving customers a clear reason to return. Most loyalty plans use a combination of points, tiers, and redemption rules to balance customer value with commercial control.

When customers have no particular reason to return, they often don't. A loyalty programme gives brands a structured way to reward repeat purchases, referrals, and other behaviours that drive long-term value, without relying on blanket discounts that anyone can access. This definition explains how loyalty programmes work, why they matter for e-commerce teams, and what separates a well-run programme from one that quietly erodes margin.

Referral programmes break down when the technology behind them can't keep up with the rules, channels, and customer journeys a brand actually needs. A Referral API gives development and commercial teams direct access to the logic that creates referral codes, validates qualifying actions, and triggers rewards. This definition explains how a Referral API works, where it fits in a promotion stack, and what to look for when choosing one.

Basket abandonment is when a shopper adds items to an online basket but leaves before completing the purchase. It matters because it shows where pricing, delivery, checkout, trust, or promotional friction stops intent from becoming revenue. For ecommerce brands, reducing basket abandonment means converting more existing traffic without increasing media spend.

When a promotion fails to drive the right behaviour, or ends up costing more than planned, the problem usually comes down to how the incentive was designed and controlled. Consumer incentives cover a wide range of rewards and offers, from discount codes to referral bonuses, each built to encourage a specific customer action. Understanding how they work helps brands get real commercial value from promotions rather than giving away margin without a measurable return.

Bulk discount is a pricing incentive that lowers the unit price when a customer buys a larger quantity, higher value bundle, or qualifying volume of products. It encourages bigger baskets, supports stock movement, and gives customers a clear reason to buy more in a single transaction. In ecommerce, bulk discounts need strong promotion rules so brands can grow order value without losing margin to code misuse, discount stacking, or poor targeting.

A coupon code is a digital code entered at checkout to redeem a promotion. For e-commerce teams, coupon codes control eligibility, attribution and margin, not just the discount.

A flash sale is a short, time-bound promotion that offers a discount, bundle, or incentive for a limited period. It uses urgency and scarcity to drive fast customer action, typically to clear stock, acquire new customers, or boost revenue during a quiet trading period.

Gift with purchase (GWP) is a sales promotion where a shopper receives a free item after meeting defined purchase conditions. Unlike a standard discount, it adds perceived value without reducing the price of the core product. Brands use GWP campaigns to increase conversion, raise average order value, reward high-intent shoppers, and protect margin better than a blanket discount.

An introductory offer is a time-limited promotion used to encourage a first purchase, trial, subscription, or product adoption. It gives new customers a clear reason to buy now, while giving brands a controlled way to acquire customers, test demand, and protect promotional margin.

A promotional calendar is a structured schedule of every planned promotion across a defined period, usually a quarter or a year. It records the offer type, dates, channels, audience, discount depth, and commercial objective for each promotion, giving commercial teams one view of all discount activity.

A tiered discount is a promotional pricing model where the discount increases when a customer meets higher spend, quantity, or product thresholds. It gives shoppers a clear reason to add more to their basket while giving retailers more control over margin than a flat discount. Common examples include "spend £50 get 10% off, spend £100 get 15% off" or "buy 2 save 10%, buy 3 save 20%."

A voucher code is a text or numeric code that gives a shopper a specific promotion at checkout, such as money off, free delivery, a product bundle, or loyalty points. Retailers use voucher codes to control who receives an offer, where it appears, how long it lasts, and whether it can combine with other promotions. For enterprise ecommerce teams, voucher codes work best when they are secure, trackable, and linked to clear commercial goals.

BOGO (buy one, get one) is one of the most recognisable promotional formats in retail, but setting it up correctly in ecommerce takes more thought than the name suggests. The rules behind who qualifies, which products are included, and how the discount applies can make the difference between a campaign that drives real value and one that quietly erodes margin. This definition explains how BOGO works, the formats brands commonly use, and what to watch out for when building these promotions.

