How to Distribute Coupons for eCommerce Website (16 Ways)

You’ve got a sale to run or a new product to launch. Most store owners know coupons help, but they’re not sure which channels actually bring in customers.

Here are 16 proven ways to distribute coupons online, including giveaways with RafflePress, a WordPress giveaway plugin that sends coupons to every entrant automatically.

What Is the Best Way to Distribute Coupons Online?

The most effective coupon distribution strategy combines at least 3 channels: email, on-site popups, and social media, so you reach customers wherever they are most active.

Email delivers promotional codes directly to people who already know your brand. Popups catch visitors before they leave your site. Social media expands your reach to new audiences and gives existing followers a reason to engage. Starting with these three gives you the fastest results without spreading your ecommerce discounts too thin.

Once those channels are working, layer in retargeting ads, affiliate partners, and referral programs to scale your voucher distribution further.

What Is an Online Coupon?

Online coupons or digital coupons are promotional offers shoppers can use to claim a discount on purchases. Online stores offer them to existing or potential customers to entice them to make a purchase.

There are several popular coupon types available, including:

• Downloadable coupons: Customers can access these coupons from various places like your website, via email marketing, social media, and more.
• Mobile coupons: Some eCommerce platforms have mobile integrations that allow you to send mobile-only coupons via SMS.
• Coupon codes: This form of discount is a short string of letters and numbers users can enter at the point of sale. It’s a lot easier and faster than downloading coupons, removing several steps from the buying process.
• Automatic discounts: These discount coupons are applied automatically at checkout and don’t require shoppers to take any extra steps, making them a popular choice for online retailers.

Coupons and discount codes are growing in popularity because they make it easy to promote your products and services while simultaneously benefiting your customers. They’re also an excellent way to promote brand loyalty.

16 Ways to Distribute Coupons Online

Now that you know what coupons are, how can you promote them to reach your target audience?

We’ve covered some of the best coupon distribution strategies below so you can start your marketing campaigns off on the right foot.

1. How Can I Use a Giveaway to Distribute Coupons?

Best For	Building your email list and brand awareness
Tools Needed	RafflePress or another giveaway app
Why It Works	Combines prize excitement with coupon incentives to maximize entries
Difficulty	Easy

One of the easiest and most effective ways to distribute coupons is to run a giveaway.

With a giveaway app like RafflePress, you can ask users to register for your contest with the chance to win a free prize. You can then encourage people to register by offering a discount coupon to all participants.

This is typically called a double incentive or double prize. While the final big prize is all about luck, a smaller, less valuable prize is given to everyone who takes part, creating a positive experience for everyone.

You can do this in RafflePress by following these steps to create an online contest.

You can then add a giveaway action for users to join your email list.

Once registered, you can send users to a thank you page with your coupon code, which they can go on to use on your online store, growing your customer base.

2. Reward First-Time Shoppers with a Coupon

Best For	Converting new visitors into customers
Tools Needed	WooCommerce or Shopify coupon tools
Why It Works	Reduces hesitation by offering a clear incentive for first-time buyers
Difficulty	Easy

If your online store offers significantly expensive products, it can take longer for shoppers to make a purchase decision. One way to speed up this process is to create a coupon code for new shoppers and offer it in exchange for their email addresses.

Not only does this make your products more attractive, but this digital marketing tactic also provides you with a way to contact those shoppers in the future and build long-lasting relationships.

You should offer multiple ways for people to claim their coupons. Some people may not be comfortable downloading a coupon and would prefer to enter a code at checkout. Other people might not be ready to buy there and then, so they would need to save it to print coupons and vouchers later.

3. Save Sales with Exit-Intent Coupon Offers

Best For	Preventing abandoned carts
Tools Needed	OptinMonster or similar popup software
Why It Works	Captures attention just before visitors leave
Difficulty	Moderate

Exit-intent offers have the power to turn a negative action into a positive one for your small business. For example, leaving your store vs. staying to buy or subscribe.

