Pricing Strategies: #4 Counting on Discounts

"Is there any chance I can get a little discount on this month's service?"

Maya hears this almost every time at her fitness studio. She offers monthly subscription plans for various services, including yoga, strength training, wellness sessions, and personal training. Customers loved the classes, but they also loved looking for small savings whenever they could.

Some were first-timers hoping for a welcome deal.

Some were long-time clients asking for a loyalty benefit.

Others were referred by friends and were hoping for a referral discount.

 

At first, Maya tried to handle discounts manually by editing the invoice, creating a custom price and applying ad-hoc reductions. But as her studio grew, with multiple centres and more clients requesting discounts, she clearly understood that discounts weren't just giveaways; they were a strategic way to drive signups, retain customers, reward loyalty, and promote sales.

Unlike Maya, there are several thousand businesses and service providers who have considered offering discounts, but they end up creating a mess or stop midway due to an inappropriate configuration.

In this article, we are going to cover how Coupons in Zoho Billing offer convenience for giving discounts, setting up logic, and being transparent in their offerings.

Coupons in Zoho Billing 

Coupons allow you to apply controlled, rule-based discounts to subscriptions, invoices and addons. They help businesses attract customers, increase conversions and maintain long-term loyalty without losing control over revenue.

Zoho Billing's coupon system includes a wide range of powerful capabilities. Let's explore each of them in detail.

Discount Type 

Zoho Billing lets you design coupons with the discount calculation you want. It is done in two ways,

• Percentage-based discount. (Example 10% off)

• Flat rate discount. (Example $10 off)

Strategic Advantage:

Percentage discounts attract attention. It can be used for promotional sales and new customer incentives. At the same time, flat rate discounts maintain margin clarity, which can be used for targeted reductions or compensation credits. Align your discount type with your revenue model.

How are Discounts Deducted? 

The discount application affects how the subscriber actually experiences savings. Zoho Billing supports,

• Plan-level discount: Applied only for subscription plan pricing.

• Addon level discount: Applied only to selected addons.

• Invoice level discount: Applied to the total invoice amount.

• Recurring or one-time discounts: Apply either repeatedly or once, depending on how they are defined.

Strategic Advantage:

Control precisely where the discount applies so that promotions don't unintentionally reduce assured revenue.

Setting Up Expiry 

Coupons can be time-bound, ensuring urgency and promotional control. You can choose between,

• No expiry

• Specific calendar date for a limited promotional period.

Strategic Advantage:

Use expiries to create urgency ("Offer ends this Sunday!"), regulate campaign periods and avoid long-tern unintentional discounts.

Maximum Redemption 

Not all discounts are meant to be universal. Zoho Billing lets you limit how many times a coupon can be redeemed across all customers. You can set the redemption times as the number of times the discount gets applied to a subscription.

This is done to

• Prevent discount misuse.

• Keep promotions budget-friendly

• Make time-based campaigns more straightforward to manage.

Strategic Advantage:

Scarcity increases desire. Limited redemption coupons can rapidly boost signups.   

 Advanced Coupon  Management

Advanced Coupon Management addresses key challenges, including coupon duplication, eligibility control, and improved discount management. By enabling advanced coupons, the following configurations can be set up:

Customer Eligibility:

Advanced Coupon lets you define who can redeem the coupon. This is ideal for targeting specific groups, such as elite customers, new sign-ups, or high-value subscribers.

Example: Providing a 20% first-time discount for New signups.

Product Eligibility:

By creating separate coupons for different products, Advance coupons let you specify which product, plan, or addon is eligible for a discount. This way, you can configure coupons globally for all products.

Example: A coupon can be valid for "Plan A" and "Addon A" from "Product A", but restricted from use on "Product B".

Maximum Redemption Per Customer:

Businesses can now limit a coupon for a customer for a specific number of times, preventing excessive redemptions.

Example: A customer can redeem a 10% discount coupon for only two cycles, after which it becomes invalid.  

Strategic Advantage:

Advanced coupons help design lifecycle-based discounts (onboarding, reactivation, upsell nudges, etc) that increase retention.

Additional Coupon Codes 

Zoho Billing lets businesses generate multiple coupon codes linked to the same discount rule. You can create this in bulk or import it into the system, and it can be used.

A primary coupon is created by defining the discount structure (percentage or fixed amount), the maximum number of redemptions, and the expiry date. You can generate multiple coupons that link back to the Default Coupon in the following ways:

​
Manually Entering Codes: If you want to assign specific codes for tracking or personalisation. This will be helpful for small promotional campaigns.

​
Auto-Generate Codes: If you are running a large-scale campaign, you can let the system generate a batch of unique codes in bulk by defining the prefix, suffix, and the number of characters it takes.

This helps in,

• Tracking which marketing channel performs best.

• Personalising codes by customer segment.

• Running simultaneous campaigns using different code names.

• Avoiding manual discount creation to prevent duplication.

Strategic Advantage:

Multi-code campaigns let you measure Return on Investment across social media, email, influencers, events, referral sources and so on, all with the sample discount logic.

