General disposition about the coupon system
To be honest, I was very impressed before buying this application that you had created a coupon system in it. i thought that was a cool addition and didn't even realize at the time just how much I could see using it for different things until I started working with PS4. It's a great marketing tool.
Unfortunately, I have to report that I really think you've fallen down here on implementation. It's a nice gimmick but it's really lacking and actually doesn't even work the way one could be lead to believe it is supposed to.
First, a bit of inspiration for what I hope will be a clean up for the developers and polished in the next mini release of the code.
Coupons are a great idea!!! They're about marketing and the ability to "guage" marketing intent. By offering coupons you have a tracking mechanism and can get a feel for how a marketing attempt works. So I publish a circular in a large local weekly newspaper with a bit of advertising and a coupon code. I get to see how well that advertising money is spent through coupon tracking.
Suppose I want to run a funding channel for a worthy cause. I can use a coupon to track sales and kick back a percentage of the sales to the worthy cause.
Your coupon development, though there, really doesn't embellish much more than a "discount" in the way it's done and even then it doesn't do a very good job. This can be corrected by first allowing the coupon system to work with a 0% discount so it can just be used for tracking.
The web form that depicts the invoice actually shows the coupon "name" but the emailed invoice shows nothing but a discount. Why? Seems like an oversight. When someone uses a coupon they want to see it printed in the hard copy so they know it's been applied properly. This also provides a feedback when one is tracking sales and wants to donate a portion of those sales to a worthy cause!
Next, after working more with the coupon codes this weekend I've noticed that I can use a coupon code on each purchase. I currently have two products in my store and two coupon codes. I create and order and purchase one of the items with one coupon code and then purchase the other item with the other coupon code. In both cases because both items are listed in the coupon configuration as eligible for coupon purchases, the order screen allows me to input a code. But the summary screen only shows on coupon code, the final order screen only shows one coupon code, the email invoice shows no coupon code and the order table shows one oder with one coupon code. Basically, you make it appear that I can use different codes for different products but you are not tracking that at all. You're taking on coupon code and applying it to both products purchased in one order.
This needs to be worked on. it's a great idea and can really be meaningful to a merchant. I guess it's a good start but please get the developers to work on the fine details and get this straightened out. It's not really working the way it should and with a bit of tweaking could be so much more useful. Beyond that make it visible. I realize that you use your own internal ID for mapping and storing the codes but make them visible as the customer uses them with the title and the code on the screen invoice and provide them in the email invoice. That's an oversight on the part of the developers and it should have been there in the beginning.
I would also stress that it should be possible to have more than one coupon applied to one invoice and that should be listed next to the product it's associated with. As much as you think coupons are about discounts, they are really more about tracking markets. They can also be used to identify retailers you sell to wholesale. Please get this straightened out and working properly!!! Would like to see this in the next minor release of PS4!!
