Can coupon codes pre-entered for some customers?

[mainstreetbook1]

My company uses various marketing teams to spread our website link, and we credit them based on the coupon code used. Unfortunately, they cannot ensure that their customers use the coupon code. Is it possible for them to maybe share a link that has the coupon code pre-entered on the shopping cart? I'm thinking similarly to the "Online Checkout link" except I don't want to promote a specific item, or collect on a subscription, or any of the other use-cases available so far.

[BernadetteA]

HI @mainstreetbook1 That's a great question. It's not currently possible to do this, but I can see how that would be a useful feature. 

Your marketing teams do not promote a specific product, but rather the entire site? Then you're able to determine how the customer heard about your site based on the coupon code that was entered? 

I can't really think of an easy way to ensure that the coupon would be used other than adding a note to the site (maybe an announcement banner) or by adding brief instructions to the marketing campaign itself. 

Do you have a lot of teams to track? 

[mainstreetbook1]

Hi @BernadetteA , thanks for responding. 

You got it!

We have tried various ways informing the customer, but all methods result in ~25% of customers not doing it. 

I recently spoke with someone from Square soliciting feedback, and his idea was to set up the shipping options such that those would identify the marketing team. Right now, we have 2 global shipping options. If we duplicate those for each marketing team, the customer would be required to select one of them and would be more likely to actually pick the appropriate one. Unfortunately, there is no way to sort or rearrange those shipping rates, and they don't even seem to display on the live checkout site in the same order as on the website setup.

The teams rotate; every week there is a change in the lineup.

It would also suffice to be able to add a customizable field to the checkout itself. Perhaps it could be configurable a la item Modifiers; let us create a dropdown with options to select, and let us toggle whether or not something needs to be chosen.... and make sure it prints to the Orders Export.

[BernadetteA]

Hmm... that's a pretty good idea with the shipping rules. I think I understand what the rep was trying to suggest. Can you post a link to your site so we can try to see the customer's point of view? Do people order a variety of items? 

[mainstreetbook1]

main-street-books.square.site. 

The marketing teams that I described are actually the school PTA's who distribute our link to the parents/teachers/students to buy books during their fundraiser event. At the end of the event, we give the PTA a percentage of the sales as cash, so we would love if the customer was required to provide that information one way or another.. We have over 8000 items on the site for customers to choose from. 

[BernadetteA]

I wasn't able to view your shipping settings in the store settings, but I see the live site allows for a pickup option or a mailing option. 

The only other suggestion I can think of would be to use modifiers on the items, and make the modifier a required option. You can modifiers to items in bulk from the Square dashboard, and you can also set the minimum required. The information will then sync over to your online store settings. 

Do any of your items currently have modifiers? I think you had mentioned modifiers previously, but I'm not sure if this means you tried it out, and did not like it? 

There's also the "note to seller" option at checkout, but my concern is that you would run into the same issue you have experienced with coupons. Each customer would need to remember to manually input the information before they complete the checkout process. 

[mainstreetbook1]

We do not use modifiers as each item is completely distinct from one another; even when it comes to hardcover vs trade paperback, they have unique ISBNs (international standard book numbers). I do not like this item modifiers solution because the customer would be required to make that choice for every item, which they are likely to find frustrating (sometimes people order a dozen or more books!). 

Another thing related to the shipping options that the other guy suggested: I cannot find a useful report that actually tells me what shipping option was selected by all of the customers during a period. Currently I use the Square Online Orders Export to CSV, but that only indicates the COST of the shipping that the customer chose and not the actual shipping option selected. 

The note-to-sellers is exactly as you described: they aren't required to fill that field, so most of the time they won't.

[BernadetteA]

Ah, I see what you mean with the redundancy if a customer had to select a modifier for every item they order. 😕

I'll keep trying to brainstorm with my colleagues, and will let you know if we can think of anything else that might work for you.