They’re often shown as lightbox popups that trigger when users are about to click away from your website, asking them to wait and take action, like showing exclusive offers or subscribing to your mailing list. This is the perfect opportunity to offer a discount or coupon to encourage people to stay on your site for longer and improve the customer journey.

Game server provider Shockbyte doubled sales conversion rates with Exit-Intent popups from OptinMonster. As a result, they attribute 52% of sales to OptinMonster campaigns.

If you need more inspiration, check out these exit popup hacks to drive your revenue.

4. Send Coupons to Your Email Subscribers

Best For	Engaging and retaining your email list
Tools Needed	Email marketing service like Constant Contact or Mailchimp
Why It Works	Rewards loyal subscribers and drives repeat purchases
Difficulty	Easy

Once you’ve collected email addresses for your list, it can be hard to keep those users engaged and prevent them from unsubscribing.

Why not use this as an opportunity to reward subscribers with regular offers? If people know that the email newsletters you send on a particular day will include a free coupon, they’ll look out for it, keeping them on your list.

Just choose a time for your promotional email campaign and send an email with instructions on claiming the deal. Not only will people be more likely to open your email, but they’ll also click through to your website, using the discount to make a purchase.

5. Offer Coupons Before Launch on Your Coming Soon Page

Best For	Pre-launch buzz and early signups
Tools Needed	SeedProd or another coming soon page builder
Why It Works	Gives visitors a reason to stay connected until launch
Difficulty	Easy

It’s not just established stores that can benefit from coupon marketing. If you’re still in the pre-launch phase, you can use ecommerce discounts to drive interest and new customers when your online store goes live.

The easiest way to do this is to create a coming soon landing page. With a coming soon page, you can provide interested visitors with information about your store, such as the types of products you’ll offer, etc.

You can also ask users to subscribe for notifications of when you go live and sweeten the deal with a discount coupon or unique coupon codes off their first purchase.

Check out these coming soon page examples for more inspiration to improve your prelaunch marketing efforts.

6. Use Coupons as Part of Your Lead Magnet

Best For	Growing your list with a relevant offer
Tools Needed	Optin forms or popups with lead capture
Why It Works	Coupons feel like instant value, increasing sign-ups
Difficulty	Easy

Lead magnets are an effective way to generate new leads for your business. They’re super-flexible and allow you to offer various incentives based on your target audience’s likes and dislikes.

For instance, in exchange for their email address, users can download a free ebook, resource guide, or checklist, or even register for a webinar.

The most popular type of lead magnet is a discount offer. Similar to exit popups, they appear when users either:

• Scroll down a page
• Browse your shop
• Click a specific link
• Read a blog post

This type of lead magnet is beneficial for growing your email list. That’s because people are more likely to hand over their email addresses for a special offer. Yet, it’s essential to keep your offer relevant to your audience, or they’ll ignore it and click away.

Related: 7+ Ebook Marketing Tips You Can Actually Use Today

7. Thank Survey Respondents with a Coupon

Best For	Collecting valuable customer feedback
Tools Needed	WPForms or similar survey plugin
Why It Works	Incentivizes users to complete surveys
Difficulty	Easy

Another way to distribute coupons is to offer them to shoppers for completing a survey or questionnaire. If there’s an incentive in place, users are more likely to complete the survey, helping you get valuable feedback for your business.

Puma took this approach by asking users to take a customer satisfaction survey for 20% off their next purchase.

Creating an online survey is easy with tools like WPForms. Their Surveys and Polls addon allows you to create user-friendly surveys in WordPress without writing a single line of code.

8. How Do I Use Coupons to Recover Abandoned Carts?

Best For	Bringing back lost sales
Tools Needed	Cart abandonment software or email automation
Why It Works	Offers a final nudge to complete checkout
Difficulty	Moderate

With almost 70% of shoppers abandoning their carts before checking out, creating abandoned cart offers is a powerful way to bring those people back to your store. With the offer of a coupon or discount, it could be just what people need to persuade them to come back and check out.

