Coupon templates

A coupon template is a coupon that cannot be used directly. Its job is to stamp out one code per customer: the same discount, a different code for each person, each working once. That is what makes a discount safe to send by email — a minted code cannot be shared with a friend or posted to a coupon site.

Templates versus coupons

A coupon in the free plugin is one code many buyers can use, within its limits. A template is the mould, not the code: set the discount, the expiry and the scope once, mark it as a template, and Cartless generates a fresh code from it whenever one is needed.

Single-use codes

Every code minted from a template is bound to one email address and spent on first use. Codes are built from letters and digits that cannot be misread — no O, 0, I or 1 — because they get read off a phone screen and typed by hand, and a code that cannot be transcribed is a discount nobody uses.

Where they are issued

Recovery emails. Under Settings, name the template the second recovery email discounts from; the email says Use CODE at checkout. It works once, and it is yours. Ten percent on day one and fifteen on day three is two templates, not a second discount mechanism.

A template can also be used by anything else that needs a per-person code, through the same function.

What is not here

Stacking, buy-one-get-one, and category scoping — deliberately, as in the free plugin. One coupon per order, template-minted or not.