Why discounting is the most expensive marketing you’ll ever do.
Scott Hough
Founder, Maison Digital
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Every discount code is a small admission. It says: we couldn't explain why this is worth full price, so here's less.
It works, which is the problem. Sales go up the week the code goes out, so it goes out again. Then your list learns to wait for it, and full price becomes the price only people who didn't know better pay.
What the discount actually costs
Here's a simple example. You sell a product for £100 and make £40 on it. You run 20% off. You haven't given away £20 of revenue. You've given away half your profit on that sale, which means you now need to sell twice as many to make the same money.
That's the cost you can see. The one you can't see is worse: you've taught your buyers that your price is negotiable.
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Why brands end up here
Nobody sets out to become a discount brand. It happens when the product looks like everyone else's.
Same template, same flat-lay photos, same "free delivery over £50" banner. When a buyer can't see a difference, they compare the only thing they can, which is price. That's the commodity trap. A discount is the quickest way to dig it deeper.
What to do instead
1. Find the buyer who already pays full price. Look at who buys without a code. What did they read first? What did they buy alongside it? They're your real buyers, and they're telling you what the product is actually worth.
2. Put the reason on the product page. If it costs more because of how it's made, where it comes from or how long it lasts, say so plainly, where people are deciding. Not on an About page nobody reads.
3. Grow the order, not the discount. Sets, bundles, the thing that goes with the thing. A bigger average order does what a discount promises, without teaching anyone to wait.
4. Measure revenue per visitor, not conversion rate. A discount will always lift conversion. The only question that matters is whether you made more money.
What this looked like for Roccia
When we built Roccia's ecommerce from zero, we didn't start with the website. We started with who was buying and why, and built the site around that. Their average order value is up 38%, and the store has done £420,000+ in direct online revenue in 2026.
The short version
A discount is a price cut you pay for on every order. If your product's worth more, the job is to show it, not to apologise for it.
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