Coupon Crafting Inside Livestreams and Auctions
Building coupons to drive growth and conversions
Wen Xiong & Brandon Lee | Growth Engineering
Whatnot sellers use many ways to promote their livestreams and grow their businesses, including giveaways. However, they lacked the marketing tools that traditional stores utilize, such as the ability to offer sales and discounts.
Sellers were missing out on opportunities to promote their livestreams to new buyers and reward loyal buyers through incentives. This was a big ask from our seller community, and we were all ears! Coupons were the answer. In addition to benefiting sellers, we were confident coupons would be a powerful tool for driving user traffic and conversion on Whatnot.
Incorporating User Feedback
We designed coupons to be backed by a coupon code created by the seller and then shared with their buyers for their next purchase.
We surveyed sellers to determine the initial features we would include and which coupon types they were most excited to see.
Another factor was knowing which platform was popular for each user group’s needs. Sellers use our tools on web to manage their shipments, so as we were prioritizing impact ruthlessly (a core value) we implemented coupon creation and management on web. Buyers are most active on our iOS and Android apps, so we focused on buyer-side features there.
Introducing Coupons
With the Whatnot Seller Hub, sellers can create and manage their coupons within a single page. Since sellers are funding their coupons, we wanted them to be able to customize the discount and the eligible audience for them.
They can customize the coupon code, buyer eligibility conditions, discount amount and type, and the livestreams where the coupon can be applied.
After a coupon is created, sellers can share their coupon codes and deactivate or reactivate a coupon at their discretion.
The Wallet is the main place where buyers can claim coupons. By entering a valid coupon code here the discount will be applied to the buyer’s next Auction or Buy Now purchase.
For Buy Now purchases, buyers also have the option to apply coupons during checkout, similar to other familiar checkout screens.
Designing the Coupons Product: A Twist for Auctions
While coupons have long been a staple in traditional commerce, designing coupons for livestreams introduces an exciting dimension. In this context, the process isn’t as straightforward as the traditional “shopping cart → enter coupon code → check out.” In a Whatnot livestream, where auctions, Buy Nows, offers, and giveaways can coexist simultaneously, it becomes imperative to ensure real-time, accurate information for both sellers and buyers.
In a high-stakes, 30-second “sudden-death” bidding war, buyers focus intensely on price movements and actively place bids. If we followed the traditional approach, buyers would have to retroactively enter the coupon code after they’ve won — after the order has been placed and payment processed. This interrupts the show and poses risks around order modifications. To address this, we encourage buyers to redeem their coupons in advance and automatically apply the coupon if they win the auction.
Backend as the Source of Truth
We keep track of all coupons and their associated user activities in the backend, including when they are claimed, selected, and applied. Whenever a buyer claims a coupon, views a pinned product, or checks their Wallet, we retrieve their eligible coupons and return the most recently selected one. For every coupon-related action, we employ the same underlying logic to ensure that the buyer receives accurate results. Later, when the buyer places an order, we also apply this logic to retrieve the same coupon previously shown to the buyer. By making the server side the source of truth, there’s no need to pass coupon codes from the client side, also reducing potential security vulnerabilities.
However, auctions can span an indefinite period, and many changes can occur between the auction’s start time and the final order placement. The seller might deactivate a coupon, the buyer might lose their qualifications to use a coupon or their payment might fail. To avoid any surprises, we pass the auction’s end time from live service through the order placement payload, and honor the coupon status at that timestamp. Together with mechanisms like troll-bidding protection, we can identify and apply the correct coupon — even if a buyer is still retrying payment after the coupon has been deactivated.
Race Conditions and Exploit Prevention
Our coupons come with a per-buyer maximum usage limit. Whether intentional or accidental, there may be race conditions where a buyer attempts to use a coupon multiple times simultaneously (e.g., on multiple devices or through API-driven tools, placing a Buy Now order while winning an auction, etc.). To protect sellers and prevent coupon exploitation, we implement Redis locks and PostgreSQL database constraints throughout the entire coupon cycle, from creation to claiming to the final coupon application.
Adoption and Extensions
Our feature analysis revealed that sellers promoting coupons for their shows saw significant increases in livestream performance including viewership and purchases. While sellers love this feature, we never stopped listening to our customers, and have continually enhanced the Coupons platform based on user feedback. Following the MVP release, we quickly delivered highly requested features such as support for a minimum purchase threshold, easily enabling coupons for all future livestreams, and even reduced seller fees.
Internally, we also recognized that coupons present a substantial opportunity to drive more traffic to Whatnot. We then introduced Global Coupons, which are sponsored by Whatnot official accounts and applicable in all seller livestreams. Additionally, on top of the existing “Everyone” and “New Buyer for You” coupon audiences, we also introduced “Whatnot New Buyers” as a new option, specifically catering to influencers and promotional campaigns.
From the outset, we recognized that coupons could be more than just “$10 off your purchase.” Our coupon framework is designed to be easily scalable to support percentage and free shipping discounts, and various other customizable options, such as specific listings and targeted audiences.
As the Coupons platform continues to evolve, it will offer more variations and customization, benefiting both sellers seeking increased sales and buyers seeking better deals, while also serving as a powerful growth lever for Whatnot.
If you’re intrigued by the opportunity to shape the future of seller marketing tools and contribute to growth in live commerce, join us at https://whatnot.com/careers.
