Offers WooCommerce coupons on your shop is excellent and everyone loves a coupon however there are some situations where you need to hide the WooCommerce coupon field from your shop, see here why and how to do it.
Offering coupons is an excellent way to keep your customers engaged. Having coupons encourages them to complete the purchase and provide great reviews of your products but there are some downsides to using coupons. When you have coupons for every product in your store, you might be setting up a trend. If you are consistent with this approach, your customers will be trained to look for coupons before they purchase your products.
If there isn’t any coupon, they might hold off the purchase until they find one. And even worse, while they are waiting, some of them might buy the product from one of your competitors.
And if there are coupons, chances are high that your customers will find the coupon at one of your affiliates. That means you are losing revenue both on the product price and the affiliate fees.
So, what should you do to prevent these situations? Luckily, there are several solutions to handle these issues and maximize your profits.
First of all, you can disable coupons entirely. Alternatively, you can use some smart techniques to prevent the customers from leaving carts. It is also possible to use premium extensions that apply coupons automatically.
I will discuss all three solutions below.
How to Hide WooCommerce Coupon Field?
If you are really fed up with the coupons, you can easily remove the coupon field altogether. To do that, go to the WooCommerce > Settings page, and click on the ‘Checkout’ tab. Uncheck the ‘Enable the use of coupons’ and click the ‘Save Changes’ button. At this point, you no longer have the coupon field anywhere in your store.
But I don’t recommend this approach. Using coupons has its benefits. If you don’t allow coupons, your customers might think they are not getting the best deal. As a result, they might start looking elsewhere.
A better solution is to use the coupons in a smart way. Continue reading to know how to do that.
Smart Ways to Use WooCommerce Coupons
If you don’t want to disable coupons and don’t want to lose your customers too, there are several options for you. Let’s see which they are. Moreover, the Smart coupons for WooCommerce plugin will help you achieve just that. With a multitude of configuration options to choose from you can issue and manage coupons with ease.
Linking the Coupons
You can add a link to the available coupons right after the code box. It is better if the link opens a small window with the coupon codes. If you are running a special promotion, you can add a small section with clear instructions about the coupon.
When customers have a clear option of finding all the available coupons right from your website, they are less likely to abandon the cart and look for coupons somewhere else.
Renaming the Coupon Field
Renaming the coupon field is another interesting idea. Normally, people are looking for text like ‘Coupon’ or ‘Discount’ on the checkout pages. As long as you are not using these, you are safe.
Instead of the traditional ‘Apply Coupon’, you can try some variations like ‘Promo Code’, ‘Special Code’ etc. When using these, your customers will think these are part of a special promotion.
Therefore, they will check out the front page or special offers page of your website to know more about the promotions.
Camouflaging the Coupon
It is also possible to camouflage the coupon code section. In this strategy, you rename the coupon code section and place it within an expandable element. To take it a level further, you can make the font size a bit smaller.
When you do this, customers will not find the traditional text field for providing the coupon. But if they receive a promo code from somewhere, they will take closer looks and find out the promo section eventually.
Applying Reciprocity Plan For WooCommerce Coupon
Last but not the least, applying a reciprocity plan could be another way to deal with discount-seeking customers.
With some clever planning, you can ask the customers for their email addresses in exchange for a coupon code. Do this before the customer enters the checkout page.
Now, if the customer abandons the cart, you still have the email address for future marketing. You can use randomized coupon codes and restrict multiple coupon usage to keep the process secure.
Using Coupon Management Extensions
What if you don’t want to remove the coupon fields but don’t want to display them directly either?
Well, there are solutions for that situation too. There are a couple of special WooCommerce extensions which allow you to perform advanced coupon management tasks. Below, I will discuss the two most popular coupon management extensions for WooCommerce.
URL Coupons
The excellent coupon management features offered by URL Coupons ensure the maximum conversion for your online store. With the help of this extension, you can hide the coupon field on the cart and checkout pages.
This doesn’t mean that you are disabling coupons altogether. Customers with a coupon can still get the discount by using the special URL, which includes the coupon code and applies the coupon automatically.
Another potential way is to use an existing URL to trigger a coupon. For instance, you can provide a special coupon for people coming from a specific landing page or a blog post. This is a great way to build a loyal customer base and reward them.
The extension allows you to redirect customers to a specific page once they have applied a coupon. You can use this feature to redirect them to the checkout page once they have used a coupon. This reduces the risk of cart abandonment. It can also work as an effective solution to remove the barriers to purchase.
URL Coupons allows you to send personalized coupons with the customer name in the coupon code. This will make the customer more connected to your brand. You can also send them discount links which they can share with their friends.
Other notable features include one-time use for coupons, scanning QR codes for getting coupon, etc. You can get the single site license of URL Coupons for $49 only.
Smart Coupons
Smart Coupons is another powerful coupon management extension with lots of relevant options. With this plugin, you can create coupons in bulk. It comes with a unique coupon generator option, which will keep your coupons secure. It is possible to further secure your coupons by adding a custom prefix and suffix to the code.
Applying coupons with one click is a unique feature of Smart Coupons. When you use this feature, the logged-in customers will be provided with the available coupons on the checkout or cart page. They can click on any coupon to apply it automatically.
The available coupons could be displayed anywhere by using the built-in shortcode. If you can handle CSS, you can easily customize the coupon styles to make them look more attractive.
If you are sending product links to your customer via email, you can add coupons with the link. This will automatically apply the coupon when the customer clicks the link. It is also possible to export and import coupon settings to and from other WooCommerce websites. The plugin works perfectly with other popular extensions like Subscriptions, Chained Products, etc.
Concluding Remarks For WooCommerce Coupon
At the end of the day, how coupons affect your business depends on you. If you follow the tips mentioned above and use coupons in a smart way, you will gradually improve the rate and enjoy more profit. On the other hand, following the traditional route might make it a bit harder to build up a successful business.
Are you a WooCommerce store owner? What are your thoughts about using coupons? Let me know by leaving a comment below and taking a look at our WooCommerce theme.
