Important update to your coupons on Square Online

[#1]

Hi Sellers! 👋

If you have existing coupons on Square Online, we wanted to notify you of some upcoming changes to your coupons on Square Online. Starting on March 25, 2024, creating and managing coupons is moving from your Square Online dashboard to Square Marketing, our product suite of marketing automation tools.

This change will allow you to manage and edit coupons in one central location—whether for your online website or email campaigns.

Here is what’s changing: 

• Existing coupons - Any existing coupons created within Square Online will no longer be active starting March 25, 2024. You’ll need to recreate those as new coupons within Square Marketing. 
• New coupons - Any new coupons will need to be created in Square Marketing, not within your Square Online dashboard.
• Supported coupon types - You can offer coupons for $ or % off for all items or at the category or item level, as well as coupons for free shipping or delivery. 
• Limiting coupon usage per customer* - To apply limits to a coupon per customer, you’ll need to use the “Offer a coupon” template in Square Marketing—a paid feature.

Creating and managing coupons in Square Marketing is free and does not require a subscription. For enhanced features such as creating personalized coupons and sending coupons in Square Marketing emails, upgrade to a paid subscription.

If you have existing coupons, we recommend that you take action immediately and recreate these Coupons in Square Marketing to minimize disruptions to your business. 

If you have not created coupons using Square Online, you do not need to take any action at this time. 

To learn more about creating coupons using Square Marketing, read this help article. 

Have questions about how this change affects you? Comment below and let us know.

[Lovewell]

@kcapps 2024? August 15 2024. Correct?

[nika]

Good catch @Lovewell ! Yes!

[wordhorde]

The email I just received states that this is effective March 25, 2024, not August 15, 2024.  Which is it?

Also, the fact that "Limit number of coupon usage per customer" is a feature that "will come at a later time" (or that you can pay for separately, but only if you want to email the coupon to a customer) is just NOT an acceptable change.

Considering that my annual fee for my Square Online plan just increased by $200, this new change makes me VERY unhappy.

[BernadetteA]

Hi @wordhorde 

Thank you for your feedback. I understand changes to the work flow can be frustrating, but I am happy to share your feedback with the team. 

As far as the launch date goes, I did find this support article that also mentions March 25, 2024;

Note: As of March 25, 2024, the ability to create coupons to use with your Square Online website is moving to Square Marketing. Creating coupons is a free feature and doesn’t require a Square Marketing subscription.

[wordhorde]

"Changes to the work flow" is not at all what this is, but I do hope you will share the feedback. This is really unacceptable.

As far as the date correction, perhaps @kcapps could amend the original post, so others are aware that the change is happening much sooner than August?

[BernadetteA]

Yes, that is a great suggestion @wordhorde

I meant to send a ping, and I appreciate the reminder! 

[anasir]

The coupons in marketing section don't have the full functionality. I am unable to switch. 

For example I have a coupon that provides a $5 discount to new customers on orders > $25. 

This doesn't exist in the coupon widget under marketing section. 

Please add full functionality so we can switch seamlessly. 

Thanks! 

Also, don't think I got confirmation from message above. Is the switch happening March or August? 

**This screenshot is from Square Online coupon section**

[Summer2024]

Hi there @anasir! 

This change is set to occur March 25, 2024. I apologize if there has been any confusion. There should be full functionality of coupons under Square Marketing on this date. Right now, you can continue using the same coupon workflow you have been using. 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[anasir]

Thanks for clarifying @Summer2024 
You mention there is full functionality but I don't see where I can add the minimum of $25. Am I missing something? 

[Summer2024]

Hey there @anasir !

To clarify, are you still able to use the coupons function in the Online Dashboard? There should still be full functionality there of the coupons function. 

[RobynR]

I understand your concern, @anasir. As mentioned by Summer2024, it's important to note that this feature is not expected to be fully functional until March 25, 2024.

Your patience is greatly appreciated during this period.

[blueflowerart]

I'm not happy about this change for a few reasons:

1. I can't use dashes in Square Marketing for coupons which makes most of my stationery obsolete. I use ONLINE-10 and NEXT-10 on my leaflets and cards to encourage customers to go to my website after a purchase and buy something at a discount. The change will render all my marketing stationery obsolete.
2. I can't limit the coupon use per customer. Customers can use the coupon over and over.
3. I can't set a minimum spend to a coupon so that if I issue a $10 coupon, they can buy lower value items for free. 

