Getting started with coupon codes in Klaviyo

You will learn

Learn how to create and upload unique and static coupon codes in Klaviyo to incentivize customers to engage with your brand. Offering an incentive can help you improve the customer experience, resulting in higher sales and increased lifetime value.

Before you begin

There are multiple ways to use coupon codes in Klaviyo. This guide covers: 

• Creating and using static coupon codes.
•  Uploading unique coupon codes.
• Adding coupons to your emails, SMS messages and sign-up form success messages.
  • Displaying your coupons as barcodes for your brick-and-mortar stores.
• Setting up coupon reminders for customers that haven't used a coupon code.
• Seeing who used specific discount codes (Shopify and Magento 1.x stores).

Unique vs. static coupon codes

There are 2 types of coupon codes that you can use: static and unique.

• A static coupon code is a single phrase or alphanumeric string that unlocks a specific discount (e.g., Welcome20). Every person will receive the same code to use on your site so they can be widely shared; however, they are easier to remember and use.
• Unique, also called "dynamic," coupon codes are a random series of numbers or letters that a recipient can use 1 time. Each recipient will receive their own coupon code, and no 2 recipients will have the same code. Unique codes are typically longer and more complicated than static codes; however, they limit oversharing of discounts.

Create and use static coupons

Static codes are quick to generate, and you can add them into any Klaviyo email, SMS message, or sign-up form success message once the coupon is created. To create and use a static coupon:

1. Create the coupon in your ecommerce store. 
2. Add your static coupon code directly in your message.
   • For emails and SMS templates, drag and drop a text block wherever you want to display the coupon in the template editor. Then, type your static code in the text block, making sure it's large and easy to see.
     
   • For sign-up forms, we suggest adding the coupon in the success message (the last step of the form) to incentivize site visitors to fill out the form. See how to add coupon codes to sign-up forms for more details.

Static codes are the same for everyone, so you do not need to take any other steps in Klaviyo. 

Upload unique coupons into Klaviyo

Unique coupons work well when you're rewarding a recipient for taking a specific action (e.g., signing up for your email newsletter). To upload unique coupons into Klaviyo to use in your email and SMS messages, you'll need to

1. Enable uploaded coupons
2. Prepare a list of unique codes
3. Upload the unique coupon codes into Klaviyo

The following sections will walk you through each of these processes, or you can follow the video below.

Enable uploaded coupons

First, make sure that uploaded coupons are enabled.

1. Navigate to Settings > Other. 
2. Click Profile maintenance.
3. Toggle the Uploaded Coupons option on.
   

Once you enable uploaded coupons, you'll be able to select Content > Coupons in Klaviyo's main left-hand navigation. 

Prepare your list of coupon codes

Next, prepare a list of unique coupon codes. Use a third-party tool of your choice to generate a number of unique coupons and save it as a .csv file.

Verify that: 

• Each code is unique.
• You've generated enough codes for all of the subscribers who will receive the message.
• The list of codes is saved as a CSV file.
• One column in the list has Coupon or Coupon Code as the header.

Below is an example of what a list of coupon codes look like in a spreadsheet.

Upload the unique codes into Klaviyo

1. Navigate to Coupons.
2. Toggle to Uploaded Coupons.
   
3. Click Create Uploaded Coupon to add a new coupon code. If you've uploaded coupons in the past, this button will be in the top right corner.
4. Choose a name and an expiration date for your coupon (e.g., Never or On a specific date and specify the date).
   

   Coupons set to never expire will show as available for 1 year after being uploaded to Klaviyo, however they will not expire as long as they configured accordingly externally. Since uploaded codes are generated outside of Klaviyo, their price rules in external systems must match your desired behavior. Once unavailable in Klaviyo, new codes will stop being assigned. For codes to continue being assigned to profiles beyond the 1 year mark, upload additional codes to your coupon before the 1 year expiration date shown in Klaviyo. 

   
5. Click Create Coupon to save your coupon.
6. On the Uploaded Coupons tab, select the 3 dots > Add codes next to your coupon.
   
7. Upload your list of coupon codes either by dragging and dropping your file or selecting it from your computer.
8. Review the first few rows of your CSV file to confirm you've chosen the right coupons.
9. Click Import Coupons.
10. After your coupons finish importing, you can see how many coupon codes uploaded successfully and how many were skipped because of duplicates or a lack of data.
    
11. Click Done.

Keep in mind that you must always have enough coupon codes to send to recipients. If you send a campaign or flow message without enough available coupon codes, the messages will be skipped.

Use coupons in messages

You can include a unique coupon code in your emails and SMS messages. To add a unique code that you've created to either of the instances mentioned, add a text box and type this template tag, replacing "CouponName" with the name of your coupon:

{% coupon_code 'CouponName' %}

Email

You can include multiple codes per email (but only 1 code per SMS). If you use multiple coupons in a message, make sure you have enough codes for every recipient to receive 1. With email, you also have the option to use hidden blocks to send different coupons based on where someone lives or what they've done. We recommend exercising caution with this feature, because codes may be assigned to all recipients (even if they end up hidden in your message) and block your send if there aren't enough codes. 

