Coupon Management Systems: Best Guide for Businesses

Due to the inevitable rise of online shopping, brands must develop clever online discount and coupon tactics. Promo codes give businesses a special chance to connect with consumers, track their route to purchase, and foster advocacy and brand loyalty. And that’s only the beginning. However, firms must implement efficient coupon management systems to gain from coupon marketing. Coupon management software helps brands develop, disseminate, and track discount campaigns across channels.

In this blog article, I will examine the essential characteristics of a coupon management system and outline its benefits and essential elements to ensure a successful discount campaign. I’ll also demonstrate how Voucherify’s array of coupon management tools may serve as your launching pad to success using Delivery Hero’s brand as an example.

Do you know what is a coupon management system?

A digital platform called a coupon management system makes it easier to give discounts to consumers, enabling firms to target particular clientele groups and customize coupon offers while preventing fraud. Additionally, a good coupon management system offers useful data and insights to gauge the effectiveness and return on investment of discount campaigns.

It makes sense to invest in strong coupon software because over 80% of consumers periodically browse the internet for deals. However, how can you be certain that a specific coupon management program will live up to your expectations?

You build coupon management in-house

You can, of course. However, why would you? Without a doubt, the process of creating logic for creating, organizing, and monitoring coupons and discounts is not simple. Excel sheets with codes might work for small organizations, but this method doesn’t address the scalability issue.

It’s that simple: time is money. Building an in-house coupon solution is a fast-paced roller coaster of unforeseen development work, frustrating showstoppers, and neglecting to take care of your main product or service, even while it does have some unique perks like covering certain business use cases. 

The main point is that you can either save time and money by using a market-ready coupon system that might or might not meet all of your needs, or you can invest time, money, and resources to create an internal solution that will undoubtedly cover your use cases. This is why choosing a coupon supplier requires a thorough audit.

Regardless of whether you decide to develop your coupon solution internally or work with an existing supplier, you must make sure that your coupon management application has the following characteristics and functionalities.

Key benefits of coupon management software

For both consumers and brands, a successful coupon management system provides several important advantages. Here are a few of the main benefits:

• ‍Increased sales – Coupons draw clients, increasing income and sales volumes.
• ‍Customer acquisition and retention – By encouraging new consumers to try goods or services, coupons help businesses grow their clientele. Additionally, they increase client loyalty, which promotes recurring business and enduring partnerships.
• ‍Targeted marketing – Promo codes make customized offers possible, enabling companies to target particular clientele groups and boost campaign efficacy, thus reducing advertising expenses.
• ‍Data insights – For data-driven decision-making, coupon management systems offer useful information on consumer behavior, preferences, and campaign effectiveness.
• ‍Inventory management – For data-driven decision-making, coupon management systems offer useful information on consumer behavior, preferences, and campaign effectiveness.

Features of a successful coupon management system

To begin creating your coupon strategy, you’ll need two things: a goal and the tools to reach it. There are undoubtedly a dozen different coupon management solutions available in a market already overflowing with technological tools for simplifying even the tiniest company work. However, you should think about the following essential elements of a discount management system before investing.

1. Advanced coupon customization

You should be able to run highly targeted and personalized coupon campaigns across all marketing channels using a good coupon management system. Offering open-ended discounts that arbitrary visitors can take as often as they like is not something you want to do. Although the discount amount and expiration date are the first steps in properly customizing a coupon, there are many more options for adjustment. Your voucher management software must be scalable and adaptable enough to create a variety of incentives for any market or event.

Several features will let you do just that:

• Flexible redemption rules are based on multiple criteria, such as segments, order size, or cart content.
• Multi-effect and dynamic discounts are calculated on top of a formula.
• Code customization options to make your promo codes user-friendly and secure from fraud.
• Redemption limits per customer, order, campaign, and more.
• Specific time limits and validity periods.
• White-label capabilities to fully reflect your branding.