I am seriously considering going to Shopify for this. The hardware purchase will be less than my loss in stationery alone and I can recoup the hardware cost by selling my square reader, dock and terminal. 

[TheRealChipA]

Hey @blueflowerart.  A couple of notes about your post.  

For the first point you make, this is definitely an issue for legacy coupons.  Maybe @Summer2024 or @RobynR can address this.  I will point out to them that in order for the new coupons feature to be “fully functional” (which I assume means fully compatible) with the existing coupons feature, then coupon names have to allow special characters.  Otherwise, many sellers will have existing coupons out there that are no longer usable, which will be a complete and total nightmare.

As for the other two points, if you look at other posts in this thread, you’ll see that @RobynR and @Summer2024 have mentioned that full functionality for things like limited coupon usage and minimum spend, etc, are still being worked on.  It might be a month or so before that functionality exists but it seems that it IS planned.  And, if would be my hope that if Square can’t at least ensure we won’t lose functionality they will extend the date to a later time until that is true.

[jawjafan]

As others have stated, the fully functionality of what we currently have in the coupons area is not supported in the marketing area.  I am unable to move the coupons that I have created and that are in the wild without the additional functionality of being able to use symbols in the coupon codes, limiting the ability to use the coupons to groups or individual customers, limiting the amount of times a coupon can be used, etc.  What is the solution?

[5iveSpice]

I created a coupon code for 25% off food only (create on 1/30/2024). I had to manually input each food item. The first day after saving, the code worked. I put in a few food items and drink items, put in the code and the code took 25% off all food items only (even if I had two of the same food items). I had servers test it in the upcoming days and it worked fine on 2/1/2024 but today 2/3/2024, it will only apply to ONE food item. Was there a recent update again? I'm unable to "edit coupon" and I have customers coming in with this discount and our servers are confused why it doesn't work and is causing a mess having to delete and manually provide 25% off food only.

It's already a headache that your apply coupon on "select categories" only takes off ONE item from each category and no option for ALL categories... and I opted to select every item it should apply to including options related (ie: Chicken Sandwich - option: Crispy / AND / option Spicy). But now it will only apply to one item. PLEASE FIX THIS.

[delinerds1]

This is such a failure of the Square product team! Eliminating core functionality that, as many others have expressed, negates all current marketing material, promotions, website setups, etc, etc, etc. As a Product Manager, I would be fired if I allowed an update like this to push through.... your entire job is to make sure product aligns with customer needs. Who greenlit this?

I have a massive amount of printed marketing material that is now useless...is Square planning to cover the costs? I have complex email and ad campaigns all designed around specific offers that will now be impossible, or at best, irrelevant. Maybe we should start a class-action lawsuit everyone??? For me there are at least thousands in hard costs I will incur and countless other costs by strangling my marketing efforts. 

The functionality under Marketing is fundamentally different, such as not having usage limitations. This is troublesome to current marketing efforts considering a key offer is "X% off your first purchase". This will now be impossible.

The single most common coupon online is 'XX% of your first order'... now any coupon will have unlimited usage. WTF Square why would you disable a critical functionality that is literally the most common scenario on the entire internet?

No "future roadmap" promise is good enough. You literally don't have to make this update in March and **bleep** over your customers. You could actually wait to roll it out until the functionality at least matches the current.

[delinerds1]

@kcapps wrote:

• Limiting coupon usage per customer* - To apply limits to a coupon per customer, you’ll need to use the “Offer a coupon” template in Square Marketing—a paid feature.

Creating and managing coupons in Square Marketing is free and does not require a subscription. For enhanced features such as creating personalized coupons and sending coupons in Square Marketing emails, upgrade to a paid subscription.

Is it paid or free? Are you saying that you are removing functionality that I've been paying for and now charging me MORE for the same functionality that was a part of my plan? Pretty sure that's called "bait and switch". Let customers come to rely on a feature, then rug pull and charge them more or destroy all their current setup. This is criminal and you should be ashamed of your self. This is an essential functionality of coupons and you are literally forcing everyone to abandon their established marketing plans or be forced to give you MORE money. Your product team should all be fired for this. If any of my staff recommended such a foolish action I'd replace them all.

