How Do Etsy Coupon Codes Work?

Coupon codes on Etsy can be added as a way to offer discounts to customers both before and after they purchase items. Offering a promo code to people can be an incentive to get them to make a purchase, and you can set them up directly on Etsy.

Etsy coupon codes can give the customer a percentage off or a flat cash amount off of the regular item price. Customers can receive the discounts directly from Etsy through one of their email campaigns, or directly from the seller. Etsy sellers don’t need to offer coupon codes, but they can choose to do so for specific purposes.

There are a lot of ways that you can set up coupons, so read on to find out more.



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How To Add A Coupon Code On Etsy

To set up a coupon code on Etsy, go to your shop dashboard and click on the Marketing tab, then choose “Sales and Discounts.” In that section choose “Create a Promo Code” then follow the prompts to fill out the details and create the discount code. The coupon will be active in your shop and you’ll be able to give it to customers to use.

You can choose to offer a percentage off, a fixed amount off, or free shipping with your promo code.

Free shipping and fixed-amount-off promo codes have to be used on the whole shop, but for a percentage-off discount you’ll be able to choose specific listings that it will work with.

Sellers can also specify order minimums that need to be met before the promo code will work, with either a number of items in the order or a total order value. There’s also the option of not having these limits so that the coupon will work on every order no matter how big or small it is.


Options for setting up coupon codes

After that, you’ll choose how long you want the coupon to be good for, or whether you want to make it permanent so that it doesn’t expire.

After that, you’ll make up a code to use.

Once you use a coupon code you won’t be able to use it again. You should try to name it something specific to that sale or discount so that you’ll remember why you set it up when you see it on an order!

Your active coupon codes will show up at the bottom of that page so that you can see what discounts you have running.



How to cancel a promo code on Etsy.

To cancel a coupon code on Etsy, go to the Marketing tab on your shop dashboard, choose Sales and Coupons, then choose Promo Codes. At the bottom of the page there will be a list of all of your active coupon codes. Select the code that you want to cancel and click on “details.” This will open a page with the specifics for that coupon.

At the bottom of the page, you can choose “deactivate code” if you want to delete the code from your shop’s system and prevent anyone from using it. At that point, the code won’t show an “active” tag next to it in the main list, and if you click on the details for it, it will show that the code has ended.


click to see the video

You can also choose to delete the code but allow people who have already received it to use it if it’s one of Etsy’s targeted offers. These include the abandoned cart code, returning customer code, and favorited item code.

To do this, click on “stop sending offer,” and the code won’t be sent out anymore, but people who already received the code will still be able to use it.


store sign with sale notice

What are Etsy targeted offers?

The Etsy targeted offers promo codes are sent out to customers in certain situations if the seller has activated them. One is sent when customers leave items in the cart without checking out (abandoned cart code,) one is sent when an item is favorited, and one is sent to customers after they purchase (returning customer discount.)

These discounts are optional for sellers to use, but they don’t cost anything to send out, and they’re the only unsolicited discounts that Etsy lets sellers send to customers.

The reason for this is spam laws, which are set up to prevent customers from receiving multiple unsolicited emails from multiple sellers.

Customers sign up to receive emails from Etsy, not from individual sellers, so Etsy is allowed to send customers emails but sellers can’t send coupon codes to customers other than in the areas that Etsy allows us to.


Photo of the Etsy targeted offers
Etsy targeted offers.

To set these up, you’ll need to go to the Marketing tab and look for the section that has the targeted offers.

Click on “set up” and you’ll be taken to a page where you can set up the same types of discount codes for each individual type of code.


For a more in-depth article about Etsy’s Targeted Offers and when you should use them, click here.


How to create a one-time use coupon on Etsy.

It isn’t possible to set a limit for how many times a coupon can be used on Etsy. In order to prevent the coupon from being used multiple times, it will need to be manually deactivated by the seller immediately after it’s used by the customer.

