When creating a coupon I noticed this message:

"Note: If the discount value applied falls below the base cost of the order, you will be responsible for paying the difference between the base cost and the actual amount collected. Your account balance and credit card may be charged as a result."

Zenfolio provides the ability to edit price lists in great details, so it is very difficult to be able to tell if a coupon is going to potentially result in charges with some of the products.

I suggest that:

1) There should be a way to say "never drop under base cost", to ensure this won't happend.

2) There should be a tool that tells me automatically if, with any of the prices in any of my price lists, there is the risk of dropping under the base price.

3) When I edit my price lists, I should be warned if any of my coupons could make the new price drop under the base price.

4) There should be a new Coupon value type: "percentage on profit", that is a percentage that is applied to my profit, not to the total order value.

I agree. Coupons can be dangerous if you're not careful.   I kind of protected myself by setting all my "formula"  prices with a minimum percentage above the base price plus an additional amount, and then I have to remember never to set my coupon discount above my mark up percentage nor to set a coupon fixed amount above my smallest additional amount.    Be sure to factor in ZenFolio's percentage take when setting your base & coupon percentages.

Zenfolio's coupon ability appears to be very limited right now especially when compared against Pro sites such as PhotoReflect.   Hopefully Zenfolio is listening and working on it.    We really need not only the protections that you list, but we also need the ability to link coupons to specific galleries, to specific products, and to specific price lists.   

For example, I like to give "1 week" coupons out at games to encourage the players and parents to go online and order right away.   I need to link that coupon to the game where I'm handing it out so that it doesnt' get used for older games or for that matter, other completely unrelated galleries.

lpasqualis:

When creating a coupon I noticed this message:

"Note: If the discount value applied falls below the base cost of the order, you will be responsible for paying the difference between the base cost and the actual amount collected. Your account balance and credit card may be charged as a result."

Zenfolio provides the ability to edit price lists in great details, so it is very difficult to be able to tell if a coupon is going to potentially result in charges with some of the products.

I suggest that:

1) There should be a way to say "never drop under base cost", to ensure this won't happend.

2) There should be a tool that tells me automatically if, with any of the prices in any of my price lists, there is the risk of dropping under the base price.

3) When I edit my price lists, I should be warned if any of my coupons could make the new price drop under the base price.

4) There should be a new Coupon value type: "percentage on profit", that is a percentage that is applied to my profit, not to the total order value.

 

I agree. Just a note I'd like to add.

The main problem to me is that it is not immediately obvious how to choose the correct percentage for a "safe" coupon. Sorry if this is obvious, but let me give an example:

Let's say that my price formula is: BASE  + 50% of BASE + $5.

If the base price for an order is $100, the final price to the customer is $155, right?

You would think that setting my coupon to a 40% discount is safe, but it isn't. In fact a 40% discount on $155 is $62, which brings the total order price down to $93... which mean I lose $7 on that order!

Finding the maximum coupon amount I can set to ensure I won't lose money is a somewhat simple math problem, but I still need to get pen and paper and do some math. Then if I change any of my prices or formulas I also have to review all the coupons. Yuk. I'd like this to be built in the system.

Being able to restrict coupons to specific galleries or price lists is also in my wish list.

Yep, that's why you've got to be really careful to make sure your coupon discount doesn't overlap your mark ups.     I wonder how many people have learned this the hard way.

BTW, get rid of the pen & paper.   Download your price list as a CSV file & import it into Excel.   It only takes a few minutes then to add a couple of columns where you can apply "what if" discounts to your prices and then subtract out your costs to see if any of them drop you into the red.

lpasqualis:

When creating a coupon I noticed this message:

"Note: If the discount value applied falls below the base cost of the order, you will be responsible for paying the difference between the base cost and the actual amount collected. Your account balance and credit card may be charged as a result."

Zenfolio provides the ability to edit price lists in great details, so it is very difficult to be able to tell if a coupon is going to potentially result in charges with some of the products.

I suggest that:

1) There should be a way to say "never drop under base cost", to ensure this won't happend.

2) There should be a tool that tells me automatically if, with any of the prices in any of my price lists, there is the risk of dropping under the base price.

3) When I edit my price lists, I should be warned if any of my coupons could make the new price drop under the base price.

4) There should be a new Coupon value type: "percentage on profit", that is a percentage that is applied to my profit, not to the total order value.

 

I agree, these features really need to be added.

+1

While I agree it would be nice to have 1) - 3), this one would be extremely difficult explain to your customers:

lpasqualis:

4) There should be a new Coupon value type: "percentage on profit", that is a percentage that is applied to my profit, not to the total order value.

Customers generally don't know what your profit is, therefore they would have no idea what kind of a discount to expect from such a coupon.

Agreed, that's why I suggested this as an option in the arsenal, not the default.

I could decide to not tell the customers exactly what the discount is. I could choose, for example, to say that the coupon is "between X and Y% discount" (X and Y could be calculated and suggested by the system automatically), or that the coupon "gives the best available rate".

The same problem exists with #1 if I decide to ignore the warning suggested in #2 and #3, because the discount I give is limited by the profit I make.

agree - coupons should be minus money... so please add a safeguard function!