To encourage these customers to return, the well-intentioned marketer issues a specialty coupon code through an email campaign. Let’s say, for example, that an online retailer notices that some of its usually loyal customers have not logged into their accounts in a while. Some common forms of abuse include: Targeted Codes Leaking to Outside Channels Whether the marketer uses a group of coupon sites as affiliates, only promotes certain offers through specialty sites, or has no direct relationship with any coupon sites at all, they are likely to be affected. These dynamics create difficulties for many marketers, each with their own distinct coupon strategy. Misuse and Other Issues: How Coupon Codes Can Become a Liability The result: these sites may actually be more likely to copy coupons. Users are often unaware of any foul play or code misuse on their part. In fact, they tend to reward these behaviors with responses such as “nice find” when a fresh code is posted. Instead, their focus is on fostering a trustworthy community-one where members can rely on each other to post for the community’s benefit, not for their own personal advantage.īut while these sites prevent intentional violations for competitive gain, they do not prevent accidental infringements by their members. ![]() In this model, sites do not copy coupons with the express purpose of gaining a competitive edge. Some sites, such as, source their codes from users rather than from their staff or merchant partners. Sites and Forums with User-Generated Content Do not let others have a larger inventory of valid coupons than you. The major incentive for each coupon site: have more coupons than your competitors. Somewhere along the line they had to be better: deeper discounts, wider selection, exclusive codes, increased timeliness. Now that coupon sites were competing for users, they needed something distinctive to attract visitors. This introduced an all-important factor: competition. ![]() Today, just a cursory search for “coupon codes” reveals dozens of options for the discount shopper. And soon, many other coupon sites started sprouting up. Coupon Mountain found they could make money from commissions by directing coupon traffic to retailers. By attracting all that traffic, surely Coupon Mountain could start to make some money.Īnd thus began the coupon affiliate business model. ![]() The idea made sense: web-savvy shoppers wanted a place to find coupons. One of the first coupon code websites, Coupon Mountain, launched in 2001 following the adoption of coupon codes at retail websites. Why should codes have spread to unintended audiences? No major social network existed. ![]() And these marketers were right to believe so. Believing their audience would simply use or ignore the codes, marketers were comfortable targeting specific customer subsets with certain offers. So the first codes appeared-usually in specialty email outreach campaigns. When online merchants were just starting to adopt codes, there were few risks outside of technical concerns regarding their own systems’ functionality. As the market has matured, new opportunities have become available to clever affiliates and websites looking to profit off of visits from deal hunters. While codes can be a great tool for online marketers to drive traffic and increase sales, they also present their own challenges and unique threats.
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