Ecommerce Owners - Coupons

[llot2os]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here but was wondering if you can offer some advice on coupon codes for your ecommerce sites. I was wondering if having a coupon code/promo area has been helpful or hurtful as a store owner? Was trying to do some research on the effectiveness of them. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

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[pickeringmt]

I think it is all relative.

It would really depend on the business and product.

Personally, I have given discounts as a special "gift" to a customer, but I haven't really done a mass coupon or sale.

Makes it more personal, and therefore special to the customer. But, that is part of my brand.

 

[dochustle]

From my experience working at a eCommerce software company (I get to see lots of different eCommerce stores) coupons can be great, but you have to be smart about it.

One of the biggest on cart drop off's we see is when there is a coupon code area on the cart page. The customer will see the coupon code box, leave to Google to search for a coupon code and then never come back. That customer who may have converted could be lost forever.

Coupons are great to use for existing customers though - send unique links with custom codes in your newsletter, as a special promo to current and past customers, send a coupon to all of your email leads or on receipts for customers to share with there friends.

But most important, test it to see what works!

 

[llot2os]

Gotcha, interesting. Thanks for your input!

Anymore thoughts, anyone?

 

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[Mrs. BRKb]

Good that you are researching. It pays to know what you are doing.

Best Buy totally messed up on one of its coupons recently.

First, it offered a coupon for $50 off a purchase of $100 or more as long as the customer used a Mastercard. Like most coupons of its type, it excluded some items, such as iPods and certain brands of TVs.

But it didn't exclude gift cards. The coupon didn't even limit the number of purchases. All you needed was to spend $100.

People freaked out.

"It was a free for all!" wrote Casey Chan at Gizmodo. "People were getting gift cards for half the price, people were using the coupons over and over and over again and Best Buy was even letting the coupon work on products that rarely get discounted."

http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-coupon-fail-2013-1

How To Lose Thousands of Dollars in 32 Minutes Using Ecommerce Coupons
http://blog.hubspot.com/ecommerce/costly-ecommerce-coupon-mistakes

The Promo Code field could be costing Sears’ e-commerce $16M a month
http://retailgeek.com/this-field-could-be-costing-sears-e-commerce-site-16m-a-month/

Online Coupons: Pros and Cons
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3927-Online-Coupons-Pros-and-Cons

 

[themaxx]

http://www.shopify.com/blogs/blog/1...d-deals-to-drive-revenue-and-customer-loyalty