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How to create Coupon Code for BigCommerce stores?

Last updated: September 01, 2023
This article has been written and researched by our expert Avada through a precise methodology. Learn more about our methodology

Roger

Author

Daniel

Researcher

Are you looking to boost sales on your BigCommerce store during holidays or stock discharge? Coupons are the best way to attract new and loyal customers to buy more products.

SociallyStacked says that 68% of consumers are using social media to search for coupons for them. Meanwhile, 96% of consumers used smartphones to search for a digital coupon in 2015. However, only 44.5% of marketers would use electronic coupons as a part of their strategy for 2016.

By giving coupon codes to the customers who visit your website, you not only stay ahead of your competition but also capture many opportunities to increase sales for your e-commerce store.

Here are details of what you need to do to create a coupon code for your BigCommerce store.

Pros and cons of coupon code

A coupon code will have certain advantages and disadvantages because there will be two opposite sides in any commercial plan.

Pros of coupon code

  • Coupons can promote business development for both new and old products.
  • Coupons can completely help businesses do this to stimulate trade demand because the coupon allows shoppers to get discounts compared to the normal sale price, so it will help customers become more shopping than usual.
  • Coupon also helps to reduce retail prices at grocery agents without affecting the cooperation or approval of the retailer.
  • Discount coupons help customers to be assured of reducing the risks of buying or changing their usage habits with new items and at the same time, positively impacting customers to buy more after trying that product.
  • In addition to helping customers try new products at preferential prices, the coupon will help customers buy old products according to their habits. Customers who have not tried them will also buy and try the versions that have been updated from time to time.

Cons of coupon code

Along with the advantages of a coupon, of course, a coupon also has limitations.

  • The first limitation to coupons is that it is difficult for customers to know how many people have the same coupon in their hands, and it will be difficult to calculate an estimate of when those people will use the coupon at any time. For businesses, it is important to know the exact time when the trend of customers to focus on buying is very important. In the surveys, customers will not use the coupon right away, but “save” for 3 to 6 months.
  • Many marketers in the company try to shorten the coupon term to easily manage and operate the business and provide goods to customers to ensure more secure sales and promotions. The average time between the launch and expiration of a coupon will be about 2 and a half months (for packaged products).
  • Another issue involves the fact that you will not be able to manage the fact that customers will continue to use the old coupon in exchange for a promotion to buy used products. Instead of creating product push capabilities in the hands of new customers, the coupon only reaches customers who already use a familiar product.
  • The next limiting feature for every coupon is that the promotional value is very small compared to the expectation of the shopper because the economy heavily influences the value of the coupon, the cost of manufacturing the product, product costs, distribution systems, and the transport of goods to business establishments are also problematic.
  • The last limited feature of the coupons is that the coupon can only help you replace a deductible amount of cash when participating in the purchase payment transaction but cannot help you redeem valuable goods or items.

The difference between Coupon and Voucher

The concept of Coupon or Voucher is increasingly popular. However, many people still have confusion about the two above concepts. The biggest difference I can say to help you easily distinguish between these two types of promotions is that the Voucher is discounted by a certain amount on it, while the percentage discounts the Coupon.

Coupon vs Voucher

Let look at the examples below for a better understanding:

A voucher is a form of promotional voucher with a fixed value used in the transaction of goods or services. According to the conditions specified above, customers use the voucher and will not be refunded the excess money (if any).

Example: KFC issues a voucher worth $10, applies to fried chicken + soft drinks combo, customers buy this voucher for $3 (save 70% compared to the value of the meal), use the combo as on the ticket and there will be no refund.

Meanwhile, a Coupon is issued by the business/retailer to offer discounts through a percentage or a fixed value.

Example: HawkHost issues a coupon card with the content: Additional 15% off for all hosting products when entering the code HAWKHOST when making payment.

How to create Coupon Code for BigCommerce stores?

Step 1: Go to the Coupon Codes section

First of all, you need to access the Marketing field. Then, you will see a Coupon Codes button. In this section, the coupon codes you are releasing will be shown.

Go to the Coupon Codes section

Step 2: Tap on Create a Coupon Code

To create a coupon code for your BigCommerce store, you just need to click Create a Coupon Code. Afterward, a new dialog will appear for you to enter the coupon code details.

Tap on Create a Coupon Code

Step 3: Type the coupon code details

Look at the following image.

Type the coupon code details

You can set a coupon code such as DISCOUNT20 in the Coupon code textbox so that your clients will enter it at checkout to take advantage of it. Then, the textbox below allows you to enter the name of the coupon. It’s highly recommended that you should make it concise and easy to understand so that the clients can be easily attracted and encouraged to make an immediate purchase. For example, I call it Discount 20% over $100.

