
Why "Coupon Code" Should Not be a Field on Your Payment Form - rachelbaker
http://rachelbaker.me/2011/coupon-code-boxes-should-not-be-on-payment-forms/
======
OpenAmazing
It depends.

On an older site I ran we discovered the same thing and exploited it. We made
it easy to find coupons for our product via Google. Interested visitors would
land on our buy page, see the coupon field, search Google, find one and buy
the product because they felt like they were getting a great deal. The
conversion rate went up. The original price took in to account a lot of users
would be using a discount. We split tested having the field and not, and we
made more money with the coupon code field and giving out a lot of coupons.

Yes, some users that would have paid full price may take advantage of the
discount. But, potentially, you will get a lot of customers that only buy
because they find a discount. My guess is that this works better for lower
cost "consumer" type purchases (not larger, business purchases).

Making coupons / discounts easy to find is a marketing strategy. Why do you
think half the apps in the app stores have "Limited time discount offer!" as
the first line of their description.

~~~
alex_c
This is my hunch, as well. You can make a 5% coupon easily available for
anyone who searches on Google, and bake it into your pricing. Customers feel
they got a deal, and you keep the flexibility to use larger coupons for
specific promotions.

I haven't tried this yet, but I am planning to give it a shot once I launch
the app I'm working on. It seems to work for GoDaddy, at any rate!

I strongly suspect that we wouldn't be reading this post if the author had
found a working coupon as the first result when searching for "product X
coupon".

~~~
ams6110
Why even make them go to Google? Put a link right next to the coupon code:
Don't have a code? Take our <a href="#">3 question survey</a> and get one now!

Then you can learn a bit more about your customers, and make them happier
about buying at the same time.

~~~
cpeterso
Or just ask the customer to subscribe to your mailing list to receive coupons.
You can send them one coupon immediately for their current purchase (possibly
even applicable retroactively if email is slow when they are completing their
purchase). Then you can send them more email coupons (and personalized
recommendations) in the future to keep them coming back. :)

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mmcconnell1618
I work with a lot of retail stores and yes, if you add "Coupon Code" to the
checkout page some customers will stop and start looking for coupons. There
are a couple of options:

a) Don't call it coupon. Call it "offer code" or "referral code" or something
that doesn't immediately scream "Discount!"

b) Why try to hide the codes? They will be easy enough to find on Google if
they're available so instead, make compelling offers where you provide
discounts in exchange for customers purchasing more or taking some other
action. Look at rental car web sites. Most offer a "Deals" page where you can
see coupon codes because they realized the codes were easily shared anyways.

c) Don't use a text box. Instead create referral links with the code embedded
so that only people using the links will get the coupon code. This way, people
without codes never see the option to enter one.

d) Check the HTTP referrer when a visitor first arrives and apply coupon codes
as needed OR only display the coupon box when you know a customer has come
from an advertiser site.

e) Proactively suggest offers that don't require coupon codes at all. For
example, when a customer has $97 of items in their cart, display a message box
offering a discount if they purchase > $100.

~~~
hugh3
Incidentally, be careful with rental cars. There are codes out there which
cause the quoted price to go up!

~~~
mmcconnell1618
I've never seen codes that make the price go up but I have seen codes that are
incompatible with corporate rate codes. For example, Hertz gives an American
Express corporate rate but sometimes coupons require a different corporate
rate (like AAA) and the coupon + new rate is actually a worse deal than just
the original corporate rate.

------
pg
Does anyone out there have an answer from actual A/B testing?

~~~
nrao123
@pg- see Page 2 & 3 of this paper for actual A/B testing results on the coupon
code issue

