Coupons always look like they work. Orders with the code go up, the campaign gets marked a success, and the code goes into the next newsletter. What the report rarely shows is how many of those customers would have bought anyway — at full price.
Discounts are one of the most powerful tools in WooCommerce and one of the easiest ways to lose margin without noticing. Here’s how to tell which is which.
The Hidden Cost of a Coupon
A 20% code doesn’t cost you 20% of the orders it creates. It costs you 20% of every order it touches — including all the customers who were already on their way to checkout and simply searched for a code first. That’s why the question isn’t “how many orders used the coupon?” but “how many orders did the coupon create?”
Five Numbers That Show Whether a Coupon Pays Off
- Discount share of gross sales. Total discounts divided by gross sales. Track it monthly — if it creeps up while net sales stay flat, discounts are replacing full-price sales rather than adding to them.
- Revenue collected per redemption. What customers actually paid on orders using the code, compared with your normal average order value.
- New vs returning customers. A code meant to win new customers that’s mostly redeemed by existing ones is just a loyalty discount you didn’t plan to give.
- Repeat rate of coupon-acquired customers. Do customers who arrived through the code ever buy again at full price? If not, the code bought orders, not customers.
- Free orders. Orders fully paid with coupons or store credit are worth watching on their own — a sudden rise can point to a leaked code or a stacking loophole.
A Quick Worked Example
Say a 20%-off code was used on 200 orders in a month, with an average order of £60 before the discount. That’s £2,400 given away. If 120 of those 200 customers were returning buyers who order every month anyway, roughly £1,440 of the discount went to people who’d have paid full price. The code still might be worth it — but only if the other 80 customers come back, and that’s what the repeat-rate number tells you.
Red Flags to Watch For
- A code appearing on coupon sites. A spike in redemptions you didn’t plan for, mostly from returning customers, usually means the code has leaked.
- Discount share rising every month. Customers learn to wait for a code; full-price sales shrink.
- Codes that never expire. Old launch and influencer codes keep circulating years later.
- Stacking. Multiple codes on one order can turn a reasonable offer into a free product.
Making Discounts Work Harder
- Restrict acquisition codes to first orders and set usage limits per customer.
- Give every channel its own code so you can compare them honestly.
- Prefer threshold offers (“£10 off over £60”) or gifts with purchase over sitewide percentages.
- Set an expiry date on every code, even evergreen ones, and reissue if needed.
See Every Coupon’s Real Impact in SaleTides
The SaleTides Discounts report shows coupon discounts as a share of gross sales, discounted and free orders, and your top coupons with redemptions, discount given and revenue actually collected — with store credit and gift-card codes tracked separately. Combined with the customer and cohort reports, you can see whether a code brought in customers who stayed.
Key Takeaways
- Judge coupons by the orders they create, not the orders they touch
- Track discount share of gross sales every month
- Check whether coupon-acquired customers ever buy again at full price
- Watch for leaked codes, stacking and codes that never expire
- Give each channel its own code so you can compare them