2. Pricing scalability

The coupon management system has to align with your long-term planning and commercial objectives. Pricing guidelines must be unambiguous and simple. When it comes to coupons, this means that you pay according to how many operations—such as used codes—are completed. You may maintain minimal maintenance costs and balanced earnings at scale by following this easy guideline.

Even a well-planned promotional campaign might have unexpected outcomes in the fast-paced world of marketing. The usage-based pricing model is therefore considerably more important. It enables you to evaluate the long-term plan roll-out cost gradually, iterate, and start small. You don’t want to spend a lot of money upfront and just achieve half of your marketing objectives, do you?

3. Marketing automation and A/B tests

Meeting customers more closely than ever before is made feasible by marketing automation. If you don’t use automated tools, even the most inventive coupon campaigns nowadays can’t compete with a contemporary e-commerce behemoth. Specifically, how does it support your promotional strategy? It assists you in creating an omnichannel coupon experience by:

• Personalized emails and SMS with coupon codes fitted to the message context.
• Automatic coupon distribution at wholesale is triggered by customers’ interactions with the brand (like changing location, abandoning the cart, new subscription, etc.).
• Dynamic customer segmentation, which divides your audience based on current tracking results.

Marketing automation makes it possible to meet clients more closely than ever before. Even the most creative discount promotions these days can’t compete with a modern e-commerce giant if they don’t use automated methods. Specifically, how does it complement your marketing plan? It helps you create a coupon experience that is omnichannel by:

4. Coupon delivery via any media and device

Delivering these coupons to end users presents another difficulty that not all coupon management platforms can handle, even though creating unique codes with personalized redemption restrictions is problematic. The power of dynamic segmentation and personalization should be combined in a good coupon management system so that messages including coupon codes are contextually discounted and properly written.

Additionally, your system should be able to recognize shifts in client groups and send out an incentive-based communication at the appropriate moment and context. The most often used coupon code scenarios include re-engagement discounts, exit intent offers, cart abandoned bargains, and welcome coupons.

5. Discount redemption tracking

To gather consumer information and protect your promo codes from fraud, coupon tracking is essential. A competent coupon program converts collected data into quantifiable reports, which ultimately boosts your sales rates. Coupons are much more than just codes and savings these days. They are employed to monitor consumer behavior, which is subsequently segmented. Look for monitoring features such as these when selecting a coupon provider:

• Unique codes that allow you to track every single coupon among dozens of generated campaigns.
• Redemptions and delivery details specify when and how the code was delivered (you can see who has redeemed a particular code and which delivery channels are the most effective).
• Metrics and stats showing your campaigns’ real-time performance (like gift card balances, the total number of redemptions, or the most popular types of discount).

Keep in mind that a data-driven marketing plan cannot be guaranteed by a single feature. You can only get reliable hints from a coupon management system that monitors a coupon during its whole existence.

6. API-first coupon management system

With APIs, you may create software that works with your workflow and doesn’t require a long time to develop. Determine how many business tools, apps, and service providers you currently utilize. If they weren’t combined to function as a team, none of them would be adequate. For this reason, a coupon system with an API is essential.

You may be wondering what an API is. To put it succinctly, an API is a way for disparate databases to communicate quickly. When a customer attempts to use a discount code in the context of coupon campaigns, you may observe API in action. Your store asks coupon software for the code’s data as soon as it is input. Is it still in operation? Is the client eligible for the offer? The response—whether favorable or unfavorable—then returns to your store, enabling or disabling the customer to take advantage of the deal.

Your existing data sources and infrastructure are valuable to an API platform. Integrity and smooth data flow are provided by connections to CRM and BI applications. The coupon method just applies to your current architecture because of APIs. All of your marketing resources can be combined to form a single, effective promotional strategy.

7. Your developers like it

This is generally something you would skip if you are not a programmer. And when it comes to selecting any software, that is among the worst blunders you can make. Your marketing team will save time and money with a coupon supplier that is approved by your engineers and comes with an API. You can save time and money by implementing customized, bespoke solutions with the help of developer-friendly software. Your coupons get ahead of the competition with faster onboarding.