<http://cginsights.posterous.com/hippo-ab-testing>

~~~
marksbren
Good find. Here is a summary for those who don't want to dig though the Scribd
document.

Here are the two versions: <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/493143/ABTest.png> (A =
Old Page, B = New Page)

1\. Doctor FootCare updated their checkout page to include a coupon code field
(and a few other minor changes)

2\. With the updated version, Doctor FootCare saw a 90% decrease in revenue.

3\. Once Doctor FootCare took the coupon code out of the new version (B) the
conversion rate of the page was 6.5% higher than the old checkout page (A).
The new page without the coupon code field is not pictured.

That is a huge change, but I would not blindly assume that this result proves
that the coupon code field should not be included in your checkout form. I
would also like more data about the test.

------
cubicle67
I use NameCheap and they have this field. There's also
<http://www.namecheapcoupons.com/> though, which is very findable.

... which gives me an idea - when you hit a coupon code box, you feel the need
to supply a coupon, and once you've found one everything's ok again. So what
if the company makes it simple to find coupons for small amounts, say 5%, but
has other discount codes as well (for 20%) that it uses. Once you find the 5%
one you stop searching, and you're also happy because you've got yourself a
discount. Meanwhile the company still has a way of offering deeper discounts
when needed

~~~
tonye
I've done this at [http://blog.frogmorecs.com/post/7190338563/print-
distributor...](http://blog.frogmorecs.com/post/7190338563/print-distributor-
and-mail-print-coupon) to try and get ahead of the coupon spam. In the long
term I am going to switch to coupon links and drop the field

------
teyc
A better alternative may be to frame it differently

    
    
        If applicable, please enter your gift card number.
    

This implies it is single use though.

Another option is to provide the field when user is already very invested. For
instance, he has entered shipping details, contact details etc.

I wonder if anyone has split tested "enter coupon" phrases which doesn't
encourage shopping cart abandonment?

The other option is to offer them notification whenever new coupons are
available. It is a good way get people who might have abandoned the shopping
cart anyway to opt in.

------
rkalla
I had this exact experience that Rachel describes the other day -- was signing
up a new startup and saw that, was already feeling like the service was too
expensive, then got annoyed at the idea that me (some sucker from the web) was
paying more than other people and just ditched the signup process.

Granted, I wasn't going to make that startup rich, BUT, I didn't even get past
that signup page to experience their product and give them a chance to win me
over.

With so many choices for every kind of app, I think she brings up a really
good point here. Don't make your new customers feel like suckers about to pay
sticker-price if they don't have to.

~~~
r00fus
It works if you have a "default" coupon (say knock a couple of dollars off the
$30 total) that one can apply to not feel like they're "missing out"... you
can still also have others, but "letting everyone win" prevents sore feelings
and attrition during the checkout process.

------
a5seo
There is academic research that confirms the injustice hypothesis:

[http://www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu/mike.shor/research/Promo/Eco...](http://www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu/mike.shor/research/Promo/EconPsych.pdf)

------
benologist
I have to agree, when I see coupon field I know there's a discount I'm not
getting so I go and look for it.

~~~
rachelbaker
Right! Nerds pride themselves on knowing how to find good deals.

~~~
asnyder
and Jews.

EDIT: I want to emphasize that I AM Jewish, and that the above was meant as a
joke. I grew up in a religious household and if you're too sensitive to
something like the above comment, then make sure to stay away from shows like
"Curb Your Enthusiasm".

~~~
hluska
This comment sickens me.

EDIT - I will always speak out against anything racial so that I never become
a silent witness to a hate crime. However, thank you for clarifying your
comment and best of luck to you.

~~~
asnyder
I want to emphasize that I AM Jewish. I even grew up in a religious household.
If you're too sensitive to something like the above comment, then you must
really hate shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

~~~
mooism2
This is a text-based medium. We cannot hear your tone of voice, we cannot see
your body language. It is therefore difficult for us to tell whether a two
word comment is intended to be read in the style of _Curb Your Enthusiasm_
(never seen it, btw) or Ayman al-Zawahiri.

~~~
dools
I think Ayman al-Zawahiri would have something a little more strongly worded
than "Jews pride themselves on being able to find good deals" ...

~~~
mooism2
_sigh_

Whose name should I use to indicate genuine anti-semitism?

------
qeorge
Your competitors can also buy AdWords on keywords such as "(your business)
coupon codes", sniping your sales at the very end of your funnel.

------
zipdog
I agree the Coupon Code field is a taunt, but what if someone has a coupon
code and has lost the url for the coupon-specific form, or just ended up at
the main form anyway? That could be especially frustrating - to have the
coupon and not see any way of entering it.