You can reduce cart abandonment with coupons by showing an exit-intent popup and discount when users are about to leave your website.

If you prefer, you can email abandoned cart users with a unique promo code, reminding them to come back and finish checking out.

Here are a few more ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

9. Promote Your Coupons on Social Media

Best For	Reaching a wider audience quickly
Tools Needed	Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn
Why It Works	Leverages your existing followers and shares
Difficulty	Easy

Many eCommerce businesses use social media to increase brand awareness and create a community of loyal brand advocates. If you want to improve customer loyalty with users who already follow you on social media, you can offer exclusive discounts or coupons as part of a discount campaign.

This voucher distribution approach keeps your audience engaged with your brand and gives other users a reason to like, share, and subscribe to your social channels. It’s also a great way to reach users on mobile devices because social media is used more often on mobile.

You can even reach out to influencers to help distribute your coupons to a larger audience.

10. Highlight Coupons in Website Banners

Best For	Making sure all visitors see your offer
Tools Needed	Floating bars or banner plugins
Why It Works	Keeps your coupon visible on every page
Difficulty	Easy

Another easy way to distribute coupons online is to display them on your website for everyone to see. It might seem obvious, but adding an eye-catching banner or notification highlighting the fact can make a massive difference to your sales.

We mentioned earlier about creating exit popups using OptinMonster templates. But did you know you can build a whole range of different campaigns with this lead generation tool?

Besides popups, you can create:

• Fullscreen welcome mats
• Slide-in scroll boxes
• Floating bars
• Coupon wheels
• And much more

The floating bar is an excellent choice for highlighting your coupon to users right when they land on your website. It sits at the top or bottom of your site, alerting them to your offer, and can be completely customized to suit your website’s branding.

11. Reward Referrals with Exclusive Coupons

Best For	Growing word-of-mouth sales
Tools Needed	RafflePress or referral program software
Why It Works	Rewards both the referrer and their friend
Difficulty	Moderate

The biggest advantage of offering discounts or coupons for referrals is it builds customer loyalty, repeat purchases, and word-of-mouth marketing. It works by rewarding customers with a coupon for referring a friend to your store.

You can use loyalty programs as part of a giveaway campaign with RafflePress. Since it comes with a ready-made viral refer-a-friend entry option, it’s as simple as clicking it to add it to your giveaway widget.

Here’s an example using the giveaway tip from earlier in this article:

First, users sign up for your newsletter to register and claim their coupon. Then, they’re required to share the giveaway to unlock extra chances to win. As more users enter your giveaway from that referral, they’ll each refer more people, and so on.

Bottom Line: the result is a viral giveaway with tons of targeted leads claiming your coupon.

12. Give Coupons in Exchange for Customer Reviews

Best For	Building trust with social proof
Tools Needed	Review request software or RafflePress “visit a page” action
Why It Works	Encourages customers to share feedback you can use in marketing
Difficulty	Easy

You can use the approach above to secure more reviews for your business while distributing coupons to your target audience.

Instead of asking users to refer a friend for the 2nd step, you can ask them to visit a link to leave a review. This is easy to achieve with the Visit a Page entry action.

Just rename the action to “leave a review” and enter your URL for users to add their feedback.

Here’s how this would look in RafflePress:

13. Reach Past Visitors with Retargeting Coupons

Best For	Getting undecided visitors back
Tools Needed	Facebook Pixel or Google Ads remarketing
Why It Works	Shows a targeted offer to a warm audience
Difficulty	Moderate

Retargeting ads are an excellent way to reach shoppers after they’ve visited your store. Using tracking codes like Facebook’s tracking pixel, you can show ads with a special offer to those specific users and persuade them to come back.

Since these users are already familiar with your brand, they’re more likely to return with the right kind of incentive.

This example from Shutterfly serves as a reminder to come back to claim the limited-time offer.

Check out this guide on creating a retargeting strategy for help.

