Coupon codes

The problem

A promotion is a price you publish to everyone who visits. Sometimes you want the opposite: something you hand to one person. An apology for a part that arrived late, a thank-you to a workshop that buys every month, a code on a flyer at a trade fair. A shopfront discount cannot do any of that, and doing it by hand means editing a price, remembering to put it back, and hoping nobody else noticed.

How ELVPro does it

Coupon codes are opt-in: nothing happens until a customer types the code into their basket. A code can take a percentage off, a fixed amount off, or waive the delivery charge. You cap how often it can be used in total and per customer, set a minimum order, give it a start and end date or none at all, and restrict it to chosen products, categories or donor vehicles.

The saving is spread across the individual order lines before VAT is worked out, so the invoice always adds up to what the customer actually paid — which matters under the second-hand margin scheme, where the VAT due depends on the price you really sold the part for.

What you can do

• Take a percentage, a fixed amount or the delivery charge off an order
• Cap the total redemptions and the redemptions per customer
• Require a minimum order value, or restrict a code to a first order
• Limit it to chosen products, categories or donor vehicles
• Reserve a code for one named customer, or for signed-in customers only
• Generate a batch of single-use codes and download them as a CSV for a mailing or a print run
• Decide whether a code combines with your promotions or steps around them
• Apply a code to a phone order you take yourself
• See who redeemed what, and what each code brought in against what it cost you

Plan: Business and up.