Perhaps another solution is to have a checkbox "I have a coupon" instead (and
ask for the code on the next step) or a link. That's less of an incentive, but
still keeps the option for coupon holders on the main form.

~~~
mooism2
Maybe the coupon code should be a url? Perhaps via bit.ly/t.co/etc?

I think I would perceive an "I have a coupon" checkbox as taunting me just as
much as the text box.

------
joshfraser
I have a text link that says "Have a coupon?" that expands into a text field
when clicked. I'm not sure how much that helps, but it felt slightly less
taunting to me.

------
shabble
Having a click-through example.com/deals page which sets a hidden field or
drops a cookie could avoid some of the Sad Missed Deal approach.

Then again, it immediately informs your potential customers of all your
available deals, without the hassle of searching around, so they're more
likely to find some way of optimising their payment downwards. You could
(pseudo-)randomly display certain deals, or set rate/quantity caps ("Buy
quickly, only 50 coupons remain!") to deal with that.

By providing visibility on all your deals, the customer feels more satisfied
knowing they got the best possible deal, and you limit the proliferation of
all those annoying voucher search sites (and cart abandonment when none of
those 3-year old $5 off codes work).

------
fezzl
The coupon code field is only intended to be seen by people who _already_ have
a coupon code. Solution? Make the coupon code field inconspicuous and hard to
find. Make it an accordion dropdown in small text somewhere in the corner, for
example. Those holding a coupon code will not give up trying to find that
place to type in their coupon code, while those who don't have a coupon code
have minimal chance of being thrown off by the taunting "coupon code" field.

~~~
blauwbilgorgel
When confronted with the same problem - the taunting "coupon code" field - our
solution was to use URL parameters in combination with the canonical hint.

Only users with a coupon code know this URL. The URL parameter won't show up
in a Google search, because the canonical is in place. The coupon code works
only for that session and will automatically show up on the checkout page.

Works very well for us.

~~~
ScottWhigham
No offense meant but who is "us"? I'd like to look at your site, compare it to
my target market, and then decide if I think it's a technique we could use.

The big concern in implementing techniques like this is that the number of (a)
abandoned carts rises due to people who have a coupon yet can't figure out how
to use it (or didn't read the instructions in your email), and then (b) the
number of support requests will rise. If "us" is a company with 1000
customers, I'm not sure that you've tested the scalability of it with
promotional emails sent to, say, 50,000 people on a Tuesday morning. Support
for shopping cart-related frustrations is one of those "You'd better provide a
response ASAP or you will probably lose the sale" types of problems.

------
jamesshamenski
Allmenus.com yesterday launched a new feature that somewhat solves this issue.
In the shopping cart, we have text reading 'Discount Code' with a link
'Apply'. If you click the link, we reveal an input box with a button to submit
a coupon code.

I believe that by removing the text box, less visual attention is stressed to
go out and find a coupon. If a customer has come to our site with the prior
intention of redeeming a coupon, I believe they'll navigate our interface
without a problem.

See what i'm talking about, just add an item from the menu to meet the order
minimum to see the text appear:

<http://www.allmenus.com/ny/new-york/280265-yorganic/menu/>

Sidenote: Yes, we'll test the lingo to determine what preforms the best and
monitor campaign results for changes in usage patterns.

------
damoncali
On the other hand, I was once told by a savvy marketer "You know you've got
them when your customers think they're fucking you."

Make the codes easy to find (put them on Twitter and they'll get scraped by
coupon sites), and you can get some traction out of this sort of thing.

------
fpgeek
I generally agree (especially for startups and other less established /
unfamiliar-to-the-user vendors).

That being said, I've seen at least two companies cleverly use the visible
coupon code field: Lenovo and Dell. They use it to establish at least 3 tiers
of pricing:

1\. People who don't use the coupon code at all anyway and get the standard
"sale" 2\. People who Google for a code and find a 5-10% coupon 3\. People who
get a better coupon through "less public" means (e.g. newsletter, limited-use
coupon, etc.)

On top of that, I suspect Lenovo and Dell have their standard "sales" because
they want higher "list" prices that make the corporate volume purchasing
discounts look better.

~~~
lurker19
4\. People who buy Apple because they get pissed at Lenovo/Dell's bullshit
pricing games and horribly broken webstore pages.

