What is a good discount depth?

Research suggests small permanent discounts (under ~19%) can actually reduce spending, while deep, broad discounting erodes category margin. The better lever is targeting: who gets the offer matters more than how deep it is.

How much of ecommerce fraud is promo abuse?

Roughly a third today — and projected to reach 42% of total ecommerce fraud within two years (Liminal, 2025).

Do personalized promotions really outperform mass discounts?

Consistently. Returns on personalized offers run up to 3× those of mass promotions (BCG), yet most retailers still spend under 5% of their promo budget on them.

How can I stop promo code abuse?

Automated redemption rules — usage limits, eligibility checks, segment restrictions — at the moment of redemption. Only ~20% of organizations enforce these automatically today, which is why abuse keeps scaling.

Benchmark · Updated quarterly

The Discount ROI Benchmark

What discounts really cost, what they really return, and how much promo abuse quietly eats — the numbers behind promotion ROI, gathered in one place.

Most teams run promotions on instinct. The data on what discounts actually do to margin, repeat purchase and fraud exposure exists — but it's scattered across paywalled journals, gated industry PDFs and vendor decks. This benchmark brings it together, alongside aggregated, anonymized data from promo-engaged transactions on the Vouchery platform.

The headline numbers

3×

Returns on personalized offers vs. mass promotions

BCG, 2024

31% → 42%

Promo & loyalty abuse's projected share of ecommerce fraud within two years

Liminal, 2025

62%

Of US online shoppers search for a promo code before completing a purchase

SimplyCodes via eMarketer, 2024

↓ margin

Retailer category margins are typically reduced by price promotions, even after store-traffic effects

Erasmus / ERIM

How much margin do discounts really cost?

Deep discounts drive traffic — but the margin math is less forgiving than most teams assume.

Isometric illustration of shrinking coin stacks and a price tag, representing margin erosion from discounts

A large-scale econometric study across manufacturer and retailer data found price promotions have no permanent revenue effect for either party, and retailer category margins are typically reduced — even after crediting cross-category and store-traffic gains (Srinivasan, Pauwels et al., ERIM).
A Journal of Retailing study across 24 stores and 55 weeks found that discounting more items in a category lowers store margins — the profit from extra sales often doesn't cover the cost of the discount breadth (Journal of Retailing, 2017).
Research on permanent discounts found effects are nonlinear: product discounts below ~19% actually decreased customer spending, only helping beyond that threshold (Lobschat et al., Maastricht University).

Takeaway: Discount depth and breadth both erode margin faster than they build revenue — which is why untargeted “blanket” discounting is the most expensive way to run a promotion.

Vouchery data: average margin erosion per discount tier (0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%+) across promo-engaged transactions. Coming with the next refresh.

Do coupons actually drive repeat purchases?

Sometimes — but which coupon, to whom, matters more than the discount itself.

Isometric illustration of a shopping bag inside a glowing loop, representing repeat purchases

A Bayesian study of 3,827 customers who redeemed both coupon types found percentage-off coupons drive higher spend and bigger baskets than dollar-off coupons in online FMCG (Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2021).
Issuing personalized, real-time coupons to customers with high churn risk measurably raised purchase conversion versus untargeted issuance — in a market where average online conversion sits near 2% (IEEE Access, 2023).
26% of US adults say they're using more coupons because of the economy (Prosper Insights & Analytics / NRF, July 2024) — redemption intent is high; loyalty from it is not automatic.

Takeaway: Blanket codes buy transactions; targeted codes buy customers. The repeat-purchase gap between the two is the single most underreported number in promotion analytics.

Vouchery data: share of coupon redeemers with a repeat promo-engaged purchase within 90 days — blanket codes vs. personalized campaigns. Coming with the next refresh.

What's the ROI of targeted vs. untargeted campaigns?

This is where the industry data is most lopsided — and most ignored.

Isometric illustration of a bullseye target linked to customer segments, representing targeted campaigns

Retailers' returns on personalized offers run up to 3× higher than mass promotions — yet the average retailer still puts less than 5% of promo spend into personalization (BCG, 2024).
BCG estimates that redirecting just 25% of mass-promotion spend to personalized offers would lift promotion ROI by ~200% — a $70B+ annual industry-wide growth opportunity (BCG, 2021).
One large convenience chain that raised personalized offers from 1% to 10% of its promo mix generated $250 million in incremental sales (BCG, 2024).

Takeaway: The money isn't in discounting more — it's in discounting smarter. Rules, segments and triggers turn the same budget into multiples of the return.

Vouchery data: revenue per campaign — campaigns with targeting rules vs. without. Coming with the next refresh.

Methodology

Vouchery platform figures are aggregated and anonymized across promo-engaged transactions and campaigns within a stated time window. Figures reflect purchases involving a promo code or loyalty redemption — the relevant universe for measuring discount ROI — not total store revenue. No individual customer or merchant data is identifiable. External statistics are reproduced with attribution from the published research listed below; where a source reports a range or projection, we state it as published.

Refreshed quarterly.

FAQ

What is a good discount depth?: Research suggests small permanent discounts (under ~19%) can actually reduce spending, while deep, broad discounting erodes category margin. The better lever is targeting: who gets the offer matters more than how deep it is.
How much of ecommerce fraud is promo abuse?: Roughly a third today — and projected to reach 42% of total ecommerce fraud within two years (Liminal, 2025).
Do personalized promotions really outperform mass discounts?: Consistently. Returns on personalized offers run up to 3× those of mass promotions (BCG), yet most retailers still spend under 5% of their promo budget on them.
How can I stop promo code abuse?: Automated redemption rules — usage limits, eligibility checks, segment restrictions — at the moment of redemption. Only ~20% of organizations enforce these automatically today, which is why abuse keeps scaling.

Sources

Srinivasan, Pauwels, Hanssens & Dekimpe — Do Promotions Benefit Manufacturers, Retailers, or Both? (ERIM Report ERS-2002-21-MKT, Erasmus University)
An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Promotional Discounts on Store Performance — Journal of Retailing, 93(3), 2017
Lobschat et al. — The Effect of Permanent Product Discounts and Order Coupons on Purchase Incidence, Purchase Quantity, and Spending (Maastricht University)
Empirical decomposition of customer responses to discount coupons in online FMCG retailing — Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 58, 2021
Improving Shopping Mall Revenue by Real-Time Customized Digital Coupon Issuance — IEEE Access, 2023
BCG — Personalized Offers and the $70 Billion Prize (2021); Retail Spotlight: Personalization in Action (2024)
Liminal — Link Index for Promotion and Loyalty Abuse in eCommerce (2025)
Mastercard — ecommerce fraud research (2024), incl. Snipp coverage of promo-abuse findings
Infosys BPM — coupon fraud cost analysis
SimplyCodes (June 2024), via eMarketer — 5 key stats on coupons
Prosper Insights & Analytics / National Retail Federation (July 2024)

See these numbers for your own programs

Vouchery enforces redemption rules automatically and reports the margin you keep.

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