Coupons in Checkout—A Bane or Boost to Conversion

I read an interesting discussion thread recently on Webmaster World regarding the labeling of the coupon field in checkout. The merchant posting the thread was receiving calls from customers asking how they could get a coupon. The merchant also wondered if labeling the field “coupon code” was causing shoppers to abandon carts to look for a coupon code, thus missing out on sales that were likely to happen.

Many other merchants confirmed that they have witnessed higher cart abandonment rates with a field labeled “coupon code” rather than another label that is not associated with receiving a discount. In addition to individual comments, the thread references a study (PDF file) conducted by Vanderbilt University professors Richard Oliver and Mikhael Shor that focused on how the presence of coupon codes in checkout affected purchasing decisions. The authors found that shoppers without a coupon code were less likely to buy compared to shoppers with a code, or even shoppers that never saw a coupon field, because they felt they weren’t getting the best possible deal.

When you have gone through the work (and possibly expense) of attracting qualified traffic to your site, and shoppers have added items to their shopping cart, the last thing you want is to distract them with thoughts that they may be able to get a better deal by leaving to search for a coupon—unless of course you have general use coupons set up to drive special promotions.

Another merchant pointed out that for one of his sites, coupons are listed as a top-level section so shoppers without a coupon can easily find one. The merchant also provides a link next to the coupon code field that directs shoppers to the coupon page.

Example coupon section with link to Coupon page.

The coupon page lists the general use coupons such as $X off orders over $100 or free shipping on orders over $XX. These are coupons that are designed not as a reward for select loyal shoppers but promotions that drive larger order sizes.

Fortunately Checkout Manager, currently in beta release, makes it easy to either change the default label of any field in checkout or add text or links on almost any page in checkout. To change the label of the field go to Checkout Manager > Page Configuration and select the field you wish to edit. You can also select a section and add a plain text field (including links).

Coupon section in Checkout Manager with link to Coupon page. Be sure to use a full path to the coupon page, not a relative path and open in a new window so buyers are not leaving your checkout pages.

Read the thread for yourself and decide which approach makes sense to you. Sites with specific coupons may wish to rename the field to disguise the purpose, whereas sites that use coupons for promotions may wish to call extra attention to the field.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business