Customers creating multiple accounts to re-use discount codes

[jammy1]

Hi everyone!

I'm sure this has been asked before but I can't seem to find the right combination of words to search for a solution, so I wondered if anyone could help.

We have been using a pop-up on our Shopify site offering customers a 10% discount code when they sign up to our email newsletter. It has been really popular and successful, and has been a game-changer in terms of growing our email marketing audience.

We have set the discount code up to be "one use per customer", but we have had a growing problem of more & more people creating multiple new user accounts (our site is user account only, no guest checkouts) so they can keep taking advantage of the 10% coupon repeatedly, which of course defeats the object as it is not growing our email list when it's the same people over and over again.

At first we just let it slide as it wasn't making a huge impact with the occasional customer doing this, but more and more people have cottoned on and we are really starting to lose money - especially with regular customers who make large orders and are getting 10% off every time!!

We've taken the approach of making our Terms and Conditions more robust, and also speaking to some of these customers to politely request they support us by not doing this, but it's not watertight, so for the time being we've withdrawn the pop-up hoping that we can find a solution.

So, having trawled the internet, this community, and the Shopify app store for a solution, I'm out of ideas. Does anyone else have this problem, and have they managed to find a solution (or at least a workaround) to exclude people with a certain name/address/IP address from using a discount? My hunch is that the solution lies in customer tagging, but not sure on the best (and most cost-effective) way to execute this and make it work.

Cheers!!

[Nick · Accepted solution]

Hi  @jammy1,

Nick here from Shopify. 

I can definitely see how this would be annoying for you and I understand letting it slide once or twice, but if it is a growing/ consistent problem then it's probably best to look at ways to address it. There are a couple of workarounds that came to my mind upon reading your post which involves third-party apps from the Shopify App Store. Let's take a look at each one and their benefits below:

• IP Log - IP Log essentially lets you see and log every visitors IP addresses which can help you detect spammers, bots but also to investigate suspicious orders where I believe it can be useful for you. For example, you can now log and track IP addresses for every order so you can see if the same IP address has made an order before receiving the discount and if it matches an IP address which has received the discount previously, it is safe to say they could have created a dud email address for another discount order. The app also has 7 day support in email, phone, and live chat. 
• ThinkConvert - Visit Blocker - Visit Blocker helps you restrict specific fraudulent users from visiting your store. One feature that I feel will benefit you in this scenario is the Whitelist feature You can grant special permission to individual customers in blacklisted areas granting them access to your online store. 
• Traffic Guard - Traffic Guard has many features with rules to block or redirect customers. One is the ability to completely block known fraud-prone regions or specific IP addresses. The app also has unlimited support via chat, email or phone. 

These apps might not be an exact solution to the problem you are having, but it's the closest thing I could think of could help you with this. hopefully, it does. 

All the best, Nick

[jammy1]

Hi @Nick 

Thanks so much for your help! Will give these suggestions a try.

I certainly didn't expect there to be a direct/perfect solution but hopefully one of these apps will serve as a workaround.

Cheers!

[Nick]

No problem at all. My pleasure!

Hoping one of these works as some kind of solution for you. 

[supplybydesign]

I have this same problem.  I am very small still, so it's easy to recognize the customer creating multiple accounts.  However, the solutions listed in this thread don't help the situation much really, because you still have to search and detect and then what...send the customer and email that they're creating multiple accounts to get discounts and make them angry and potentially lose them?

I'm posting just to offer shopify a suggestion that they build in some kind of parameter that you can create only one customer per address or something to that effect. 

[Wvv]

Hi Nick. a.o. Reading this post. I'm trying to tackle the same issue, but based on customer address (not IP).

Is there a way to flag or stop customers that register with a new email address as 'new customers' when they are not? We like to say to customers: It seems you have ordered with us before. You can't use a 'new customer discount code'.

Thanks, Wouter

[marvic]

What if they move? What if a new customer moves into their old address? Then you'd have to match name and address. Customers who want to play this game will find a way, changing names etc (this would work at least in Australia where parcels are addressed to street and unit addresses and there is no need to match their name). It might be better to select by payment method, saying this credit card is connected to an account or sth like that. Even though some people might have several credit cards or payment options, they're much more difficult to replace than email addresses and changing names. At some point a customer will naturally run out of new payment options.

[harsh2907]

Hello there,

Your problem can be solved using a miniOrange Firewall - IP restrict application. Using the miniOrange Firewall - IP restricts application, you can manually restrict the user from accessing the perks such as discounts, or the complete store by adding that IP address to the list of blocked IPs. You can also add the IP blocker on your Shopify store registration page so that whenever the user tries to register or login into the store from the same IP address, then the user will be able to access the store but will not see any popup for discount code. Unless the connection was initiated from the new IP address, any attempt to apply the discounts coupons will be denied. If a customer is using a VPN to disguise their IP address to use the discount code again, then you can purchase their additional feature "Block access from VPN" using this they will not be allowed to access the store.

I was very impressed with the support they provide. You can contact them at shopifysupport@xecurify.com.

Thanks.

[Mcmancsu]

FullContact has the capability to detect the same person based on email, address, phone and ip. Using Identity Streme you can use the PersonIDs to detect same person (same id). You can use RecordIDs to manage offer codes (10% off for one promotion and 5% for another, etc). They don’t have it as an all in one solution yet but it’s easy to build on top.