[TheRealChipA]

@kcapps @BernadetteA @Summer2024 @isabelle @maxpete 

Here’s a link to another post with confusion about timing of this.  I’d like to make an observation about this announcement.  To quote from the original:

If you have existing coupons, we recommend that you take action immediately and recreate these Coupons in Square Marketing to minimize disruptions to your business. 

That’s all great and wonderful.  But, in this case, since the new feature is nowhere near fully functional this is much ado about nothing.  Sellers keep trying to do something NOW that seems URGENT per the announcement which but can’t be too urgent since the feature is not ready and won’t be for over another month.  So urging people to do something they are not able to do seems wrong and frustrating.

Just my two-cents worth.  I love announcements about new features.  But this announcement definitely caused angst and frustration that was needless.

[blueflowerart]

I've decided to show my support with my feet and I'm walking away from Square sites and moving to Shopify. I've been trialling Shopify and my eyes have been opened to what an e-commerce site should be doing AND for the same price as a Square site. It's been a bait and switch experience for me with Square. First with having a forced upgrade of my plan to a more expensive plan because the one I was on was discontinued and now taking away functionality. Coupons are basic, what's happening is just BS. I can see that the online shop facilities could be doing much more but it is not.

As much as I like the hardware and the convenience that it provides, it is not the hardware that sells for me, it's the online shop and my skills.

I'm not a big fish and I'm sure Square will be thumbing their nose at me but business is what it is.

[TheRealChipA]

So I just re-read the help article that @kcapps provided the link to in the original post on this thread.  I’d recommend that anyone following this thread do so carefully, if they haven’t already.

Of particular note are the sections “Create Coupons from Square Marketing” and “Marketing Coupons for Square Online FAQ.”  I’d recommend expanding and reading each of those FAQs carefully, especially the one “What are some limits with Marketing coupons.”  That one lists features that not currently supported, but “will come at a later time” which is not specified.  Since they went to the trouble to list these currently unsupported features, my best guess is that they most likely will not be available by 3/25, but remember this is just my best educated guess based upon available information.

So, for anyone following this thread, I’d recommend spending some time with this document.  Also, as you are converting your coupons to Square Marketing, it would be wise to post here any coupons that you will not be able to port due to missing features.  Of course, it doesn’t help to make statements about how crazy this might be, or how wrong, or whatever.  Just post real-world, concrete, specific examples of what you need that is missing and the compelling reasons why you need it.

In other words, I’m going to retract my earlier statement about waiting until closer to 3/25 to switch to Marketing coupons.  It seems it would be wise to attempt to do convert the coupons that you can convert now, then make some constructive posts here in this thread about what you can no longer do using the new Marketing coupons.

[Tommer1]

So "Limiting coupon usage per customer" is now going to be a paid feature?

You people are doing another squeeze on us.

You added the 10 cents per transaction.

You're increasing the online plans prices every year.

You are hurting the exact small businesses that are your customer base.

Seriously shame on you.

[Tommer1]

Will we be able to do get $x off of a purchase of $y?

[Cubanita]

@kcappsdoes this include coupons created on Weebly? I sure hope not because it would make all my printed marketing materials and current coupons completely unusable. I have hundreds of personalized codes and codes limited to one use per customer and codes based on spend amount that would not be doable. Please tell me Weebly coupons are not affected.

[Summer2024]

Hey hey @Cubanita! 

I come with good news! This update is for Square Online only. Your Weebly coupons will not be affected! 😀

Please let us know if you have any other coupon questions! Happy selling this week! 

[CreeksideDiveLL]

@kcapps, I hate to jump on the train here but I don't think this functionality is anywhere near ready. We took Squares recommendation and tried to migrate our coupons to marketing in advance, and it was a pretty big disaster. Long story short I beg Square not to make this change until the full functionality from coupons is in marketing, and to send out emails announcing the delay of the migration. I've received multiple emails about the migration, but zero announcing the delay until I looked on this thread.

