Comments on: Are Coupon Code Searches Costing Your Online Store Money?

By: Follow Up: When Coupon Codes Are Bad For Business | Wizpress.com

Follow Up: When Coupon Codes Are Bad For Business | Wizpress.com — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:31:25 +0000

[...] is a short follow up post to my article on Are Coupon Code Searches Costing Our Online Store Money?. I got a lot of good responses and just wanted to summarize some of the main points. Ultimately, I [...]

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:13:34 +0000

“…our cheapest customers have also traditionally been the hardest to please.”

This is so true!!

I do the same thing as Tyler – see the coupon code, don’t search for coupons, and buy anyway. Then, I’m left feeling that everyone else is getting the real price and I’m paying a higher price.

great post.

By: Tyler WebCPA

Tyler WebCPA — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:56:45 +0000

I’m with Mike and Michelle, I never search for coupons but I always feel a little gypped when I see the code and I don’t have anything. It’s like at the supermarket when they ask you for coupons and you don’t have any. It just adds a bad taste to the whole experience.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:25:46 +0000

I think you’re right to question keeping that field. Whenever I’m shopping online and see it, I go look for a coupon. If I don’t find one, sometimes I’ll get annoyed and put off my purchase–seeing a coupon field triggers my expectation that I should find a coupon. When shopping at specialty stores, I don’t expect to use coupon codes–unless the field is there. I’d definitely get rid of it.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:55:08 +0000

@Mike
That is a fantastic idea. I’m going to give that a shot. This sounds like the best solution among the ones I was thinking of doing. Thanks!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:54:30 +0000

@Robert
Wow. Thanks. I’d never heard of currentcodes.com before. I’ll have to check it out

@Sean
I wish I had someone else’s numbers to compare my 7% to. In my mind, shipping is usually the last barrier to checkout. If they reach the payment phase, the transaction should go through 99% of the time.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:53:03 +0000

@Carla
I’m considering doing just that actually. Though we do have a set of event planners that we routinely issue coupons to. It would be pain to have to talk to each every one of them each time they wanted to place an order.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:50:59 +0000

@Alexa
Ack. Yeah, I’m like that too. I wonder how many customers leave the checkout process to look for coupons on our store? It is possible via cookies to issue time sensitive coupons. It shouldn’t be too difficult to implement.

By: Mike King

Mike King — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:47 +0000

I too don’t like the idea of online coupons actually. You’ve be way better off to simply offer a limited time sale price for an extra deal or bundle price for a sale instead of the coupons. I see what you mean for preferred customers, but then you should call it that so people don’t go searching for coupons. Change the field name to say, preferred customer code, and no one will go searching for a coupon.

By: Sean Hannigan

Sean Hannigan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:37:46 +0000

If you don’t normally offer the coupon codes, I would just remove that box from your checkout. I think alot of people might be triggered by seeing the box to go and look to see if they can have their purchase cheaper.
I wouldn’t think a 7% exit rate is bad. I think that more people exit at time of checkout after shipping is added or for a variety of other reasons. I know that I was just looking for a part for my oven the other day, went to checkout on a website and realized that I didn’t have my wallet with me.
And furthermore, I’ve seen my share of coupon codes that are taking $x off of an already inflated price!
I say…consistently offer a quality product at a fair price and offer great customer service.
Good post!