14. Share Coupons with Your Affiliate Partners

Best For	Leveraging other people’s audiences
Tools Needed	Affiliate program plugin or network
Why It Works	Affiliates promote your offer for you
Difficulty	Easy

If your eCommerce store promotes products and services via affiliate programs, you can use the same programs to share your coupons too.

Since your affiliates will earn a cut of the sale, it’s in their best interests to promote your offer to their audience. This effectively does your coupon marketing for you by tapping into their existing audiences.

Make sure you make your affiliates aware of your coupons and offer marketing materials like banners and other promotional media they can use on their websites.

Related: How to run an affiliate giveaway contest

15. Run Holiday-Only Coupon Campaigns

Best For	Driving urgency during big sales periods
Tools Needed	Landing page builder + coupon codes
Why It Works	Shoppers are already primed to buy during holidays
Difficulty	Easy

The entire year is peppered with multiple holidays and events, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas marketing campaigns being some of the biggest. This is the perfect time to share your discounts as shoppers are likely actively looking for them, putting them in the ideal position to buy.

Take this example from SeedProd:

By offering strategic discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they dramatically increased their WordPress landing page builder sales.

16. Show Appreciation to Returning Customers with Coupons

Best For	Building loyalty and repeat sales
Tools Needed	CRM or email automation platform
Why It Works	Rewards existing customers for coming back
Difficulty	Easy

Rewarding loyal customers with exclusive coupons and discounts can build a stronger bond with users who already spend money on your store. With this kind of incentive it shows you value their business.

You can send coupons to shoppers who come back to your online store with a simple email or text message that includes a link with a discount automatically applied on checkout.

Alternatively, you can use email marketing software to send a personalized email when someone makes a certain number of purchases.

The result is happy, loyal customers and more revenue for your business.

FAQs About How to Distribute Coupons

What is a coupon distribution?

Coupon distribution is the process of getting discount codes and vouchers in front of your target customers through specific marketing channels. It covers every method you use to share promotional codes, from email and social media to popups, giveaways, and affiliate programs. A solid coupon distribution strategy matches the right channel to the right audience so your offers reach people at the moment they’re most likely to buy.

What is the best way to distribute coupons online?

The best way depends on your audience, but combining methods works best. Email campaigns, social media promotions, and popups with exit-intent coupons are effective for reaching different customers at the right time. Starting with at least 3 channels, such as email, on-site popups, and social media, gives you the broadest reach without overcomplicating your discount campaign.

How do you get people to use your discount code?

Make your promotional codes easy to find and use. Show them prominently in emails, on your website banner, and at checkout. Add a clear expiration date to create urgency. Keep the redemption process simple, such as a single code field at checkout rather than multiple steps. Sending a reminder email a day before the coupon expires can also significantly increase redemption rates.

Can I automate coupon distribution to my customers?

Yes. Most eCommerce platforms and tools like RafflePress, WooCommerce, and Shopify let you automate coupon delivery through email, popups, or event triggers like first purchase or abandoned carts. With RafflePress, you can automatically send a coupon to every giveaway entrant as soon as they sign up, without any manual work on your end.

How do I track the success of my coupon campaigns?

Use unique coupon codes for each channel and monitor redemption rates in your eCommerce analytics. This will show which coupon distribution methods bring in the most sales and returning customers. Most email marketing platforms and eCommerce tools include built-in reporting to track opens, clicks, and coupon usage by campaign.

Distributing coupons the right way can do more than just increase sales. It can help you attract new customers, reward loyal shoppers, and build lasting relationships with your audience.

Start with one or two of the methods above and track what works best for your store. Once you see results, add more channels like email, social media, or retargeting to maximize your reach.

With a tool like RafflePress, you can run giveaways, grow your email list, and deliver coupons automatically. Get RafflePress to run your first coupon giveaway today.

If you’re interested in using social proof to boost sales, check out this guide to create a live sales notification in WordPress.

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