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Overview

What is a Coupon?​

A coupon in Publica.la is a promotional code that applies a percentage discount to prices. Coupons can be used on subscription plans and individual issues, and can be optionally restricted to specific products or plans. They support global use limits as well as per‑user and per‑issue limits.

How It Works (Farfalla Behavior)​

  • Discount type: percentage only; up to two decimals. 100% is a “total discount”.
  • Where it applies: subscriptions (plans) and individual sales (issues). Retail‑licensed issues are not eligible.
  • Scope by assignment: usable globally for a type, or restricted to selected issues/plans. Advanced flows may restrict to specific users.
  • One coupon per checkout: you can enter one code; that code can apply to multiple items in the same checkout until reaching its total use limit.
  • 100% coupons: cannot be used with multiple items at once. If more than one item is in the cart, the code is rejected for that operation.
  • Price safeguards: discounts never reduce prices below the minimum payable amount configured by the store.

Configure a Coupon​

  • Code: accepts letters, numbers, dot, hyphen and underscore. Codes are normalized to uppercase slug on save.
  • Discount (%): numeric with up to 2 decimals. For subscriptions with limited discount periods (see below), the max is 99.99%; otherwise up to 100%.
  • Valid to: optional expiration date for the code itself.
  • Use limit (total): optional. Blank/0 = unlimited. Each successful application in a checkout consumes one use.
  • Per‑user limit: optional. 0 = unlimited. Caps how many times each user can redeem this code.
  • Per‑issue limit: optional. 0 = unlimited. Caps uses against the same issue.
  • Applies to: enable for individual issues and/or subscription plans.
  • Limit to specific items (optional): pick issues and/or plans to restrict where the code is valid.
  • Discounted periods (subscriptions): choose unlimited or a number of periods. If limited, max discount is 99.99%.
  • End‑of‑redeem‑month expiration: when enabled, redemptions made with this coupon expire at the end of the current month (affects the access granted, not the coupon’s code date).

Redemption Rules and Limitations​

  • Not valid for retail‑licensed titles.
  • For private plans without price/payment links, coupons below 100% do not apply.
  • For checkouts with no payable items (e.g., plans without prices), non‑100% coupons do not apply.
  • Coupon stacking is not supported.
  • 100% coupons drive a free checkout and are processed without hitting a payment gateway.

Management​

  • Create individually or generate in bulk (if the feature is enabled for the tenant).
  • Edit any field; delete is supported (soft‑delete). Deleted coupons remain visible in admin lists and count as inactive.
  • Export to Excel: all coupons, per‑coupon usage report, and overall usage summary are available from the Coupons dashboard.
  • Status indicators: Active, Inactive (deleted), Expired, and quick actions per row.

User‑Facing Messages​

  • “Unable to find a valid discount…”: the code doesn’t meet the item/user/scope rules.
  • “The titles do not meet the requirements for the discount code.”: items in cart are not eligible (e.g., retail titles or unsupported product types).
  • “The total discount code is not valid for use with multiple titles.”: a 100% code was entered with more than one item in the cart.

Common Use Cases​

  • Promotional campaigns: launches, seasonal offers, events, early‑bird.
  • Engagement: loyalty, referrals, win‑back, trials.
  • Business development: partners, bulk purchases, education, press access.
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