 What Coupons Do for Your Business 

Coupons are more than just discounts; they are a customer behaviour tool that drives more than just monetary advantage for a business. Different coupon configurations provide different outcomes.

They help you,

• Increase signups with welcome offers.

• Reactivate old customers with comeback incentives.

• Encourage plan upgrades with timed discounts.

• Drive referral and viral sharing.

• Introduce urgency that pushes customers to act.

 Coupons help businesses attract, retain, and re-engage customers while maintaining complete control over the revenue. Not all discounts are equal, but with the right system, they become a competitive advantage.

Up Next: Stay local & sell global.

 

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• Sticky Posts

• Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

  Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

• Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

• Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

• Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

• Recent Topics

• Automating CRM backup storage?

  Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

• Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

  Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

• Backup to external location (Dropbox etc)

  Dear Zoho Team, I've set the CRM Backup schedule to once a month, which when complete sends me an email. Of course I then need to manually login and download the file. Nice but VERY 20th century and relies on us humans not to fail. Can you please provide

• Cloud backup for CRM

  This is an idea / feature request for ability to periodically export CRM backup to an external cloud provider, similar to Zoho Vault: https://www.zoho.com/vault/data-backup.html Alternatively I would help being able to access manual data backup programatically

• Introducing throw statements in Deluge

  Hello everyone, We're introducing a powerful addition to Deluge that gives you more precise control over error handling in your scripts. Whether you're calling an external API, validating user input, or enforcing a business rule, there are moments when

• Introducing throw statements in Deluge

  Hello everyone, We're introducing a powerful addition to Deluge that gives you more precise control over error handling in your scripts. Whether you're calling an external API, validating user input, or enforcing a business rule, there are moments when

• WhatsApp Coexistence

  Hello, please implement WhatsApp Coexistence, we need to track staff whatsapp chats on their PC and they need to be able to use WhatsApp on their mobile in around the office and warehouse, as we video call customers and send them product pictures. Thank

• Zoho Creator to Zoho Writer for prefilled documents...

  In response to the question about connecting Zoho Creator to Zoho Writer for prefilled documents, I wanted to share a working implementation that demonstrates how to use the record_id parameter with the Zoho Writer Merge API. This allows Writer to automatically

• Upload a video to embed into an article

  How can we upload a video to embed into the article...? We can upload images but this only seems to support image files. And the video option seems to just support YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion which is no good, we need to create our own videos and upload

• PAN - Aadhar Link Status

  Can Zohobooks also get latest PAN-Aadhar Linking Status from Income Tax Portal ?

• LinkedIn RSC is now live in Zoho Recruit

  LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC) is here. Your Zoho Recruit data (candidates, jobs, notes, stage updates, resume attachments, and more) now syncs with LinkedIn in real time. Note: LinkedIn RSC is included with your LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate

• Zoho Writer for Android - Headings

  Hello Zoho team, I have created structured doc with headings in writer web version on pc. Then I have opened it in my phone. Write is crashing while used function: menu "three dots", Document Navigation, Headings. Zoho Writer for Android 6.1.4 Samsung

• The in between line spacing management

  In the Microsoft Word, when we write something there is a tool from where we can manage the line spacing. Here in writer app in mobile it is by default 1.5. I request Zoho Team to give the option from where I can control Line Spacing, Remove space between

• Zoho Books | Product updates | September 2026

  Hello Partners, We've rolled out new updates to Zoho Books. From a brand-new Nigeria edition expanding our presence on the African continent to the new Super Admin privilege, here's everything that's new this month. Nigeria Edition Now Live [Nigeria Edition]

• Cross-application Deluge calls fail when application link name starts with a number

  I encountered an issue when calling a custom function in another Zoho Creator application within the same account. The target application’s URL/application link name began with a number, similar to: 27_example_application The following cross-application

• Pulling data from lookup fields

  If I try to pull in CRM data from a lookup field, it only shows a number and not the actual name. Is there a way to get around this? It impossible to do reports using lookup field data.

• CRM x WorkDrive: We're rolling out the WorkDrive-powered file storage experience for existing users

  Release plan: Gradual rollout to customers without file storage add-ons, in this order: 1. Standalone CRM 2. CRM Plus and Zoho One DCs: All | Editions: All Available now for: - Standalone CRM accounts in Free and Standard editions without file storage

• Marketing Tip #49: Set up Meta Pixel and turn store visitors into repeat buyers

  Most of your store visitors don't buy on their first visit. They browse, get distracted, and leave. Without a way to reach them again, that traffic is gone forever. Meta Pixel changes that. What is Meta Pixel? Meta Pixel (previously called Facebook Pixel)

• unable to join meeting due to speaker issue

  unable to join meeting due to speaker issue

• Unlock smarter scheduling with AI in Zoho Bookings

  Hello everyone! Scheduling touches more parts of a business than we often realize. Teams need to coordinate. Workflows need to move. Business apps need to connect. And with AI, the way we interact with scheduling is changing too. Join our upcoming live

• Zoho CRM Layout Rules: Nine New Actions, Profile-Based Execution, and Interactive Preview

  Hello everyone, Availability: This feature is now available for all users. We’re excited to announce powerful new enhancements to Layout Rules in Zoho CRM - a feature built to guide our teams through form-filling by showing the right information to the

• I want to delete payment detail of my cards from the system.

