Coupons - Need added discount application flexibility

[wilde-ideas]

When the cart contains multiple items, coupon discounts are currently appiled to the least expensive item in the cart by default. There is no way to change the default so that a coupon is applied to the most expensive item in the cart. Merchants need the ability to control whether the coupon applies to either the lowest or highest priced items in a cart, as otherwise a promotion of a 40% Discount on a single regular priced item inter-mixed with other merchandise is infeasible, invites "cherry-picking" by the customer and thus makes running such a promotion in answer to competitive pressures disastrously unprofitable.

[gbadoo]

I see you have identified a user-interface design failure of the coupons app that I haven't experienced yet. I upgraded from Manager to Pro in large part to be able to use coupons, and frankly, I have been unable to find any practical use for this feature. It fails entirely to simulate the well-established (by the marketplace and long usage) paper coupon experience. A customer should be able to exchange a coupon for a benefit (usually a discount). Generally, this will be one of each item in a shopping cart for which a coupon has been circulated. Anyone with the same coupon code should be able to do this. Any number of coupons should be allowed in a single cart, but the number of EACH item discounted in a single cart should be under the control of the merchant. At present, only one item will be discounted, even if there are other eligible products in the cart. This is not useful! it is an artificial restriction on usability due to an inadequate effort on the part of the programmers.
IMPROVEMENT NEEDED:
This application should allow 1 coupon code to be entered in a single cart for each product selected for which a coupon is available. Ideally, they should be entered in a group in a single text box or other form field after ALL items have been placed in the cart. This is analogous to the use of paper coupons; when you wheel your cart up to the cash register, you hand the coupons to the clerk.
Presently, if there is more than one eligible item, only one item will be discounted.
THIS IS SO COUNTER-INTUITIVE, IT IS BOUND TO BE AS FRUSTRATING FOR THE CUSTOMER AS IT IS FOR THE WEB DESIGNER. THE ONLY REASON I CAN THINK OF FOR THIS GLITCH IS LAZINESS ON THE PART OF THE PROGRAMMERS.
ALSO:
It should be possible (as an option) to restrict use of a single code to only one order by the same customer, even over more than one separate order. Cookies could be used, or reference to a server-side database of one or more fields, such as email address.
Currently, "Single Use" option means ONLY 1 PERSON can use a coupon code. This has limited use, if any at all. What were the Shopsite designers thinking??!!

There are complex and very labor-intensive workarounds for these design defects, but we ae supposed to be dealing with data automation, are we not?

[Specialty Graphics]

I also agree that we need to be able to limit the customers use of a coupon within a given time. We have customers who have found this loophole and are now taking advantage of it, which means we have to stop offering discounts all together or we lose money. This needs to be changed, we need to be able to at the very least limit a customer to use a coupon code only once a day.

[psldesigns]

I agree with the one time use -- would be better to have only one-time use per customer instead of the coupon only being allowed once.