Single-Use Coupon Codes: Secrets to Using Unique Coupon Codes for Maximum Savings

When you sign up for a store’s email list to get a discount code, it always takes one of two forms:

• A code like FREESHIP, SAVE20, or, most likely, a variation of other common coupon codes.

• A code that looks like someone just mashed their hand on the keyboard (or copied your parents’ wifi router password) and turned out as something like X134SL%ASJrQ.

The latter is a single-use coupon code. Single-use codes are increasingly popular among eCommerce merchants for several reasons (which we’ll cover in this article). From your shopper’s perspective, single-use codes can be just as valuable as standard promo codes — maybe even more valuable in some cases — as long as you know how to recognize them and properly capitalize on them.

In this article, we’ll dive into all things related to single-use codes: what they are, why brands like them, and how to use them to your best advantage as a customer.

What are single-use coupon codes?

Single-use coupon codes are unique coupon codes, automatically generated by an eCommerce merchant, which can be used for one and only one purchase. They are often sent through emails, particularly automated emails around specific milestones (e.g., in a welcome message to new subscribers or for a customer’s birthday).

Here’s an example of a single-use code from children’s clothing brand Hanna Andersson, sent to new email subscribers.

Single-use codes could also come as a physical coupon; for instance, every Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupon you get in the mail comes with a single-use coupon code printed on it. 

More often than not, single-use codes are sitewide codes that apply to all (or most) products across an eCommerce website’s catalog. However, it’s also common for their usage to be limited to first-time customers, or perhaps rewards members or store credit card holders.

Single-use codes differ from other types of coupon codes:

Standard coupon codes are codes meant to be utilized by multiple shoppers, and generally look  like 20OFF or SUMMER.  Single-use coupon codes are most commonly distributed via email, often in automated emails like a “thanks for subscribing” or “happy birthday” message.

Evergreen coupon codes are standing coupon codes that (basically) never expire. For example, according to our database, the code SIGNED22 has worked for 10% off at Summit Hut, a hiking and outdoor gear shop, since 2014. (Now that I’ve written about it here, I hope it doesn’t go away. That code outlasted the entire run of NCIS: New Orleans, which ran from 2014 until May 2021. Do you know how hard it is to outlast something from the NCIS franchise?)

URL coupons are discounts applied via specific URLs, rather than coupon codes. These aren’t especially common, but some stores will opt to include discounts in a URL rather than include a discount code box as part of their checkout process.

Why do stores send out single-use coupon codes?

Single-use coupon codes certainly seem like more work for an eCommerce store. Rather than keeping track of the usage of one code, they now need to generate and store thousands, if not millions, of single-use codes. That sounds like a potential nightmare on every level, from database management to bookkeeping. And while there are automated systems that can generate and regulate single-use codes, one simple code would still be more manageable. 

Here are the benefits to single-use coupon codes that make the hassles worthwhile for eCommerce companies.

Single-use codes encourage email and text messaging subscriptions

More than nine out of ten first-time visitors to an eCommerce site won’t make a purchase. There’s an ongoing challenge, then, for brands to find a way to stay in touch with those potential customers — people who were intrigued or curious enough to explore their site, but weren’t quite ready to buy. Email subscriptions and text message signups are two of the best ways (social media has a lower reach or conversion rate) to capture those visitors and ultimately send them messages for when they’re ready to become customers. 

But since few people will sign up for a business’s email list without some kind of incentive, eCommerce shops will usually offer up the most logical incentive: a discount code. Single-use codes are popular here because they’re more trackable. They’re targeted at just one customer, and they allow brands to offer lucrative and tempting discounts they might not want to make available to the entire world.

Single-use codes often come up in emails where brands are trying to nudge a one specific person to make a purchase. Beyond welcome emails, single-use codes are also regularly featured in emails sent to people who abandon their shopping carts or to first-time buyers in an attempt to get them to make a second purchase. 

Single-use codes are, by definition, limited in usage

When a brand issues a discount code like SAVE20, in most cases, it will allow for unlimited usage; if suddenly everyone in the country wanted to shop at the store, they could all use SAVE20 over those 300 million transactions to save 20%. That’s a hyperbolic example but it does represent a cautionary tale for a store: If a coupon is so good it brings in more customers than expected, can the store survive selling that much merchandise at a discounted price?

Single-use codes mitigate that potential risk for businesses. Even if the store issues a single-use code with a large, margin-shattering discount, they know it won’t come back to haunt them. Single-use codes can’t go viral.

Single-use codes incentivize first-time customers

Earlier, we discussed how single-use codes encourage email and text subscriptions as a way for brands to stay in touch with curious visitors until they’re ready to become customers. The single-use codes can also speed up that journey. When the subscriber gets a single-use code for a solid discount — and often a single-use code with a short expiration window — it encourages them to make their first purchase.

Single-use codes are better for tracking

Businesses want to know what their customers are buying. Single-use codes make it easier for a business to keep those records; they know they’ve issued a specific single-use code to a customer, so when that code is used, they can tie it to the customer. And that’s true even if the customer checked out as a guest or with a different email. If the customer shares their single-use code with someone else who goes on to use it, the eCommerce store knows that too. Ultimately, the stores want more insight into their customers for a host of reasons, from personalized advertising to product development. Single-use codes make the information gathering process just a little bit easier. 

