If you are in a business that requires attracting public customers, you should make use of promotional codes. Promo codes are deals that get offered to incentivize customers, and many of them focus on offering manufacturer prices, or charging a customer no markup. This is a big boost for sales, because buyers love to feel the savings that come with paying as little as they can for whatever you sell.

Buyer behavior is strongly motivated by promo code marketing. The great deals that are offered with web coupons or other medium help lead a customer to spending money, one who was otherwise unsure or on the fence about buying your goods or services. That customer may become a repeat buyer over time, meaning that while your initial profit from the promo code sale was not as high as it might have been at full price, they will buy other goods and services at full price and assure you the business you need to keep seeing profit over each fiscal cycle.

Be careful when you use a promotional code that is very time or event specific. In the event that you have a clearance on a good or service that will no longer be offered, and you are basically just trying to clear inventory space, a promo code is a great way to do so. However, if you are offering a deep discount with a promo code on goods that customers are not likely to buy more of in the short run—such as computers, beds, art pieces or other occasional purchase that the customer expects to last a long time—you might cut into your profits and be stuck struggling to drive sales when the promo code expires.

Meanwhile, if you have a surplus of clothes, food or other goods that a customer is more likely to become repeat buyers of, work with your sales team to find the right deal for your good. The number should be one that at least breaks you even on that good, such as discounting the price so a customer pays exactly what you paid to stock it. If you have to discount the price just to make a sale at all, the promo code will help get rid of that good and you will want to stay away from stocking it again. That is a situation where you are likely to lose money by stocking up on items you cannot sell in the store.