The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013) • Hacker News Board

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#21

Post by rchaud » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

The coupon code box is probably only annoying to first-time internet shoppers.

The rest of us know how utterly useless it is to try to hunt down a code via Google. All you'll get are links to codes that straight up don't work, or expired months ago.

After the first few times that happens, we train ourselves to mentally accept that the sticker price is immutable. If I budgeted it in relation to the sticker price, it doesn't matter to me if it might be 10% off for someone somewhere else.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#22

Post by LadyCailin » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #21

The coupon code box is probably only annoying to first-time internet shoppers. The rest of us know how utterly useless it is to try to hunt down a code via Google. All you'll get are links to codes that straight up don't work, or expired months ago. After the first few times that happens, we train ourselves to mentally accept that the sticker price is immutable. If I budgeted it in relation to the sticker price, it d…

Yeah. This article is from 2013, and online shopping has increased a ton since then, especially during the pandemic, so I be the learnings from this are outdated. Certainly the data is.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#23

Post by comprev » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #15

dylan604 wrote: post #10

It seems like it would be better to take a play from the brick&mortar retailers playbook. Just always have things on sale. People flock to sales tags. Even if the "sales" price is the normal price, as long as there is a higher prices slashed out and a new price matching the % on the sales tag, then most people just accept they are getting a deal.

In the UK you are not allowed to do this, goods must have been on sale at the higher price for some period of time. Discount codes have been employed as a way around this since there are no rules to how these are used. So they have a 'sale' every so often and then everything is full price but with a discount code instead. I did actually do some work with one of these merchants for a time. As it turned out, their hone…

A certain furniture store in the UK was known for always having a discount and they got round it by having the products at full retail - for the minimum required time (60? 90 days?) - at a shop in the tail end of nowhere. This shop operated at a loss 100% of the time, but since it was part of the same company (which discounted everywhere else) the costs were written off.

Technically speaking, the sofa on sale in a retail park was on sale because it had been available at retail.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#24

Post by TillE » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #21

The coupon code box is probably only annoying to first-time internet shoppers. The rest of us know how utterly useless it is to try to hunt down a code via Google. All you'll get are links to codes that straight up don't work, or expired months ago. After the first few times that happens, we train ourselves to mentally accept that the sticker price is immutable. If I budgeted it in relation to the sticker price, it d…

FOMO is absolutely not an outdated concept, a conspicuous "coupon code" field will still make plenty of people wonder what they're missing out on.

And those searches can still bear fruit! I've randomly found big discounts when I was buying eyeglasses in the past couple years.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#25

Post by leetcrew » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #12

Uber Eats has been spamming my email with coupon codes for a while so I decided to try it. A one time half-off an order seems like a good enough deal for me to get past the annoying marketing. After filling in my order and trying the coupon code, I was rudely told that my account wasn't allowed to use coupon codes. Not that there was an unspecific error or anything, they must have specifically coded this path in. Aft…

even if it works, "50% off" an uber eats order isn't that great of a deal. it only applies to the food. after accounting for the delivery fee, the service fee, the "local regulations fee" (whatever that is), tax, and the tip, the actual food is less than half the total cost of the order anyway.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#26

Post by leetcrew » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #10

It seems like it would be better to take a play from the brick&mortar retailers playbook. Just always have things on sale. People flock to sales tags. Even if the "sales" price is the normal price, as long as there is a higher prices slashed out and a new price matching the % on the sales tag, then most people just accept they are getting a deal.

the original number isn't totally made up though. I think it's usually the msrp. you almost never find things selling at msrp online or at a big box store, but it's what you would probably pay at a smaller brick and mortar.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#27

Post by fmajid » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #21

The coupon code box is probably only annoying to first-time internet shoppers. The rest of us know how utterly useless it is to try to hunt down a code via Google. All you'll get are links to codes that straight up don't work, or expired months ago. After the first few times that happens, we train ourselves to mentally accept that the sticker price is immutable. If I budgeted it in relation to the sticker price, it d…

RetailMeNot.com has a decent hit rate for me (30-50%).

And surely you mean DuckDuckGo, not Google…

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#28

Post by Lammy » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #15

dylan604 wrote: post #10

It seems like it would be better to take a play from the brick&mortar retailers playbook. Just always have things on sale. People flock to sales tags. Even if the "sales" price is the normal price, as long as there is a higher prices slashed out and a new price matching the % on the sales tag, then most people just accept they are getting a deal.

In the UK you are not allowed to do this, goods must have been on sale at the higher price for some period of time. Discount codes have been employed as a way around this since there are no rules to how these are used. So they have a 'sale' every so often and then everything is full price but with a discount code instead. I did actually do some work with one of these merchants for a time. As it turned out, their hone…

Is this why some stores are perpetually “going out of business” and “liquidating” their stock?

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#29

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 6:59 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #15

dylan604 wrote: post #10

It seems like it would be better to take a play from the brick&mortar retailers playbook. Just always have things on sale. People flock to sales tags. Even if the "sales" price is the normal price, as long as there is a higher prices slashed out and a new price matching the % on the sales tag, then most people just accept they are getting a deal.

In the UK you are not allowed to do this, goods must have been on sale at the higher price for some period of time. Discount codes have been employed as a way around this since there are no rules to how these are used. So they have a 'sale' every so often and then everything is full price but with a discount code instead. I did actually do some work with one of these merchants for a time. As it turned out, their hone…

This seems very nanny state. If I make a product and sell it on my website for 20% of MSRP, where's the gov't to tell me that I can or can't do that. The MSRP is just a number I've made up. Maybe it gets weird when selling things made by other people that have a published MSRP. If I'm willing to take less profit by selling at a discount from the MSRP, then that's literally my business. If I make an agreement with a vendor to not undervalue the items by selling less than the vendor's MSRP, then that's a different topic. However, none of that is any business of the gov't.

Re: The coupon code is a slap in the face (2013)

#30

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #28

dazc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK you are not allowed to do this, goods must have been on sale at the higher price for some period of time. Discount codes have been employed as a way around this since there are no rules to how these are used. So they have a 'sale' every so often and then everything is full price but with a discount code instead. I did actually do some work with one of these merchants for a time. As it turned out, their hone…

Is this why some stores are perpetually “going out of business” and “liquidating” their stock?

I just assume those types of places are fronts.