• RESTful API.
• Thorough documentation with quick-start tutorials, a dozen practical examples, and an interactive console.
• Support of the vendor’s tech team.
• SDKs (software development kits) for popular programming languages.

8. Minimal learning curve

Digital marketing is a more vast field than it has ever been. A college degree shouldn’t be required to design coupon ads. Because of this, you should consider the learning curve needed to grasp the product when selecting a discount management system. Anything that calls for weeks of training, a ton of bespoke work, and hundreds of phone calls and emails should be crossed off your list. What to search for in a new voucher management tool is as follows:

• Open developer documentation and a sandbox environment to test your campaigns before going live.
• Open support center with step-by-step guides.
• Different forms of support (phone, email, 1:1 demos, slack channels, and forums).
• Easy & interactive user interface.
• A dedicated Success Manager that you can quickly contact in the case of questions and doubts.

9. Coupon management

You should have enough flexibility in your coupon discount management system to manage coupon campaigns without feeling overburdened. With only a few clicks, you should be able to start an efficient coupon campaign that covers coupon production, distribution, tracking, and redemption without becoming bogged down in technical details. Maximizing the advantages of coupon promotions for consumers and companies is the aim.

Effective coupon management requires several key elements, including audience targeting, tracking coupon performance, result analysis, and clear objectives. By implementing a well-structured coupon management system that offers a smooth and fulfilling customer experience, brands may increase sales, attract new customers, and cultivate customer loyalty.

10. Any value & effect

A key component of a coupon campaign is determining the coupon’s value and impact. The discount or advantage provided to customers—which could be a set sum, a percentage off the entire transaction, free delivery, or a free item—is referred to as the coupon value. The value selected ought to be in line with the goals of the campaign and the inclinations of the intended audience.

Conversely, the discount effect describes how the discount is applied to a specific customer’s purchasing cart. You can choose from a variety of discount impact scenarios with a well-equipped coupon management system, such as the entire order, specific goods, proportionate to quantity, proportionate to the amount, the most expensive/cheapest item, and many more.

A carefully considered coupon value can raise the average order value, draw in new clients, and promote repeat business. Additionally, it might instill a sense of urgency and boost sales right away. On the other hand, a coupon value set too low would not successfully attract clients, while a value set too high could reduce profits.

To achieve the ideal balance between luring clients and guaranteeing the campaign’s success and profitability, it is crucial to carefully evaluate the coupon value and its impact. The coupon value can be adjusted for best results by routinely tracking and evaluating the campaign’s performance.

11. Coupon stacking

Since inflation is weighing us down at every step these days, no customer will ignore the option to apply multiple discounts to their shopping cart at once. This is where coupon stacking comes into play, enabling consumers to combine multiple coupons or sales offers to get the most discounts on a single purchase.

This specific tactic might attract more customers and encourage them to spend more money. By guaranteeing that multiple coupons are applied accurately and automatically upon checkout, eliminating the need for manual intervention, an efficient coupon management system streamlines the process of building coupon stacks and establishing their hierarchy. This feature enhances the customer experience, increases customer satisfaction, and ultimately promotes customer loyalty and repeat business. Nonetheless, it’s critical to give consumers a seamless user experience and unambiguous terms and conditions for coupons. In the end, discount stacking won’t happen if your clients have promotional codes but don’t know how to use them simultaneously.‍

Additionally, you can use a set of white-label capabilities to customize digital discounts to meet the unique requirements of your business. Your brand will have a safety net that prevents fraud if you can assign coupons to specific clients. Using 360-degree customer profiles to check particular metrics will enable you to stay current with all the information you need to adjust and enhance your coupon campaign while on the go. Additionally, you can easily gather, examine, and move client data without bothering your tech team thanks to our interface with Segment.