Coupon Codes
Coupons Codes allow you to offer a discount for online purchases made by those people who have a code prior to the online purchase. You can have coupon codes that are based on a percentage, or dollar amount, discount.
TIP
When providing Coupon Codes to your guests, only give them the first part of the Coupon Code that appears before the colon (:) in the code.
Setting-Up Coupons
Coupons can only be specified on For Sale Items when adding the item; or, at a later time, using the Edit Item Details functions.
The Coupons field can be set using a comma separated list of valid codes.
Coupon Types
The format for each coupon is "coupon code" followed by the "discount" value (separated by a :). For example, my_coupon:25 would represent the coupon my_coupon and a discount of 25 percent.
If instead you wanted to offer a 25 dollar discount, you could use the following my_coupon:$25 where, in this case, the coupon my_coupon would have a $25 discount. Note the use of the $ character to denote a specific dollar amount.
If no discount is specified, or in other words only the coupon code (for example, my_coupon) was entered in the Item Details, the coupon will be treated as 100% off, or no charge.
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The examples above use a generic code of my_coupon, any combination of letters, numbers, underscore, and hyphen characters can be used. It is suggested when creating coupon codes to use recognizable ones so they can be shared more easily.
If you were using this example Coupon Code, you would only give your bidder the part before the colon (:) for them to use... that is, my_coupon only.
WARNING
When defining a Coupon Code do not leave any spaces after the : character as they may not be recognized and lead to unexpected results.
Setting A Maximum Discount
It is possible to set a Maximum Discount a coupon can provide by adding /max=$N to the end of the coupon code.
For example, if you have a ticket that is regularly $100 and want to offer a coupon code of TEACHER which gives $50 off, but only on a purchase of one ticket, you can use TEACHER:$50/max=$50. If two tickets are purchased at the same time and the TEACHER coupon code is used, a maximum of $50 will be discounted. This means the final cost of the purchase would be ($50 x 2) - $50 = $50.
NOTE
Coupons are applied per-item per-transaction. If someone runs two separate transactions they would get the discount each time; or, if you have two items with the same coupon code it would apply individually to each one.
Coupon Code Examples
For an item that is set to be free with a coupon code:
To give a 50% discount to people actively involved in auction preparation:
Multiple coupons can be set for a given item although bidders can only apply one coupon to a given item per purchase (i.e.: they can't stack them) but the coupon applies to the full quantity they have bought. In this case, applying STAFF to a purchase of 4 tickets would give 50% off the total price.
IMPORTANT
When using multiple coupon codes, separate them with a comma (
,) only.A total maximum dollar value for a discount can be set by adding /max=$N to the end of the coupon code. This applies the same to coupons that are percent based or dollar based. For example, to give $50 off on tickets up to a maximum of $100 per transaction.
Bidder Experience
The bidder will see the apply Coupon Code link during the purchasing process.
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The coupon code you share with bidders should be just the prefix before the : (colon) that was entered on the Item Details page. If you used STAFF:50 as the coupon code, bidders should be advised to use STAFF as their coupon code.
When the bidder enters the coupon name into the coupon code field the discount is not reflected immediately. It will be shown during the Review step before payment is finalized during checkout.
IMPORTANT
Coupons will only be applicable when the Online Purchase Behavior of the item is set to Immediate Payment Only. Coupons will not be applied to items "on account".
Tracking Coupons
The Bidder Activity page will show the Purchases of the item at the discounted price.
If you select the History tab from the Bidder Details page, this will show that a coupon code was used to purchase the item and the discount that was applied.
Information about the discount will also be included in the receipt emailed to the bidder and the notification of the purchase sent to the organization.
Reviewed: March 2023