Image by CheyI want to ask you a question to which I don’t yet know the answer: If you have an online store, when should you display a coupon box on your checkout page?

Before you answer that, consider another question: Has this ever happened to you? You Google something that you want to buy, for example, “Adirondack Chair.” You see a promising link in the first few search results and click on it: “Voila!” you arrive at a site that offers exactly what you’re looking for, and at a fair price. You click “Add to cart” followed by “Checkout.”

Three cheers for online shopping! You are now just a few keystrokes away from cheerfully and efficiently completing your purchase. Then it happens [cue dramatic clash of cymbals]. Suddenly something troubling materializes before your very eyes: A box labeled Coupon Code. How do you react? Think carefully about your answer because it could be the clue to a whole bunch of lost revenue.

Personally, my first thought is this: “If I had a coupon code then that “fair price” could be even fairer.” Two other thoughts then fight for second place: “Is someone else–someone who has a coupon code–getting a better deal on this chair than me?” versus “Where do I get a coupon code?”

And if I act on either of those two thoughts, you can pretty much bet I will be leaving the checkout page, either to open a new browser window and search for a code, or to navigate back to the home page of the site to see if I missed something about a coupon.

Now, if you’ve been selling stuff online for any length of time you know this: You do not want people leaving the checkout page for any reason (except maybe to grab their credit card). Here’s why: … Read the rest of this entry »