After sending your email, you can check the total coupon codes by clicking into the Coupons tab and checking the Available/Total column.

When sending uploaded coupon codes in emails, if your send list is larger than your available coupon codes, then the messages scheduled will be skipped.

• If the code is used in a campaign message, Klaviyo will compare the number of expected recipients to the number of available codes for the coupon used. A warning is displayed if there aren't enough codes available, and you are unable to send the campaign. When A/B testing, you will need enough available codes to cover the full send, even if your code is only being sent to a part of the list or segment you are sending to. 
  
• If the code is used in a flow message (e.g., a welcome series or abandoned cart flow) you will need to upload more unique codes on a regular basis. Since flows are sent on a recipient-by-recipient basis, Klaviyo cannot check to make sure that enough codes are available. Flow emails that contain coupon codes with 0 available cannot be turned live. At send time, if a flow email contains a coupon with no available codes, the email will be skipped. You can see who was skipped by clicking into the analytics of the flow email and clicking Recipient Activity > Other.
  

SMS or MMS

You can also use coupon codes in SMS/MMS messages using this format:

{% coupon_code 'CouponName' %}

Replace CouponName for the name of your coupon and add it to your flow or campaign message.

The only difference with SMS is you can only add the coupon code once. 

Push notifications 

Coupons can be used in push notifications as well, using the same format: 

{% coupon_code 'CouponName' %}

Coupons can be added to both the title and body of a push notification. 

Send coupons as barcodes (email only)

If you also have brick-and-mortar stores, you can save your customers (and your cashiers) a lot of time by providing a barcode coupon that can quickly be scanned at your point of sale system.

To display a barcode in an email template, use the following template tag:

{% barcode_code 'CouponName' height=100 width=200 %}

The height is measured in pixels and can be adjusted to serve the design requirements for your template.

Below is a preview of the email with this barcode.

Some point-of-sale systems required you to add special characters to your coupon code before it is rendered into a barcode. If you need more control over the code before being rendered, adding the cut parameter to your coupon template tag removes a specific character or characters from all locations in the code displayed.

For example, let's say your point of sale system requires that you render your barcodes from coupon codes that begin with a hashtag. For your site, you need to remove this hashtag. You can use the cut parameter to pass one version of this code as a barcode, and a separate version that does not include the hashtag for your other code. For the code #GREATdoggo12345, the following tags display these values for a user:

{% coupon_code 'CouponName' cut=# %} == GREATdoggo12345
{% coupon_code 'CouponName' cut=G %} == #REATdoggo12345
{% coupon_code 'CouponName' cut=g %} == #GREATdoo12345
{% coupon_code 'CouponName' cut=5 %} == #GREATdoggo1234
{% coupon_code 'CouponName' cut=#Gg5 %} == REATdoo1234

If you're using the cut parameter, ensure that you fully understand how characters are removed from your rendered code so that customers do not receive corrupted codes.

Previewing coupon codes in messages

If you send a preview of a coupon to your email or phone number, it will use 1 of your generated coupon codes. 

However, if you preview the coupon within Klaviyo (i.e., looking at it in-app), the preview will show the coupon name followed by "-PREVIEW." In this case, the preview does not show an actual coupon code or use one of your available codes. Additionally, when previewing coupons placed in flows, you will also the PREVIEW text displayed. 

Set up coupon / discount code reminders

A great use of Klaviyo's automated flows is to automatically follow up with people who haven't used a coupon code to remind them about it. 

Add an additional email or SMS to the same flow that was triggered to give out the initial coupon, but set this additional message to go out a few days later.

For unique (also called "dynamic") coupons, instead use either a split or an additional filter so that the follow-up message only goes to those who have placed an order 0 times since starting this flow. 

For static or uploaded coupons, include an additional filter for this new message that checks whether or not that person has placed an order that used that discount code. Only allow this follow-up email to send if someone hasn't placed an order since starting this flow.

One person can only receive 1 unique coupon code per coupon. If you resend an email or SMS message to 1 of your customers using the same coupon, they will receive the same unique coupon code as long as the code has not expired. 

See who used discount codes in Shopify and Magento

For Shopify and Magento stores, Klaviyo has the ability to pull in specific coupon codes being used for each purchase. This only works for static coupons or a singular unique coupon code; you cannot segment, split, or filter by a set of unique coupon codes (meaning a unique coupon's name or prefix). 

You can create a dynamic segment of everyone who used a particular coupon code.

1. Create a new segment and name it "Used a coupon."
2. Select What someone has done (or not done) from the dropdown.
3. Select the Placed Order event and then click the Add Filter option to specify the discount codes to select.

This is a great way to understand if coupons are getting forwarded on to others, shared among friends, etc.

Additional resources

Klaviyo can autogenerate unique coupons for stores using Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento 1.x, or Magento 2 coupons. 

To learn about creating and uploading native coupons and coupon codes via API, check out our coupons API guide.