Logon to …..  As soon as this message pops on the screen of any regular e-shopper they would search for the range of products they could add to their e-cart. However, a simple discount requires a lot of analysis behind it. The focus group discussion that have been conducted for different e-fans of specific websites gave an insight into the different possible variations. The uniqueness of this research is it tests the effect of discounts on the sales volume of the product, brand perception and thus growing tendencies towards shifting brands and decreasing brand loyalty and develops a hypothesis based on them. Sales promotion is an important and frequently used marketing tool to influence the consumers’ purchase intentions directly. Studies have suggested that consumers make inferences out of all kinds of pricing and promotional strategies adopted by companies, whether they are economic, informational or hedonic. The study has been based on the product categories.

It has been inferred that the word ‘free’ is used in many ways with taglines such as ‘buy one get one free’ by companies as the concept of FREE takes the effect on consumer behaviour and attitude to a different level altogether. It has been suggested that this is due to the certainty effect. Customer’s who might not be planning to buy a specific product might also access discount based on the attractiveness of the discount offer. Regret is the driver here. The risk carries a buyer’s regret whereas discounted things let the regret not come to people because they are in turn getting some tangible benefits out of it. The regret of overvaluing is also not of a concern. Along with this people are generally product specific when it comes to simple terms of consumerism. Thus rather than pondering over the website they are loyal about they generally tend to access the offer if the website offering it trustworthy or a popular one. However, if the website is namesake one, despite of high discount in the offer customers assume they would get a Vim bar in place of any product they would order. This is due to the conformity bias as the psychology studies define it to be.