So you ran a deal on Groupon and the codes are starting to come in. Now what? Shopify doesn't have a built-in way to accept Groupon, LivingSocial or Wowcher vouchers, so you have to set something up yourself. Every code has to be checked, it can only be used once, and the customer needs to end up with what they paid for.
There are really two ways to handle it. You can do it by hand over email, or you can put a redemption form on your store and let customers do it themselves. We'll go through both.
How deal-site vouchers work
Every deal you run is its own campaign, say a monstera in a 6-inch pot at 40% off. Each person who buys it gets their own voucher code, and the deal site sends you the full list.
When a customer wants to redeem, you check that their code is on the list, make sure nobody has used it yet, get them the product at the deal price, and mark the code as used. That last step is the one that gets forgotten.
Payment and reporting work a little differently on each deal site, so it's worth rereading your merchant agreement to see whether you need to report redemptions back to them.
Doing it by hand
This is how most stores start, and for a small deal it's fine.
Put the codes in a spreadsheet with a column for "used". Tell customers to email you their code, on the deal page and somewhere on your store. When an email comes in, look the code up and check it hasn't been marked. Then go to Discounts in Shopify admin and make a one-time discount for the deal product. Email that back, wait for them to order, and mark the voucher as used.
That's a few minutes per voucher. Fine for twenty. Not so fine for a few hundred in the first week, which is what a popular deal can bring. Customers also have to wait on you before they can order.
Spreadsheets are also where duplicates come from. Two people on your team redeem the same code at the same time, or someone forgets to tick the box, and a voucher gets used twice.
Letting customers redeem on your store
The other option is a redemption form on your store. The customer types in their code, it's checked on the spot, and the product shows up in their cart at the deal price. Nobody on your end has to do anything.
With a redemption app like Dealstub, setup goes roughly like this:
- Install it from the Shopify App Store.
- Create a campaign for the deal and pick the product it's for.
- Paste or upload the codes the deal site gave you. The app makes a matching Shopify discount for each one.
- In Shopify admin, go to Online Store › Themes › Customize and add the app's block to a page, such as a "Redeem your voucher" page. On an Online Store 2.0 theme you don't have to touch any code.
- Put the link to that page in your deal listing and the voucher instructions.
After that it pretty much runs itself. Every redemption is logged, so you can always look up when a code was used.
Stopping codes from being used twice
A reused voucher is basically a free product. It happens when a customer shares their code, when someone tries it again after it already worked, or when two redemptions go through before anyone marks the code.
A few settings help. Set every Shopify discount to one use in total, not one per customer, or a different customer can use the same code. Tie each discount to the deal product, so a $20 plant voucher can't come off a $90 order.
The bigger fix is checking and marking a code in the same step. The gap between those two is exactly where duplicates get through. An app can do both at once; someone working from a spreadsheet can't.
Keep a record of every redemption with the date and order, too. When a customer emails to say their code "doesn't work", you can see right away whether it was already used.
Easy mistakes to make
- Letting the discount apply to the whole cart instead of just the deal product.
- Not deciding up front whether the voucher covers shipping. Say it in the listing and set the discount to match.
- Burying the instructions. If the redemption link isn't on the voucher itself, expect a lot of "how do I use this?" emails.
- Selling more vouchers than you can actually fulfill, including the ones people redeem weeks later.
- Running out of codes. If the deal sells better than expected, get the extra codes from the deal site and import them before customers start getting errors.
A few common questions
Can I just use Shopify's discount codes as the voucher codes? You can, as long as you make one discount per voucher and limit each to a single use. That's manageable for a handful. With hundreds, creating and tracking them by hand is where an app saves you the most time.
Does this work for LivingSocial and Wowcher too? Yes. It's the same process for any deal site that gives you a list of codes.
Do I need a developer to add a redemption form? Not on an Online Store 2.0 theme. Apps add the form as a block you drop in from the theme editor.
A customer says their code doesn't work. What do I do? Look at your redemption record first. If the code was already used, you'll see when. If it was never on your list, ask them to check it with the deal site.
Where Dealstub comes in
Dealstub is our app for this. It checks each voucher, blocks duplicates, adds the product to the cart and applies the discount at checkout, and it logs every redemption along the way. It works with Groupon, LivingSocial, Wowcher or any other deal site that gives you codes.
It's free for up to 10 redemptions a month. If you need more than that, Unlimited is $10 a month through Shopify.