Do your discounts really pay off? How to measure promotions and coupons
A discount can increase sales or simply cut your margin. Which numbers to track so you know the difference.
Almost every online store uses discounts. Very few know how much they actually cost and how many extra sales they brought. A discount given to customers who would have bought anyway is pure loss.
Which numbers to track
- Total discounts in the period (order-level and product-level).
- Share of orders with a discount.
- Average order value with and without a discount.
- Revenue per promotion or coupon.
- Number of new customers who first bought with a coupon.
How to recognise a good discount
- 1
Compare periods
Compare revenue during the promotion with the same period without one, not with last week.
- 2
Look at order value
If the average order value drops during the promotion, customers are just taking advantage of it.
- 3
Track new customers
A good coupon brings new customers who later come back without a discount.
Rule of thumb
If more than half of your orders include a discount, customers already expect one. That is the time to rethink your prices.
How you see this in analytics
The Discounts page lists every promotion and coupon with the discount amount, number of orders and revenue. You can filter each promotion by period and export it to PDF or Excel for a meeting with partners.
Frequently asked questions
Does analytics count free shipping as a discount?
No, because the store does not record it as a discount. Order-level and product-level discounts are included.