We use the coupons to track fundraisers we run for local organizations, because there isn't a better method to track the sales for online orders. We create codes like "SPIRIT1" that discounts the entire sale by $0.01, since $0 discounts aren't permitted. So when we migrated these to marketing, we kept that setup - entering the discounts as $0.01 discounts. It was insanely glitchy to create the discounts, because when you click different areas within the creation screen it resets the data. If you enter $0.01 as the "Custom Amount" and then click on the "Description" to change it, it resets the "Custom Amount" to $1 (and vice versa). And then, even if it all looks good like this picture below, it'll reset the data again when you hit submit, BUT there is no way to view what the coupon actually is after you create it. For instance, it showed we were creating a marketing coupon for $0.01 and it was actually for $1 even though it never showed that when creating it. But it shows clearly when you go to check out online:

A screenshot taken the moment before I hit save on this coupon:

Checking out its $1 somehow:

This last week we had our first fundraiser under the new system and tons of people used the marketing coupon we had created, but there was no sales tracking whatsoever and somehow the coupon also ended up with a value of $0 which means it doesn't even show up on the transactions receipts for me to try to track down how many people used it, the data simply doesn't exist. So we had to purely guess how many orders used it, which is insane and shouldn't even be possible.

Applying the marketing coupon shows on the sales summary, BUT not in any redemption tracking per the following pictures:

[lmcwriter]

Hello, I'm trying to figure out how to edit vouchers to limit them to one use only (rather than clients being able to use them multiple times). But this is all I see. And the three dots don't give me any options for editing... Thank you for any help! 

[Sineaid]

Hi @lmcwriter!

Thanks for reaching out to the community for advice on this. 

I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed the ability to create one time use vouchers. We merge conversations together to keep similar comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

As you’ll see from the original post from our product manager, to apply limits to a coupon per customer, you’ll need to use the “Offer a coupon” template in Square Marketing. From your Marketing tab select Campaigns > Create a Campaign > Offer a Coupon.

I hope this helps!

[mkhellman]

@kcapps We received an email last week stating this switch will happen August 7. I have a couple items that I would like to find out how to address since the Marketing coupons definitely work different than the online coupons do currently, and I am not having luck accomplishing what we need using the new Square Marketing coupons.

1. We need to allow a coupon code for customers to receive 100% off their order(s) with no spending, category or item limit. Currently, we have a code set up in Online coupons that allows for this, using the 100% off option, this is not an option with Marketing coupons (99% is the max allowed).

2. To accomplish #1 in Square Marketing Coupons, I found that we can use "Fixed Discount" and enter up to $999 - if we NEED to go this route for these coupons, I am interested if the $999 is per customer, or is it total amongst all customers (so if we give this coupon to 5 people, can they spend up to $999 each, or $999 between the 5 of them, so around $200 each)?

3. In Marketing Coupons, there is no way to edit a coupon code that is created - it would be really nice to be able to see all of the features that we previously selected.

4. In Marketing Coupons, there is no option to "Delete Coupon", just a "Cancel Coupon" option. I have already created a few coupons to test with that I would like to either edit or delete to clean up before beginning to use this new option.

I would appreciate if you have any insight into how to proceed with all of these issues within the new Marketing coupon implementation, since it definitely affects our process within our business.

Thank you!

[TRC2020]

I am going to chime in on this "Limit number of coupon usage per customer" is a feature that "will come at a later time" (or that you can pay for separately, but only if you want to email the coupon to a customer) is just NOT an acceptable change.

This is exposing your customers to unmanagable expenses.  We can no longer offer birthday coupons or one time use coupons.  Is your management so daft that they don't understand this basic problem and EXTREME RISK you are placing on your users?  It's insane!

As of tonight we are evaluating different platforms because of this as well as recent meetings with your Loyalty Team and SMS where we brought to light glitches in your systems that we uncovered during testing that make both products unusable by any customer (they just aren't aware of the issues, but we are).  Had any of these teams been working for me, I would have fired their head managers and replaced them immediately.  I'm at a complete loss.

[blueflowerart]

@TRC2020 I have not regretted my move to Shopify. Sooooo much more to work with. I still use the Square terminal for face to face sales but my online shop is so much happier. 

[Tommer1]

@blueflowerart could you give some info on how the sync works between square POS and shopify's website?

Does the inventory get updated?

Do online orders from shopify show up in the POS?

Thank you!

[nika]

Hi all! There's a new update regarding coupons. Check it out here!

[jehedges]

For years I have offered the following coupon codes to my clients:

If they spend $60+, they can use a coupon to get $5 off.

If they spend $90+, they can use a coupon to get $10 off.

If they spend $120+, they can use a coupon to get $15 off.

It appears that the option to create coupon codes for "Orders Over a Certain Amount" is missing.  This is a serious issue for my business and needs to be rectified.  Please let me know what we need to do get this sent to those in charge to correct this issue.