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Coupons

A coupon is a public code. Anyone who has it can type it at checkout, and it applies if the order meets its conditions. That is what separates it from a Marketing Promotions voucher, which is issued to one named customer.

Type What the customer gets
Discount An amount off the order
Cashback Credit into their Wallet after the order completes
Reward points Bonus points — how a double-points week is run without touching your earn rate
Free delivery The delivery fee waived
Free products A specific product added at no charge

Cashback is the most efficient of the five: it costs the same as a discount but only has value if the customer comes back, so the money returns to you as a future order.

A discount is a percentage or a fixed amount, optionally with a maximum cap — the cap is what stops “20% off” becoming ruinous on an unusually large order. You also choose what it applies to, and for a free-product coupon, which product.

A coupon carries a contribution split: how much of the discount the outlet absorbs and how much you do. This is the setting that decides whether a marketplace-wide promotion is a marketing cost to you, a merchant contribution, or shared. Agree it with merchants before launching a campaign they are partly funding.

These are what keep a coupon from being an open cheque:

  • Minimum order value — the floor beneath which it does not apply.
  • Maximum uses — in total, so a code that leaks cannot run away.
  • One use per customer — the single most important rule for a public code.
  • App-only — restrict it to the native app, if you are driving installs.
  • Members only — a benefit for Memberships subscribers.
  • Date range and happy hours — a window by date, and by time of day.
  • Allowed phone numbers — a code that only works for a specific list, which turns a public mechanism into a private one.

Conditions scope a coupon to particular business types, zones, outlets and order types. product eligibility goes further: per outlet, restrict it to particular categories or individual products.

That is how “20% off pizzas at the high street branch on Tuesdays” is one coupon rather than a policy nobody can enforce.

A coupon can be public — listed in the app for customers to find — or unlisted, working only for someone who has the code. Unlisted is right for a partnership, an apology, or a printed flyer; public is right for anything you want discovered.

Announce a public code with a Broadcast. A coupon nobody knows about is just a row in a table.

Copy an existing coupon rather than rebuilding it. Seasonal campaigns are usually last year’s coupon with new dates, and duplicating keeps the conditions you already reasoned about.

Report Route
Coupon Transaction List /reports/coupon-reports/coupon-transaction-list
Coupon Transaction Aggregate /reports/coupon-reports/coupon-transaction-aggregate

Read the aggregate against what each campaign generated. A coupon with heavy redemption and flat order growth is discounting customers who would have ordered anyway — the commonest and most expensive mistake in promotions.

Symptom Cause
A code is refused Minimum order value, an expired date range, happy hours, or the per-customer limit
It works for some customers only App-only, members-only, or an allowed-phone-number list
It applies to the wrong products Check product eligibility for that outlet
It is not visible in the app It is unlisted — that may be deliberate
A discount is larger than intended Set a maximum cap on the percentage
Redemptions are high, revenue is flat You are discounting existing demand; target Customer segments instead

Related: Choosing a campaign type · Wallet · Reward points · Reports

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