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I'm interested to know peoples opinions on this. Does clearly showing a voucher/coupon/discount code field within a quote or payment process negatively impact on the customer experience for people who don't qualify (e.g. don't have a coupon)?

Personally if I see a discount code field in a form the first thing I do is search for a code. I recently had this with Pixelmator and saved £7. Knowing I have a discount code prior to purchase makes me more inclined to purchase and positively impacts on my experience (e.g. Rosenfeld Media give UPA members a discount) but the reverse is true when I don't have a code and the potential is highlighted. It makes me feel that I'm some how missing out and that the company can afford to sell their product cheaper but I'm not seen as important enough to qualify.

Do you know of any research for/against this or had any experience of it through user testing etc?

Should discount code fields be made more prominent or should they be reduced to say a link that shows/hides the field?

Any feedback would be really appreciated. Thank you!

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3 Answers

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Our usability testing shows that users definitely do stop what they’re doing and go off to search Google for a code. But, we have rarely seen that this causes a significant customer experience problem. Most of the time users accept that these codes are not always freely available so they carry on with their purchase anyway. So, from the users' perspective so far I can't see this is a major issue.

From a client’s perspective they will often miss out on the full price purchase if a code is freely available on the web, so there could be a more subtle way to allow legitimate voucher code holders use their code (i.e. those people send a code through direct marketing). Perhaps a way around this would be to start providing different entry points into the purchase process (i.e. through a link sent to customers which includes an auto code) or as you say, to minimise the emphasis on them somehow. This would need to be tested and refined carefully before implementing it though

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This is pretty much a 100% match for my experiences too. People go look, but don't abandon if they can't find. By the point they reach the coupon entry the buying decision has been made. – adrianh Jul 31 at 18:36
Thanks for the input Adrian, its appreciated. – paulseys♦ Aug 3 at 10:47
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Does clearly showing a voucher/coupon/discount code field within a quote or payment process negatively impact on the customer experience for people who don't qualify (e.g. don't have a coupon)?

If I see a voucher code field and don't have a voucher code, the first thing I do is launch a new tab and search google for a code. I have on several occasions abandoned a sale because I felt a little hard done by when I didn't find a code. I think for web savvy and the more miserly users (like me!) it is a negative customer experience as we feel as though we are missing out on a benefit being provided to other users.

Should discount code fields be made more prominent or should they be reduced to say a link that shows/hides the field?

Personally I''d always do the latter and hide the field through a link, this allows users who have a code to still use it and isn't as big a distraction for users who don't.

Do you know of any research for/against this or had any experience of it through user testing etc?

Look at point 4 on the following link, it has some facts relating to drop off rates and also some suggestions on how to tackle voucher code fields. http://www.zenwebsolutions.com/news/top-ways-to-prevent-shopping-cart-abandonment.html

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One thing that we saw was that some users would try to guess the code, sometimes spending hours on it. Appeared they'd searched and found old codes and then tried to "match" the pattern. None of these users made a purchase. I do like the suggestion of offering to send one for next purchase (though link). Would be interesting to see stats on this. – Susan R Jul 28 at 17:05
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The obvious semi-solution is to simply not show the discount code field if there are no vouchers currently available. The system knows what vouchers are valid, so it can automatically show/hide this as appropriate.

Of course, this doesn't completely solve the issue because often there'll be a voucher available - just not one your user has…

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Thanks Pete, that's a good point but I wasn't so much thinking about whether or not a voucher was valid but more if someone wasn't eligible. I agree that the system should be smart enough to know when vouchers are valid but the angle I was coming from was that the system wouldn't know whether the user had a voucher or not. – paulseys♦ Aug 11 at 6:25

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