What happens after the sale is where the real money is made. You don’t retain customers by bribing them. You retain them by making them feel something worth coming back for.
Discounts might boost your revenue today – but they quietly erode your brand tomorrow. They attract the wrong customers, train bad behavior, and rob you of the chance to build something truly lasting. Because great brands aren’t built on “10% off.” They’re built on trust, identity, and emotional gravity.
You’re not building a brand – you’re building a coupon addiction.
Discounts Attract Transactional Shoppers, Not Loyal Ones
If you lead with discounts, you’ll always compete on price – and lose.
Transactional shoppers are driven by one thing: the deal. They don’t care about your brand, your values, or your community. And the second someone else offers a better discount, they’re gone.
Kristen LaFrance, former head of Resilient Retail at Shopify, calls this the “coupon hamster wheel.” You keep running faster, offering more, and still get nowhere. You create temporary lifts in sales but zero connection. These shoppers don’t tell friends. They don’t post unboxings. They don’t reorder without an incentive. You spend more on acquisition just to keep the machine alive. And every discount teaches them to wait for the next one.
If you’re wondering why your LTV sucks, look at the expectations you’ve created. You’re not building habits – you’re feeding dopamine. Retention isn’t built on bribes. It’s built on belief.
Your Brand Becomes a Commodity When Price Is the Hook
The second your product is about price, it stops being about brand.
Commodities compete on price. Brands compete on identity, story, and meaning. If you’re discounting constantly, you’re shouting, “We don’t believe it’s worth full price either.”
Think about it: how many skincare brands run sales every weekend? You don’t trust them – you just time your orders around their next desperate email. Meanwhile, brands like Glossier or Drunk Elephant rarely discount – because they don’t need to. They’ve made people feel something. Kristen LaFrance calls this “emotional durability” – the idea that people stick with brands that reflect who they are.
Customers don’t remember the email you sent with 20% off. They remember how your brand made them feel when they opened the package. And they’ll pay full price to feel that again.
Real brands don’t beg – they attract.
Loyalty Programs Work – But Only If They Reward Identity, Not Spending
Points and perks don’t create loyalty – identity does. Most loyalty programs are just repackaged discounts. “Spend $100, get $5 off” doesn’t build connection. It just incentivizes more transactions.
Val Geisler, email strategist and retention expert, says brands should shift their loyalty focus from spending to belonging. Instead of rewarding purchases, reward engagement. Highlight VIP customers on social. Create exclusive content or early product access. Build a tribe, not just a punch card. Let your best customers feel like insiders – not coupon collectors.
Most loyalty programs are like handing out frequent flyer miles in a world where no one wants to fly. They’re outdated, forgettable, and purely transactional. The best programs say, “You belong here.”
Loyalty is about status – not savings.
Bonus: Retention Doesn’t Start With Offers – It Starts With Onboarding
You don’t earn the second sale with a discount – you earn it with a great first impression.
You spent $40 to acquire that customer – and your first email is a receipt and a “Thanks!” That’s not onboarding. That’s ghosting.
Derric Haynie, CEO of EcommerceTech.io, says the most overlooked part of retention is the post-purchase experience. Your first message should make customers feel smart, not sold to. Educate them. Show them how to use what they bought. Anticipate their next question. Build trust early – not after the churn has already started. That’s how you keep customers from feeling like just another order number.
People remember how you made them feel after the sale. And if they feel seen, supported, and valued – they’ll come back. You don’t need to lure them with another discount.
You just need to make them feel confident they chose right.
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