Next, give more details to coupon discount by selecting the discount type and the corresponding value.

Now, you need to pay attention to limiting the number of coupons used because overuse will inevitably cause you to lose profits. To do this, fill in the Limit the total number of uses and Limit number of uses per customer textbox. Besides, it is optional to add Minimum Purchase which means the minimum amount of money that your clients have to spend in an order to be able to leverage the benefit of the coupon.

In this section, make sure to tick the checkbox Exclude Cart Level Discounts. This ensures that there won’t be any additional discount applied to an order that qualifies to use the Automatic Promotion function of BigCommerce.

Afterward, tick to the Enable box if you want it to be available to use. Otherwise, uncheck it to keep it saved but unable to work in your BigCommerce store.

It is optional for you to set the Expiry date that you want the coupon code to be disabled after that time. In other words, the code will be valid until 11:59:59 of the day you type depended on the time zone set in your shop.

It’s highly recommended that you choose the categories or products in which your coupon code will validate. Or else, you can tap on All categories to not limit it.

Tip: Your coupon code will not be automatically selected in its subcategories when you choose the categories for it. Therefore, if you want to do this, you can press the + button.

Finally, if you desire to make any advanced settings, go ahead. Otherwise, just click Save to finish.

Click Save

3 steps to using Coupons in Marketing to increase customer conversion rates

Identify target customers

The success or failure of a Coupon Marketing strategy depends on the relevance of your business’s target audience. This means that you will need to find the right customers for your Coupon campaign first. Are you planning on targeting new customers? Or do you want to attract existing customers to stick with your business?

If you’re looking to target new customers, you’ll need to surpass what your competitors are offering. Remember, 80% of buyers switch brands for better discounts and promotions.

On the other hand, if you want to target your existing customers, you need to carefully analyze their buying patterns and browsing behavior and then carefully find the types of coupons that match their buying habits. Take the example with the brand Crocs:

Famous brand Crocs is looking to make its existing customers loyal. The company decided to offer coupons to attract customers in the 18- to 50-year-old group from its Crocslite group.

Crocs Coupon Codes

The results of this campaign are quite staggering. The company received 94,000 product purchase requests in the first month alone.

Decide what Coupon to use

Each customer has different buying preferences, which makes sense that offering coupons are based on their preferences and needs are varied and varied. The sheer variety of coupon marketing can easily lead to an overall confusion that spoils your successful coupon campaign.

This means you’ll need to be very careful when choosing the best coupon type to target your audience. Make sure the coupon type you choose matches the shopping habits of your target audience.

Choose coupons for instant value if your intended buyer loves instant savings on a purchase. Or send digital coupons with “Email Notifications” to encourage buyers to complete their transactions. Carefully choosing coupons for your buyers can spell out the difference between a good conversion rate and a bad conversion rate. The New York-based company Birchbox sends a 20% coupon with “The Forgotten Cart Email Alert”.

As a result, online beauty products companies can reduce cart abandonment rates; therefore, conversions increase even more.

Select a venue for your event

How do you maximize the reach of Coupon campaigns in your efforts to drive traffic and leads?

Many marketing people are proud that their campaigns highlight the creativity and make a mark in the readers’ minds, but they have not yet succeeded in boosting sales for businesses. For example, they choose to market coupons in the wrong place, not interesting to consumers. The advice here is to be cautious in choosing your marketing site. You probably don’t want a marketing campaign without people.

Useful tips to boost sales with Coupon

Don’t ask for an email subscription for the coupon

Don’t ask visitors to enter their emails for the coupons you give. If they choose to use this coupon, they will definitely provide you with email and related information. Forcing customers to comply with certain requests to gain access to a coupon is relatively low inefficiency, as a lot of consumers may not accept the offers.

Use Exit Popup to reduce abandoned carts

Use an exit-intent popup plugin for advertising the coupon to people who visit the website but do not buy the product. Besides, you can add a coupon code in the content of the popup.

Final thought

We’ve already known the importance of coupons in driving sales and engaging with customers. Above is the article to guide you how to create coupon codes for your BigCommerce store. Besides, you can find something useful in these smart tips to make the most of coupon code efficiency. Continue to follow the articles of Avada so you won’t miss any useful information about BigCommerce!


Roger has over 4 years of experience in SEO. While in college, he started learning about SEO and showed a passion for the field. Right after graduation, he embarked on SEO projects and achieved great success. After years of working, he has learned deeply about SEO. Currently, he is the SEO team leader at avada.io

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