To Offer a Coupon or Not?

So that's the big question these days...do I offer any coupons to my buyers or not.  We're going to take a serious look at coupons for your Etsy store.

BUSINESS PROS:

- Give buyers an opportunity to feel like they are saving some money.

- Allow new buyers a welcome surprise in receiving a discount.

- Drives business oftentimes for more sales.

- Must inherently increase price to make a profit.

BUSINESS CONS:

- Coupons often lead to an expected discount from your buyers.

- Coupons can damage your end profit margins.

- Coupons cause a lot of problems for record keeping.

- You must up the "bottom line" cost of your items.


Okay, so for a small business person like me, I think coupons are not healthy.  After realizing that I sold almost 20 items last month and cleared ONLY $11 profit, I realized it was due to offering coupons to my customers.  While $11 might seem great to some, my Etsy fees alone were almost $30, and I haven't added any PayPal fees yet.  I do not mind offering a discount when discounts seem appropriate (multiple item purchase, etc)...however, that being said, we use a very strategic pricing guide to estimate the actual "cost" of all of our items.  Because of this, I feel that our items are priced very fairly for each and every buyer.  As judging by our profit last month, this is evidence to prove that.


So, in the end....for our small studio, coupons are NOT worth it.  We have removed all coupons from our stores EXCEPT the frequent customer coupon which is sent with every order.  We will now begin to have sales 4 times a year and offer a coupon at that time.  There will be no more "standard" coupons that we submit for BNRs, special team events, etc.


We hope that we have not offended our buyers in any manner.  However, we feel that our items are fairly priced for what you are receiving.  As for other stores, we can NOT make decisions for them regarding the use of coupons.  However, I feel that unless they have a significant markup on their items, other stores will begin to realize that coupons are not advantageous to the small business owner.


To see our fee structure, please go to this post.