Thrive Commerce | From the Blog
Using Gated Promotions to Protect Margin
Seeing codes for a hyper-personalized cross-channel marketing journey or VIP insider sale leaked on an affiliate website can be frustrating. After all, you create targeted promotions to convert specific audiences. The last thing you want to do is lose precious margin when high-intent shoppers find a private code using Google search prior to checking out.
Here are ways you can better protect promotions you intended for specific audiences.
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1) Use Single-Use Codes
Single-use, or one-time codes, limit coupon redemption to a single order. While it might be impossible to prevent a code leak, single-use codes will prevent a code from being reused more than once.
If your website cannot accept or configure single-use codes, it can still be worth making codes with the appearance of being one-time codes. Many website owners report that visitors are less likely to attempt code-sharing (e.g., posting to their social feeds or sharing with friends) when they assume a unique code is in use.
2) Use redemption settings to gate offers
Many websites wait until after a serious code leak to explore the offer gating options available in their eCommerce platform settings. While you can’t always control where promotions will be shared, you can control redemption activity and limit the blast radius for offer leaks by configuring redemption settings.
For example, in Shopify, you can set criteria such as minimum purchase, restrict eligibility to specific customer segments such as those with recently abandoned carts, and restrict access to one use per customer.
3) Use journeys to verify identity before distributing codes in acquisition offers
On-the-fly email and phone field validation has come a long way. However, if your goal is to acquire net new subscribers, it’s still preferred to verify that a user has entered a valid email or phone number that they have access to before distributing them a code.
By distributing codes within an email or SMS journey, you can verify that a new, unique, and valid subscriber has joined. You can also use your email and SMS platforms to implement anti-gaming for repeat cart abandoners or visitors attempting to get the same code more than one once.
In summary, you may not always have full control of when and how private coupons and promotions are shared. Still, with a few easy steps, you can better gate offers upfront to protect your margins and avoid affiliate headaches.