When people talk about selling online, they often mean a website with a checkout. Digital commerce covers much more than that, including how customers find products, what offers they see, which channels they buy through, and how brands measure whether any of it made money. This definition explains what digital commerce actually includes, how it differs from e-commerce, and why the distinction matters for teams managing promotions, partnerships, and customer journeys at scale.

Incentive marketing is the practice of offering a reward, such as a discount code, loyalty points, or a free product, in exchange for a specific action like a purchase, sign-up, or referral. Tying the reward to a measurable behaviour makes it one of the most trackable marketing tactics.

Offer management is the process of planning, creating, distributing, validating, and measuring promotional offers across customer channels. It gives marketing and commercial teams control over which customers receive an offer, where they find it, how it gets redeemed, and how performance is tracked, so promotions drive revenue without eroding margin.

Price anchoring is a pricing strategy that places a higher reference price alongside the actual selling price, so customers evaluate the deal against that anchor rather than in isolation. It appears in e-commerce as strike-through pricing, RRP comparisons, and premium-first product displays, and it shapes how customers perceive promotional value.

Product bundling is a pricing and merchandising strategy that sells two or more products or services together as a single offer. It helps brands increase average order value, move selected stock, improve perceived value, and create promotions that feel more relevant than a flat discount. For enterprise marketing and commercial teams, bundling is also a way to shape demand, protect margin, and test which combinations drive incremental revenue.

Promotional marketing is the practice of using incentives, such as discount codes, product bundles, free gifts, and loyalty rewards, to drive a specific customer action like a first purchase, a larger basket, or a repeat visit. Unlike brand advertising, which builds awareness over time, promotional marketing triggers measurable behaviour and ties directly to revenue.

Most e-commerce teams know how to create a discount, but far fewer have control over what happens to that discount once it leaves their hands. Promotion Experience covers the full journey around an offer, from the rules that define who can use it to the data that shows whether it actually worked. If your promotions are leaking to the wrong audiences or your attribution data is unreliable, this is the concept that explains why.

Sales promotion is a short-term marketing tactic that gives customers a specific incentive to buy, spend more, switch brand, or return sooner. Common mechanics include discount codes, vouchers, bundles, tiered offers, gifts with purchase, free shipping, and partner-exclusive deals, each governed by defined rules, eligibility criteria, and expiry dates.

Strikethrough pricing is a merchandising technique where a retailer displays a product's original price crossed out alongside a lower promotional price, for example £100 crossed out to £70. The visual contrast acts as a reference price, showing shoppers the exact saving at the point of decision and making the discount tangible before they reach checkout.

When a brand wants to reward specific customers without opening a discount to everyone, a member rate is one of the most direct tools available. The term comes up across retail, travel, telecoms, and subscription commerce, but the mechanics and risks are not always obvious. This definition explains how member rates work, how they differ from public discounts, and what controls brands need to stop them leaking beyond the intended audience.

When a customer buys through your own website or app rather than a third-party platform, that counts as a direct booking, and the difference has real consequences for margin, data, and customer relationships. Travel brands, hotels, and e-commerce teams often find themselves over-reliant on intermediaries without a clear picture of what that dependency is costing them. This definition explains what direct booking means, how it differs from third-party transactions, and why controlling that channel matters for long-term commercial performance.

If you've ever wondered how travel sites build a personalised flight, hotel, and car hire bundle on the spot, or how retailers combine products and offers at checkout without pre-making every possible combination, dynamic packaging is the answer. The term covers a lot of ground across travel, e-commerce, telecoms, and subscriptions, and the mechanics behind it matter as much as the concept itself. This definition explains how dynamic packaging works, why promotion controls are central to it, and where teams typically run into problems.

Yield management is a pricing strategy that adjusts the price of fixed, perishable inventory, such as hotel rooms, airline seats, or rental cars, based on demand forecasts, booking patterns, and time to expiry. The goal is to maximise total revenue per available unit rather than occupancy or volume alone.