Coupon codes
Create a code buyers type at checkout, decide who it works for and how far it goes, then end or archive it when you are done.
Published
A coupon code is a word buyers type at checkout to get money off. The code belongs to a promotion — the thing that holds the discount, the schedule and the limits — and typing it is one of the two ways a promotion can reach an order. The other way needs no code at all.
You make and manage both kinds on Promotions.
Make one
On Promotions, choose New promotion and then Coupon code — buyers type it at checkout. If the coupon-code chip is already active, the button is New code and opens the form straight away.
Whether you can create each kind depends on your plan. When coupon codes are not included the verb is absent and the page offers See plans instead.
The form is one screen in five parts, in the order you think about them.
How buyers get it
Code is the literal buyers type: 3 to 40 characters, letters, numbers, - and _,
uppercased as you type. Nothing checks the code before you save — the field says as much — and
saving is what tells you whether it is already taken.
Who can use it is the rule Pantryk applies at checkout:
- Everyone — anyone who checks out at your storefront.
- New customers only — buyers with no completed order from your storefront yet.
- Regulars only — buyers who count as regulars at your storefront. There is no number for you to set: Pantryk applies the same threshold at checkout.
- VIPs only — buyers you have pinned as VIP in Customers.
The offer
Name is what the promotion is called — it is how you recognise it in your list, and what buyers type is the code, not the name. Discount type is a percentage off or a fixed amount off, and Value is the number that goes with it.
The discount comes off the eligible items, add-ons included. It never comes off the delivery fee.
Applies to
Either Entire storefront, or a narrower set: Specific drops or Specific products. Drops and products are picked separately, so switching between them clears what you had picked.
When it runs
Starts and Ends are optional, and are your storefront’s own clock, not the buyer’s. Leave both empty and the promotion is always on once you activate it. The end is exclusive: the code does not apply at or after the time you set, which the field states in the same words.
Limits
- Total uses — the budget across every buyer. Empty means unlimited.
- Minimum order — judged on the eligible items only.
- Once per customer — each buyer can use it a single time, counted by the email address they check out with.
Activate it
Saving is two verbs. Save draft keeps the promotion where buyers cannot see it yet; Save & activate puts it to work. A draft is not a code anybody can type — it is a promotion you have written and not started.
Once it is active, the status you read is worked out from the window and the uses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Written, not started — buyers cannot see it yet |
| Scheduled | Activated, but its start time has not arrived |
| Running | Inside its window and applying at checkout |
| Ended | Its window has closed |
| Fully redeemed | The total-uses cap has been reached |
| Archived | Retired for good |
What buyers see
The Discount code field stands in the order summary at checkout, above the ledger, whether or not you are running anything. A buyer types the code, presses Apply, and the accepted code shows as a chip with the amount off, a Discount row in the ledger and a You save line under the total.
Only one promotion applies to an order. If a buyer types a code while an automatic discount is already applying, the code wins and the checkout says which automatic discount it replaced.
When a code cannot be used, the buyer is told why in one sentence — that the code is not recognised, that it has not started or has ended, that it has been fully redeemed, that they have already used it with that email address, that it is not available for their order (the audience rule), that nothing in their cart is covered by it, or what their order has to reach for it to work.
While it is running
The three figures above the list are all-time: Running now, Total uses and Discount given. Order-level earnings live in Earnings; this page manages the promotions themselves. Open a promotion to see its own Uses, Discount given, Order value with it and Last used, and to copy the code.
Editing a running code is allowed, and each edit that has a consequence says what it is:
- Change the literal and the old code stops working the moment you save. Anything you have already printed with it will be refused at checkout.
- The total-uses cap cannot go below the uses already spent. End the promotion instead of shrinking it under its own history.
End, restart, archive
End closes the window now. Buyers can no longer use the code, the orders that already used it keep their discount, and the promotion stays in your list reading Ended.
Restart is the way back: give an ended promotion a new end date and it runs again. The orders that used it before are unaffected.
Archive retires a promotion for good. It cannot be edited or restarted, it leaves the list unless you filter for archived ones, and its history and totals are kept.
Cancelled orders give the code back
An order’s money never changes after it is placed — editing, exhausting or archiving a promotion cannot alter what a buyer was charged. Cancel that order, though, and its use of the code is given back: the total-uses budget goes up by one and, if you set Once per customer, that buyer can use the code again.