  I want to delete payment detail of my cards from the system.

• Urgent: Outgoing Emails Delayed Across All Zoho Desk Departments

  Dear Zoho Support, We have started receiving delivery delay notifications across all our Zoho Desk departments. Error details: Error: 451 4.7.500 Server busy Action: Delayed Receiving system: Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online Affected Zoho sending IPs identified

• Zoho Desk API modifiedTimeRange returns HTTP 500 around 2026-03-08T02:00:00.000Z

  Hello Zoho Support Team, We are experiencing a reproducible HTTP 500 Internal Server Error when querying the Zoho Desk API search endpoint with a specific modifiedTimeRange boundary. ### API Endpoint GET /api/v1/tickets/search ### Reproduction Steps &

• Les meilleures pratiques d’email marketing pour booster les ouvertures, les clics et les conversions

  L’email marketing connaît aujourd’hui des changements profonds. Gmail, Yahoo et Microsoft ont notamment renforcé leurs exigences en matière d’authentification, ce qui rend la délivrabilité plus complexe et exigeante. Dans le même temps, les filtres basés

• prefill_data for Creator + Merge & Sign

  Hello, Is there an option to use prefill_data for signer fields from creator? I see the option for CRM but it will not work with creator? I have tried passing the value in the signer data, and that also does not work. Alternatively, is there a way to

• Time Zone is incorrect

  Time zone is not working properly...I've checked it twice. I'm eastern U.S. time it's currently 12:22 pm EST. CRM shows 3:22 pm EST.

• Announcing the new SKILL.md for Zoho CRM and the updated OAS repository!

  We are introducing a new zoho-crm skill to make working with Zoho CRM Developer tools (like APIs, functions, widgets, client scripts, queries etc) easier and faster, with the help of AI in your preferred AI harness like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VSCode

• Kaizen #258 - Getting Started with zoho-crm SKILL.md

  Howdy tech wizards, Welcome to a fresh week of Kaizen. This week, we are taking a look at the zoho-crm SKILL.md, an Agent Skill designed to help AI coding agents work with Zoho CRM’s developer capabilities. What is zoho-crm SKILL.md? The zoho-crm skill

• Support Required for Integrating Zoho SalesIQ in Flutter Web

  Hi Team, I have developed a Flutter application and I am currently using the salesiq_mobilisten: ^6.5.4 package. As per the package documentation ( https://pub.dev/packages/salesiq_mobilisten ), it supports only Android and iOS, and it is working fine

• Zoho CRM Error message #2 : Fixing [Invalid Credentials] and [Authentication Fail] while configuring IMAP

  Hi Everyone! As a part of our Zoho CRM Error messages series, we're going to focus on couple of error messages that you might encounter while configuring IMAP and ways to resolve them. These are: [Invalid Credentials] [Authentication Fail] The annoying

• Books is extremely slow again today !

  Everything is running slowly even with 500mb connection speed

• MCP for Zoho Sign is not working

  I'm using the mcp builder at mcp.zoho.com and selected Zoho Sign. I have created it 4 different times but my other mcp servers are working. However, mcp for zoho sign WILL NOT WORK. It throws a 400 error. I've checked everything. I tried with both Grok

• Automate Credit Card Surcharge

  Is there a way to create an automation that will add a 3.0% credit card surcharge to a subscription whenever a customer pays via credit card?

• How to charge Convenience fee OR payment gateway charges to the end client who is paying the invoice?

  Hello, I am creating this topic after having discussions with various sets of users and have understood that with people moving more and more to digital payments, it is important for the client to enable the "Convenience fee" kind of scenario. I have

• How to add a fee based on payment method

  I currently accept both ACH payments and credit card. I want to add a 3% fee to a number of my subscription plans if the customer chooses to use a credit card (and not ACH/checking). How do I do this? Is there an in-built feature, or would i have to create

• Zoho Inventory - Profit Margin Feature - Allow Users to Set Default Cost Price Calculation Method

  Hi Zoho Inventory Team, I'm working with an automotive parts distributor using Zoho Inventory. They have expressed frustration about having to change the Cost Price Method on every line item they add from the defult "Inventory Valuation Method" to "Item

• OpenAI Is Moving to the Responses API: Here's What It Means for SalesIQ

  OpenAI has deprecated its Assistants API and is moving to the Responses API. If you're using OpenAI Assistants with SalesIQ, you may be wondering if you need to make any changes to your existing setup. You don't. SalesIQ has already taken care of the

• Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

  I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,

• Payment for product renewal

  Good morning, I am requesting your kind assistance to renew my subscription because when I try to make the payment I get this way

• Next Page