Coupons are a way to grant subscription discounts to existing subscribers as well as future customers. A merchant can create and manage coupon codes and configure them with discounts and rules. By sharing coupon codes with his customers, they are then able to redeem the coupons and get discounts on their subscriptions.
You can create new coupons inside your space under Space > Subscriptions > Coupons.
|
Caution
|
It is possible to change the coupon configuration any time after creation. If you want to update the coupon to use the new configuration you have to explicitly activate the pending coupon change. Otherwise the pending change will only be saved but it will not take effect. Pending changes can be edited or activated any time. Activating a pending coupon change will have an effect on all already redeemed coupons. The updated discount and rules will be used when calculating fees for any subscription with a redeemed coupon code for this coupon. |
Redeeming a coupon is the process of entering a coupon code and associating it with a subscription. Applying a coupon is the process of granting a discount when a fee is charged. For a coupon to be applicable it has to be redeemed first.
Coupons are not the same as coupon codes. A coupon is more like a configuration which can be reused for multiple coupon codes whereas the coupon codes are the actual coupons which are being shared with the subscribers. It is also the coupon codes which are being redeemed and applied. The coupon codes depend on the coupon which defines whether a coupon code can be redeemed or applied and to get the amount of the discount which should be granted. In short: A coupon can have multiple coupon codes which all share the same discount and rules.
A coupon code can only be redeemed if the coupon and the coupon code both are activated. If any of them is deactivated, redeeming a coupon code is not possible. An already redeemed coupon code is still being applied though.
A coupon can either have a discount of a fixed amount or percentage of the amount it is applied on. In case more than one coupon code is redeemed for the same subscription, percent discounts are always applied before fixed amount discounts. The fixed amount discount will automatically be converted into the currency which is used for subscription charges if they do not match.
Discounts are always calculated when the ledger entry is being created. This is important to keep in mind when creating amount discount coupons for metered fees. It means, that amount discounts on metered fees are granted per period and not per unit. Metered fee amount discounts are like free credit for metered fees per period.
Consider a subscription with a period of one month and a product with a metered fee of 10 cents. If a coupon code with a $10 discount on metered fees is redeemed and the subscriber used 500 units per month, he will be charged $40 (500 * $0.10 - $10).
A coupon can have redemption and application rules. A rule always restricts applicability or redeemability. This means, that if a coupon has no rules it can be redeemed by anyone, for any subscription and that it can be applied infinite times for any type of fee or product etc.
|
Tip
|
Make sure you restrict coupon redemption and application as much as possible. Consider defining at least a Fee Type rule. Otherwise the coupon discount might be applied multiple times if there is more than one fee defined for the product (eg. setup fee, period fee, metered fee). |
Redemption limits are always treated as per coupon code, whereas application limits are always treated as per subscription. A coupon code which has been redeemed and is removed again does not count against the redemption limit. Also a coupon can never be redeemed more than once for the same subscription. This means that two individual coupon codes cannot be redeemed for the same subscription if they belong to the same coupon.
Consider a coupon which has a redemption limit of 5 and an application limit of 6. This means that each coupon code can be redeemed 5 times. So if your coupon has 10 coupon codes it is possible to redeem it up to 50 times. Now each of the coupon codes which has been redeemed is associated with a subscription and each of them will be applied for the next 6 subscription charges. So in our example this could result a total of 300 discounted subscription charges. Also keep in mind that if your subscription contains more than one subscription component the discount will be applied to every component unless the coupon is restricted to a specific component by configuration. Also every discount applied for any component fee counts against the application limit. Even if they are charged together in the same subscription period.
When a coupon is redeemed, it is done for a specific subscription. A coupon can be redeemed either by the subscriber of the subscription or by the merchant who is managing the subscription.
A merchant can redeem coupon codes on the subscription page. In addition a merchant can also remove existing coupon codes from the subscription. A removal of coupon codes will take effect immediately and the discounts will not be applied the next time a fee is charged.
During the onboarding process, after the customer has chosen a product, he is able to redeem coupon codes. The coupon codes are only associated with the newly created account, but are not validated for redeemability at this point. After the onboarding has been completed and the trial subscription has been created, the estimated discounts can be seen in the detail view of the subscribers billing view. Setup fee and period fee discount estimates will be shown directly, whereas metered fee discounts will just be indicated and not estimated, since they vary depending on the subscribers usage of metered services. Upon activating the account, the real subscription is created and the coupon codes are being redeemed. It is possible, that the redemption fails at this point if the previously valid coupon code has become unredeemable in the meantime (eg. due to an end date redemption rule).
The coupon management offers a lot of flexibility and it is the responsibility of the coupon creator to be careful when configuring coupons.
It is recommended to stick to one of the following strategies:
Single coupon code with multiple redemptions
Create a single custom coupon code eg. BLACKFRIDAY2020 if you want to share a coupon code with a larger group of customers. This is a very simple configuration and you do not have to manage a large amount of coupon codes. On the other hand this means, that you are not able to make any individual changes to coupon codes like disabling a single coupon code for example. This approach also makes it impossible to prevent a customer from sharing his code with others.
Multiple coupon codes with single redemption
Generate multiple coupon codes and configure a redemption limit of 1 if you want to share individual coupon codes with each customer. This makes coupon code management a little more difficult, but gives you the advantage, that customers cannot share the coupon code with others. Also you will be able to activate/deactivate every single coupon code.