A coupon gives buyers a discount when they enter its code at checkout. Use one for a time-limited offer, a deal with a partner or a single-use code you send to one person. Every coupon lives in your catalog, so you can limit it, switch it off and see how often it was used.
From there, go to Payments > Catalog > Coupons. If Payments is off in your workspace, switch it on under Settings > Features first. Seeing coupons takes the permission View Payments. Creating, changing and deleting them takes Manage Catalog (Products, Prices, Coupons).
How do I create a coupon?
Click Add to open New Coupon. On the General tab, enter a Name and check the Coupon Code. The code is filled in from the name in capital letters, with spaces and special characters turned into underscores. It can be up to 64 characters long and has to be unique in your workspace.
Pick the Type. Fixed amount takes a set amount off, Percentage takes a share of the price off. Enter the Value, and the form confirms what customers get. Click Create, and the coupon is active right away.
A fixed amount never takes the price below zero. If the total of a one-time purchase comes to zero after the discount, the checkout completes without a payment.
Limiting a coupon
The Advanced tab holds the rules that decide when a code works. All of them are optional. A coupon always applies to the entire order. Older coupons that were tied to a product, variant or price show a notice in the editor. Until you switch them to Entire order, they only work for that product, variant or price.
- Minimum order amount: the coupon only works once the subtotal reaches this amount.
- Max redemptions: how often the coupon can be used in total. Empty means unlimited.
- Max per customer: how often one buyer can use it, matched by the email address used at checkout.
- Validity window: Starts at and Ends at. Leave both empty to keep the coupon valid at all times.
A use counts once the order is paid. Until then, an open order paid by bank transfer, on invoice or in cash and a payment still in progress hold their place, so Max redemptions is never exceeded. The Redemptions column in the coupon list shows the uses so far, next to the limit if you set one. When you empty a field such as a limit or a date and save, the rule is removed.
A Fixed amount carries a currency, which you choose next to the Value. The coupon then only applies to prices in that currency. A Percentage works in every currency, unless you set a Minimum order amount: then it only works in the currency of that amount.
Give public codes a Max redemptions limit. If a code ends up on a coupon site, it stops working once the limit is reached.
Coupons on subscriptions
For recurring prices, Duration decides how long the discount stays on. Once discounts the first payment, Repeating discounts the number of billing Cycles you enter, and Forever discounts every payment.
If you change the type, value, duration or currency of a coupon, the change applies from the next checkout. Subscriptions that are already running keep the discount they started with.
To discount a subscription that is already running, open it under Payments > Sales > Subscriptions and choose Apply coupon. The discount applies to the next invoice. This needs Update Orders / Customers and is not offered for cancelled or expired subscriptions. PayPal subscriptions cannot take a coupon.
How buyers redeem a code
In the checkout, the buyer clicks Coupon code, enters the code and sees the reduced price at once. Capital or small letters make no difference. If a code does not work, the checkout says why, for example that it has expired or has reached its redemption limit. When the buyer switches to another plan, the code is checked again for that plan. The discount applies to the product, not to an order bump.
The same field also takes gift card codes. If no coupon matches, the code is checked as a gift card and its balance is shown. A coupon and a gift card cannot be combined in one checkout. See Gift cards.
To spare buyers the typing, put the code into the link. On the Checkout links page, pick a Coupon, and it is applied automatically when the checkout opens. Only active coupons that have not ended are offered there.
Single-use codes in bulk
When each person should get a code of their own, open a coupon and go to Bulk codes. Enter a Prefix (optional) of up to ten letters or digits and a Count between 1 and 100, then click Generate. Copy all puts every code of this coupon on your clipboard, earlier batches included.
Each code is a separate coupon that works once in total and once per customer. It copies the discount, limits and dates of the original at that moment, so later changes to the original do not carry over.
Switching off, deleting and tracking
Open a coupon to edit it. The switch at the bottom of the sidebar reads Active or Inactive, and Save applies it. An inactive code is rejected at checkout until you switch it back on. Deleting a coupon stops it for good, and its code becomes free for a new coupon.
Usage in the editor lists recent redemptions with the buyer's email address. For more, choose Analytics under More options in the coupon list. It shows Total uses, the uses in the Last 30 days, Revenue attributed, Avg. order value, the uses per month over the last six months and the Top products. Revenue attributed and Avg. order value count paid, processing, shipped and delivered orders without test orders, minus refunds. The totals under Usage count every use, also beyond the 100 most recent ones listed.