Coupons

Coupons are a great tool to generate more traffic, re-market to your shoppers, and even help increase conversion rates on the order page. The Platform enables you to create and offer coupons, which shoppers can then use right in your checkout page.

Learn more:

Creating a coupon

Defining the coupon prompt

Sending a coupon to the checkout page

Tips and best practices to drive more business with coupons

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Commission for orders of 0 value

Based on your BlueSnap agreement, a commission may be charged for orders of 0 value, which can result from coupons for 100% off or other discounts that are greater than or equal to the total price.

Creating a coupon

Here's how to create new coupons in your account:

1. In the Merchant Portal, go to Product Catalog > Coupons in the left pane.

2. Click Create New Coupon.

3. Define the coupon settings, including at least one coupon code. The coupon code is what the shopper will enter in the checkout page in order to use the coupon.
   
   Note: The coupon code must be unique and cannot contain special characters (! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) { } [ ]).

4. Click Submit.

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Coupon applicability

• Coupons apply only to the contract price, and cannot be applied to VAT, Sales Taxes, or additional charges.

• By default, coupons can be applied to any contract in your account. You can modify this by excluding or including specific contracts in the Apply to Contracts field in the Miscellaneous area on the coupon settings page.

• Only one coupon is supported per order.

• Expired coupons cannot be applied to one-time or recurring charges.

Defining the coupon prompt

Here's how to set up the coupon prompt on your checkout page:

1. In the Merchant Portal, go to Product Catalog > Products in the left menu.

2. Expand the relevant product to view its contracts, and then click on the name of the contract where you want to set up a coupon prompt.
   

3. In the Discounts area, from the Coupons menu, choose how to handle coupons on the checkout page. You can select one of these options:

   • Hide coupon input box: No coupon prompt will be shown on the checkout page.
   • Show coupon input box: The standard coupon prompt will be shown on the checkout page.
   • A coupon must be entered: The standard coupon prompt will be displayed, and the shopper must input a coupon code in order to continue checkout.
   • Coupon as parameter only: This hides the coupon prompt box. You can then add the couponcode parameter to the checkout page URL in order to apply the coupon directly to the checkout page. See Sending a coupon to the checkout page.

4. Click Submit.

Sending a coupon to the checkout page

In some cases, you may want to pass a coupon code directly to your checkout page. This will apply the coupon's discount to the checkout total. You can do this by simply enabling the use of coupon parameters and then adding the couponcode parameter to the URL of the checkout page:

1. To enable the use of coupon parameters, follow the steps in Defining the coupon prompt, and make sure you select the Coupon as parameter only option.

2. To pre-populate the coupon code in the checkout page, add a parameter in the following format to the checkout page URL: couponcode={code}. The coupon code should be the value of the parameter. For example: couponcode=20off.

   Sample URL:
   https://sandbox.bluesnap.com/buynow/checkout?sku2269035=1&storeid=17125&couponcode=20off

   Here is an example of a checkout page where a coupon code called 20off was applied as a parameter:
   

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Example

You are running a promotion for a new game, and you have set up a coupon for 20% off this game, with the coupon code 20off. You want to link the promotion announcement directly to a checkout page with the relevant coupon code already entered. Shoppers who click on the link and arrive at the checkout page should see the 20% discount, with no need to enter a code.

To do this, you enabled the coupon parameter for the relevant contract and then you added the couponcode parameter to the checkout page URL, with the parameter value set to 20off.

Tips and best practices to drive more business with coupons

Here are some great ways to use coupons to boost your business!

Generate more traffic with a coupon code in an ad campaign

Want to generate some more traffic to your site? Use a coupon code in your banner or ad campaigns to attract new shoppers! Once you bring shoppers to your website, you can retain their interest by displaying the coupon right on your website.

How do I do that?

• Create a coupon with the relevant discount value, such as 25% off.
• Send the coupon code directly to the checkout page, so that the shopper will not have to enter it manually. See Sending a coupon to the checkout page.
• When setting up the coupon, you should enter a high usage count because multiple shoppers will be using the same coupon. The Usage Count Limit is defined on the coupon settings page, under Miscellaneous.
  

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Enter an expiration date when setting a high usage count

If you set a very high usage count, we recommend that you also set a coupon expiration date. This prevents people from finding and using the coupon months or even years later.

Drive conversions with a discount for the first 100 shoppers, or for a specific time period

You can boost conversions by offering a discount to a limited number of shoppers or for a specific time period, like "this weekend only".

How do I do that?

• Create a coupon with the relevant discount value, such as 25% off.
• To offer the discount only to the first 100 shoppers, set the Usage Count Limit to 100 in the Miscellaneous section of the coupon settings page. (A value of 100 means that the coupon code within this coupon can only be used 100 times.)
• To offer the discount for a specific time range, set the Effective Date and Expiration Date. These are defined on the coupon settings page, under Miscellaneous.

Use one-time coupons to reward repeat customers

In some cases, you may want to set up single-use coupons to distribute to specific shoppers who you would like to reward. or many one time coupons (which would be one per customer, and then you'd add a bunch of coupon codes)

How do I do that?

• Create a coupon with the relevant discount value, such as 25% off.
• Set the Usage Count Limit to 1 in the Miscellaneous section of the coupon settings page. (A value of 1 means that each coupon code within this coupon can only be used once.)
• Create multiple coupon codes and provide each code to an individual shopper.