Lately, I've seen a number of mentions on the forums of thank-you coupons being used by people who were not actually repeat buyers in the shop where they were used. There were theories from past buyers sharing coupon codes with their friends to coupon-scraping sites to Etsy technical glitches. Based on my experience today, I can add another theory. I don't know if it would apply to all the events reported, but surely to some of them besides just my own:
A few days ago, my stats showed one abandoned cart coupon sent out. Early this morning, someone bought something from my shop. The email from Etsy letting me know of the sale showed that the person got a discount, and the coupon code it showed used was the one for my thank-you coupon. But the amount was the one for my abandoned cart coupon. In the "sales and discounts" stats under "marketing," it does not show any recent uses of my thank-you coupon and does show a use of the abandoned cart coupon. Moreover, under Completed Orders, the receipt shows the abandoned cart coupon used. The customer was not in fact marked with the "returning customer" star, nor did the Orders screen show any previous orders from them.
It seems obvious that in this case, at least, the coupon code used was the one for abandoned cart, which was entirely appropriate, not the one for returning customer, which would not have been appropriate. It was just the email from Etsy Transactions that got it wrong.
I wonder how many of these automatically generated emails are getting it wrong? Is that the reason people are getting the understandable impression that their thank-you code is being used inappropriately, and are understandably frustrated?
Trish O'Connor
Owner, Epiclesis Consulting LLC
