Discounts, campaigns and vouchers: which one a seller should use

The seller’s marketing centre gathers several tools in one place: product campaigns, discount codes, flash deals and vouchers. At first glance they all look like “make it cheaper”, but each has a different job. Here is when to use which.

A product campaign — everyone sees the price#

A product campaign cuts a product’s price, or bundles several products into one offer. The buyer collects nothing and types nothing: the new price is already on the product page.

This tool is not only for lifting sales, it is also for moving stock. Clearing a size or colour that has been sitting in the warehouse with a campaign is ordinary practice.

Its weakness is that it does not choose: the price drops just as far for a new buyer as it does for the regular who would have bought anyway.

A discount code — only for those who know it#

Discount codes work differently. You create a promo code, the buyer types it on the payment screen, and only then does the discount apply.

So the code goes to an audience you picked rather than to everyone: stream viewers, subscribers, customers who have not come back in a while. The price on the product page does not move, which means you are not discounting for every single person who opens the catalogue.

A voucher — collected into a wallet#

A voucher is not a code: the buyer collects it into their wallet in the app and applies it at checkout. A shop voucher works across the whole shop; a product voucher works on specific items.

A voucher’s strength is in its conditions. Set a minimum basket total and you can lift the average order: to use the voucher, the buyer adds one more thing to the basket.

The list looks like this: each voucher’s type, discount amount, usage limit, claim period and status sit in one table. Until you have created one, the list stays empty as it is above, and the sales, orders and usage-rate figures along the top all read zero.

A flash deal — for the stream#

A flash deal is an offer limited by time. It works hardest in a live stream: you announce a short offer while the stream is running and viewers decide on the spot.

The logic is psychological. In a stream the person is already looking at the product and has already asked their question. An offer with a clock on it pulls them out of “I will think about it later”.

Capping the quantity is normal in a flash deal: the buyer can see how many are left.

Which one to choose#

The practical rule comes out like this. Need to move stock — a product campaign. Need to aim a discount at a particular audience — a discount code. Need a bigger average order — a voucher. Need sales during a stream — a flash deal.

Switching everything on at once does not pay off: stack a voucher on a campaign and a flash deal on top, and the margin disappears while the buyer gets confused.