Coupon vs. Automatic Discount
Definition
A coupon is a discount the customer must enter as a code at checkout. An automatic discount applies by itself when the cart meets a rule, such as a minimum total or a specific product. Coupons suit targeted, trackable offers sent to specific people; automatic discounts suit public campaigns where a code field would only add friction.
Why it matters for your store
The two tools answer different questions. A coupon answers "who gets this and where did the sale come from?" It can be single-use, tied to one customer, limited in count, and traced back to the email or influencer that carried it. An automatic discount answers "what should every qualifying cart get?" with no code to remember and no code to leak to coupon sites.
Choosing wrong has a cost. A public sale run as a coupon leaks the code within hours and adds a field customers hunt for. A personal offer run as an automatic discount reaches everyone and cannot be measured.
Stacking rules matter too. Customers will try to combine offers, and the store must decide in advance what happens.
How Kambloo handles it
Both are campaigns in the same engine. A campaign is a set of conditions (cart total, cart contents, customer group, first order, date range, channel) and a list of actions (percentage or fixed discount, buy X pay Y, gift product, free shipping, tiered discount). Add a coupon-code condition and it becomes a coupon; leave it out and it applies automatically.
Coupons carry usage limits, a per-customer limit, a minimum cart total, and a scope. Single-use coupons can be generated in batches with a prefix and exported as CSV for influencers or partners, or issued one at a time by automations such as cart recovery.
The stacking rule is fixed and the same in cart and checkout: one coupon per cart, campaigns with stacking allowed can combine with it, and if two discounts hit the same line the larger one wins. Campaigns have a priority and a stop-processing flag. Countdown timers are shown only on coupons with a real expiry.
Questions about Coupon vs. Automatic Discount
When should I use a coupon instead of an automatic discount?
When you want to control who gets the offer or track where a sale came from: a recovery email, an influencer, a newsletter. For a site-wide sale or a free shipping threshold, an automatic discount is simpler for the customer.
Can a coupon and an automatic discount apply to the same cart?
On Kambloo, one coupon per cart can combine with automatic campaigns that allow stacking. If two discounts target the same line, the larger one applies.