------
fixie
I was briefly thinking about this the other day and my quick fix was to de-
emphasize the coupon/gift card fields by using progressive disclosure.
Screenshot of mockup: <http://d.pr/KxJe>. Although this doesn't completely
remove the fact that the site accepts coupons, it helps with the 'empty field'
issue described in the original post. Thoughts on this? Anybody run across any
other solutions?

------
viscanti
A better alternative is to pre-fill the form with a "standard" discount, or
have that code somewhere nearby. Coupon codes work wonders for tracking off
site promotions. Are people finding you from a blog, a magazine article, a
special event, or what? Having specific coupon codes for each let's you
measure the effectiveness of campaigns you otherwise wouldn't be able to
accurately measure.

------
markokocic
The funniest thing here is that often all it takes to look up coupon code is
tho view page source, where coupon code is hardcoded in javascript.

------
waterside81
Our product is featured a lot on daily deal sites so we have to show a coupon
code box. What we also do is include the logo of the daily deal site (Groupon,
Zulily etc.) as a visual hint to the customer as to where the coupon might
come from. That way, I hope, we eliminate the curiousity. Haven't ever heard
from a customer asking for a coupon.

------
Maro
When I purchase something on Amazon and GoDaddy, I usually spend 3 minutes to
google a coupon to save $5. It feels good.

------
joshfraser
I get distracted by those fields too, especially with car rental companies
where I KNOW there are lots of coupon codes out there. Even after I find one
part of me is still wondering if I could have gotten a better deal if I'd just
searched a little bit longer.

------
DJN
At Trafficspaces, we include a coupon code called LUCKYDAY right there on the
payment page of all our plans. Saves the Google search and increase conversion
rates to over 30%.

<http://www.trafficspaces.com/plans/>

------
gkoberger
If you need this field, try calling it "Gift Code" or something more cryptic
like that. People will be less likely to assume it's something they'll find on
RetailMeNot.

------
creativeone
I'm almost done with savable.net, I'll be developing a large database of
coupon codes that you can us when facing the empty coupon code box.

------
ltamake
<http://xkcd.com/837/> How I wish this was a real thing. :(

~~~
andrewflnr
It would actually be kind of cool if you could use (relatively) long content
in promo fields. It might be an interesting problem to teach your site to
recognize it, but it seems like there's a lot of potential.

~~~
StavrosK
Levenshtein distance?

------
ck2
That is why RetailMeNot exists.

~~~
xelfer
Has anyone ever had a code from here work? I can't think of a single instance
where I've had one accepted.

~~~
ck2
I've had plenty work. Maybe you are thinking of bugmenot?

Some venders embrace retailmenot and thrive, some make them pull all codes and
probably suffer for it.

~~~
xelfer
I've tried one from retailmenot in the past week or so which failed, but I
think you're right, it's bugmenot that rarely works.

------
ams6110
Idea for a browser plugin: find coupon codes when such a field appears on a
form

------
bennesvig
When I see Coupon Code the first thing I do is look on Twitter Search.

~~~
rexf
interesting that you're searching Twitter & not a regular search engine
(Google, etc). i have searched Twitter over search engines to figure out
what's going on nearby (ex: what's causing the fireworks)

------
swombat
Wow, a generalisation based on a single anecdotal data point!

You could sink the titanic over again with holes that large.

Guys (and gals), please resist the temptation to take a single personal
anecdote that you care about and blow that up into some kind of authoritative
advice such as:

 _Do not show the Coupon code field unless you absolutely need to do so. When
sending marketing and promotional materials, send them to a different version
of your payment page that reflects the discount you are offering. Having the
same payment page for your discounted and full price purchases just invites
Google searches for “(app name) coupon code” and resulting abandoned cart._

Those arguments are no better than <http://xkcd.com/605/>

~~~
nhangen
I've canceled several purchases for the same reason she did. Granted, if I
need it, I buy it, but when it comes to discretionary purchases, the box has
made a difference.

Maybe it's anecdotal, but add enough of them together and you have a
legitimate case against the coupon box.

~~~
z0r
You can't sum anecdotes, addition is undefined for that kind of data

(But there might be a case there if you took some real measurements)

~~~
nhangen
You get the point. Sentiment matters.