You also need to remember that there are apps that can find coupons on websites, so if you put a coupon in your shop that’s meant for a single customer, other people might be able to use it.

There’s no way to 100% prevent people from using a coupon code once you put it in your shop, so just make sure that you plan for the possibility!

Most of the time if you put a coupon code in your shop and don’t publicize it, only the person who it was meant for will use it, and you’ll be able to deactivate it after they do.

But it’s possible that someone else will be able to find it, so watch out!



Click to see the video.

Can I limit the number of times someone can use a coupon code on Etsy?

There isn’t any way to limit the number of times that a coupon can be used on Etsy, so people who have the code will be able to use it as many times as they want to until the seller deactivates it. This can be inconvenient, especially if you want to offer a discount for customers to use only for their first purchase.

If you offer a discount code for signing up for your email newsletter or another promotion, be aware that the code can be used multiple times.

You can change the code that you offer on a regular basis if you want to try to limit the number of times people use it, but it’s still possible that people could use it more than once before you change it.

This isn’t really a big deal, but you need to plan for the possibility and make sure that your prices are set up to include the possibility of discount codes being used!


Discount code ticket picture

Can customers use more than one discount on Etsy?

When a customer checks out on Etsy they can add coupon codes, but the only time they will “stack,” or allow the customer to use more than one at a time, is if one of them is for free shipping. If a customer tries to enter two percentage-off or dollar-amount-off coupons, they won’t be able to use both.

When a customer enters two pricing discount codes when they check out, Etsy’s system will accept the larger of the two so that the customer gets the highest discount they can.

If one is a free shipping code, it can be combined with a percentage off or a cash amount off at checkout so that the customer gets both.

If you want to offer a higher than normal discount to some of your customers, you can create a separate promo code for them to use. An example of this would be when you want to give your mailing list subscribers a higher discount than a regular sale.



Does Etsy send out coupons on their own?

Occasionally, Etsy will send out special coupon codes to specific groups of customers. These coupons are funded by Etsy and while the customer does get a discount, the seller will receive the full amount of the regular sale. The seller will be able to see the full amount received in the shop payment account to verify that they’ll be paid correctly.

The seller will also pay all of the regular fees that they’d pay for the normal price before discounts, so the transaction fee and shipping fee will be charged on the full price of the item.

If the product is returned for some reason, the fees will be refunded in the normal way based on the amount of the return.

Etsy doesn’t send out very many coupons on their own, but if you do see a discount code in your shop that you didn’t add, check your payment account for that sale to see if you were paid the full price amount. If you were, the discount is a special promotion from Etsy and you weren’t actually charged for the discount.



Can I add a coupon code that’s only good on my website?

Promoting a discount code on Etsy that only works on your website is considered fee avoidance, and is against the terms of service on Etsy. Any action that a seller takes to divert traffic that came from Etsy to another site for the purpose of selling there instead isn’t allowed, and can result in Etsy shutting your shop.

This includes putting an email signup that offers a discount in your Etsy shop, then having that coupon code only work on your website.

You need to make sure that any offers you promote on Etsy are set up to work on Etsy even if the code is also good somewhere else.

This will allow Etsy customers to use their discount on Etsy, which is where they started.

A lot of customers wouldn’t be happy to have to switch to a new website to use a discount code anyway, because they might not want to have to shop again on a different website. You could end up losing the sale completely if you try to switch people to another platform.


Coupons on Etsy can be a little tricky because some of the options are limited as far as setting them up goes. But being able to offer coupon codes through Etsy is something that can drive sales, and it gives sellers the option to easily offer discounts on the Etsy platform.

Kara Buntin

Kara Buntin has run a profitable home-based business since 1999, and has a background in art, theater design, and cake decorating. She's a top Etsy seller with over 51,000 sales on Etsy and her own website, and helps other home-based business owners with their business goals and SEO. She founded the Artisan Shopping Directory website to promote the artisans who are members of her EShop Success marketing program.

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