What a discount actually costs you
A discount is a subsidy. When you offer 15% off, you pay 15% to every customer who checks out — including the ones who would have converted at full price. In most consumer categories, that's the majority of buyers.
You can't measure the leakage on your dashboard because your dashboard shows revenue net of promo. But the P&L knows.
What an outcome incentive is
An outcome incentive fires only when a specific, verifiable event happens: a receipt is uploaded, a review is posted, a friend converts, a second visit is scanned. The reward is priced against that outcome, not against every customer.
The financial shape is different too. You set a ceiling. You hedge liability. You know your worst case before you press launch.
The four building blocks
Every outcome incentive has: a trigger (the verifiable event), a payout (IP Cash to the customer), a hedge (% of expected liability held in treasury), and a ceiling (per-campaign and per-customer max).
The moment you frame every promotion this way, blanket discounts start looking irresponsible.
Where to start
Pick one weekly promotion you already run. Rewrite it as a trigger — "$10 back on a second visit within 21 days" — and run it in parallel to your existing discount for 4 weeks. The math will make the case.