Beyond the customer insights, single-use codes can also help businesses track the effectiveness of campaigns. A code like WELCOME10 in welcome emails would be used by new visitors — but ultimately, when that code winds up on coupon websites like, say, this one, the shoppers using the code are no longer getting it exclusively from welcome emails. That can muddy the tracking of the campaign.

Single-use codes incorporate personalization, which drives better performance

The goal of sending out a coupon is it will be the final push a customer needs to complete a purchase. So if there’s a way to make a coupon more effective without upping its value (e.g., changing it from 10% off to 70% off would make it more effective, but there’s a monetary tradeoff) — businesses will want to do it.

Single-use codes are personalized — they look different than normal codes and send a psychological signal to a customer “this code is just for you.” Studies have shown this sort of personalization is appealing and makes customers far more likely to buy. That feeling of receiving a discount code that’s clearly exclusive and unique can aid a customer’s decision to use the code on a purchase, which is exactly the outcome the brand wants to see.

Tricks for getting the most out of single-use codes

With a better understanding of why brands offer single-use codes (and how and when they often deploy those promo codes), we can talk about the ways to get the most out of unique discount codes when you’re shopping. 

Single-use codes are a great option with brands that rarely issue other codes

Each brand has its own style of issuing coupon codes: how frequently they release codes, the discounts offered with those codes, the time for which the codes are valid, and so on. And there are plenty of brands whose coupon strategy is… rarely ever releasing coupons.

For example, sitewide coupon codes at luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman are few and far between. However, there’s a standing offer on their site: Subscribe to their email list and receive a single-use code for 15% off your first purchase.

So if you’re shopping on a website and can’t find a coupon code with the SimplyCodes browser extension or any other place you hunt for coupons, try signing up for their email list. You just might get a single-use coupon code which you can use on your purchase.

Know how brands issue single-use coupon codes to try and snag one

We’ve already talked quite a bit about how single-use coupon codes are a common incentive for signing up to receive a brand’s emails or text messages. But there are other scenarios where single-use codes are common as well.

• Cart abandonment recovery emails. When you put items in your shopping cart at an eCommerce store but leave without checking out, that’s called cart abandonment. And if a store has your email address (maybe you entered it earlier in checkout, signed up for their email list, or logged into the site previously), they may send you an email or emails to try to get you to return to the site to finish checking out. Those recovery emails may contain a single-use coupon code in an attempt to really incentivize you to make your purchase.

• Birthday and anniversary emails. Some stores will send out emails on a customer’s birthday or the anniversary of the customer’s first purchase, and those emails also may contain single-use codes as a birthday/anniversary gift.

• Post-purchase emails. After you’ve made a purchase from a store and your excitement is at its peak, a store may send you an email separate from your receipt email. This is a post-purchase email, and may include a single-use code to try to get you to make another purchase right away.

• In the (physical) mail. eCommerce brands aren’t exactly known for sending things through the post office. But some do. And a good way for them to track the effectiveness of those direct mail campaigns is by printing single-use codes on the materials they send out. Bed Bath & Beyond is a great example of this (see the single-use code number highlighted below).

Get more single-use codes with more email addresses 

Between work email, personal email, my old personal email, and various website projects I’ve started and domain names I’ve purchased over the years, I have too many email addresses. Most people have too many email addresses. But one of the few times having lots of email addresses can actually come in handy is when you’re trying to get single-use coupon codes.

Since a lot of single-use coupon codes are for email subscribers (and/or new customers), you won’t be able to get a second one with the same email address. But you can get a second single-use code with a new email address.

Is this 100% purely ethical on the George-Washington-cherry-tree-chopping standards? Not quite. I’d rate the ethical level about the same as, “using your phone to take a picture of the picture of you screaming on Space Mountain instead of paying Disneyland $15 for the print” or “not correcting Taco Bell when they give you Nachos BellGrande and you only ordered chips with nacho cheese sauce.”

Find single-use codes on SimplyCodes (or share your own)

There are lots of people in the SimplyCodes community who receive single-use codes but don’t have any plans to use them. But since we’re all uniting for great coupons here, it’s a shame to see single-use coupon codes go to waste. 

That’s why we’ve set up a system where people can get paid to share their single-use coupon codes (or their regular codes too, but for this article we’re just focused on single-use) — and where others who need a code can grab one of those single-use codes for their purchase.

The wrap-up

Single-use coupon codes are unique coupon codes, often a long string of random letters and numbers, which stores send to customers in lieu of using a more common coupon phrase. While they can create more administrative work for those stores, the benefits of single-use coupon codes are often worthwhile. And for customers, single-use codes can be a great way to save at a store that rarely offers other codes — as long as you know how to find them.

So keep an eye out for single-use codes as you shop, and make sure to use SimplyCodes as your hub for finding and sharing single-use codes with other members of the community — plus learn how you can find promo codes for any website.