Full disclosure here: I’ve been trying to do more with my Etsy store. (That story is for another post). But in that process, I discovered something really interesting. If you’re a buyer on Etsy, do you know how to get Etsy discount codes?
If you’re a seller on Etsy, do you know how to set up automatic codes that can help you make sales?
Well, I’m about to share both of those really simple processes with you right now.
You need to know this first
When I re-opened my Etsy shop (after a few years of closure), earlier this year, I discovered a lot had changed. For starters, the dashboard had a whole new format and a massive list of options.
The ‘marketing’ option is always a good place to start if you’re wanting to sell things.
So, I discovered that I now had the option of setting up automated coupons to be sent out to anyone who favourited an item in my shop. Or, to anyone who got partway through a purchase and then abandoned it.
Marketing 101: people get distracted, change their mind, aren’t ready to commit to a sale etc, for all sorts of reasons. As a seller, your job is to try and entice them back to that purchase. So, how do you do that? The current favourite tactic is to send them a coupon.
Etsy has worked that out and will do that process for you automatically…for a small fee.
I’m going to come back to what that means for sellers later on.
You can also send out coupons to customers as a thank you for making a purchase (and this is free!).
The point is, I set up my coupons, saw people were favouriting my items, but they weren’t being sent coupons. What was happening?
The big discovery…
I won’t bore you with the details (and wasted hours!) of my trawl for answers. Here is what I found…
What Etsy doesn’t seem to tell either buyers or sellers is that these coupons only go out to buyers who have ticked a consent box in their account.
If you’re a buyer, did you know about this?
Probably not. So, you are missing out on goodness knows how many potential discount coupons.
As a seller, if you’ve got coupons set up, but you’re wondering why they aren’t being sent out, this is probably why.
Get this pattern exclusively in my Etsy store here>>
How to get Etsy discount codes: buyers
So, if you regularly shop on Etsy, you’re probably not too happy at reading that you’ve possibly been missing out on a load of money-saving discounts. Potentially, every time you favourited an item, or bought an item, you could have received a discount coupon to use later.
The good news is, that can stop right now. The process of how to get Etsy discount codes takes just 2 simple steps… And only seconds to set up!
Step 1
Sign into your account and go to ‘Account Information’. See the little tabs along the top? You need to select the tab labelled emails. (I’ve pointed to it with a red arrow in the photo). You should find yourself at a screen that looks like this:
Step 2
Now, look down the list of options under ‘Subscriptions’. You should see you have a box labelled Coupons and Promotions (I’ve used another red arrow to point to that). If it is empty (this is the default option), then you’re not getting sent any coupons, even though sellers might have them on offer. So, just check/tick that box and you should see offers start to come your way.
Now, this will only happen if the sellers that you use have the offers available. So, if nothing happens, don’t worry, but at least you are now set up to receive any available offers.
How to get Etsy discount codes: sellers
As a seller, you have no control over who will get your discount codes. But if you do have a way of telling potential customers about how to get Etsy discount codes, then maybe think about using it! (You’re very welcome to share this post).
The big question…
Should you be setting up this automatic Etsy discount codes?
Fact: buyers do use discount codes that are sent to them when they do things like abandon a cart.
What you don’t know is whether the buyer would have purchased anyway. So, have you just done yourself out of some money? Or was the code the incentive that made the buyer, who wasn’t going to purchase, change their mind?
I don’t have answers to those questions. So, it’s really up to you whether you want to set up discounts or not.
How to get Etsy discount codes set up
Happily, the set up process is simple. On your dashboard, just look down the left-hand menu for the ‘Marketing’ options. Click on that and choose ‘Sales and Coupons’. You should now see a screen that looks something like this:
See you have the option to set up a couple of automated coupons? I think these are pretty self-explanatory. If a buyer abandons their cart before paying, or favourites an item in your shop, Etsy automatically sends them your coupon to try and incentivise them to buy.
You need to set up your coupon for each of these events. Just click on the button to get to the set up page, shown below. You might choose to offer the buyer a percentage discount, a fixed discount, or free shipping. So, decide which is appropriate to you.
The rub…
This service isn’t free. So, Etsy will charge you for sending out the coupons. You do get to set your budget, and, bearing in mind that most people don’t seem to be opted in to receive coupons, you may end up sending none anyway!
Your decision as a seller is how much to spend on this marketing. Basically, in giving away the coupon, you are giving away the cost of the offer (£5, 10%, free shipping – whatever you decided), plus the cost of Etsy sending it. When that is deducted from your sale, will you still be covering the cost of your item?
What if Etsy sends twenty coupons and none of the customers use them? You will still have paid the fee to Etsy, but you’ve made no sales off the back of it.
What would you need to do? Is your offer not good enough? Or are the people receiving the coupons just not ever going to buy anyway?
My advice
I don’t have answers to these questions. You will need to do some experimenting. So, start small, maybe limit your budget and see how many coupons are sent and how many are used. You’re never going to know for sure whether those buyers would have purchased from you anyway.
Just bear in mind: discounting is all very well. But your profit margins have to be high enough to cover the cost of the discount, otherwise you are basically paying people to buy your products.
Whatever you decide, whoever you are, I hope this has helped you with the interesting issue of how to get Etsy discount codes. Feel free to leave me a comment about this down below.
Caveat
The information and screenshots I have included in this blog are correct at the time of writing (October 2018). But Etsy can change its policies at any time. So, the process of how to get Etsy discount codes or set them up may change.
