Two codes, one shop, two different discounts
You compare your discount code with a friend's, for the same shop on the same day, and the percentages do not match. That is not a glitch in the system; it is often exactly what was intended. Personalised discount codes are codes a shop does not create the same for all customers, but individually for one person.
The difference arises because the shop's system no longer sends one single promotion to everyone, but links the size of the discount to data it has already stored about that person.
What makes a voucher an individual voucher
An individual voucher is tied to a specific account, email address or sometimes a single device, instead of being published as one string of characters that is the same for everyone. It is usually generated automatically once certain conditions are met, such as an abandoned basket, a birthday in your customer profile or a longer period without an order. How a discount code works technically does not fundamentally change; only the question of exactly who it applies to becomes narrower.
What a shop bases the size of the discount on
A shop that personalises a customer discount usually goes by signals from your relationship with it so far: how long you have been a customer, how large your average basket has been, or how long ago your last order was. Someone who has not ordered for months often gets a larger win-back discount than someone who bought something only last week, because the shop has a stronger interest in getting that person to order at all again.
Where you typically come across personalised codes
Individual vouchers most often turn up in emails, for example after you abandoned a purchase in your basket or around your birthday, if it is stored in your customer account. A code generated through a referral programme also belongs in this category, because it is created specifically for the one person who shared or received the link. A general new customer discount, on the other hand, is usually not personalised yet, but initially applies equally to everyone ordering for the first time, even if its size may later be adjusted individually.
Why this is not the same as a loyalty programme
A loyalty programme with points and tiers follows visible, fixed rules: you collect a certain number of points, reach a tier, and the benefits that come with it are usually written down somewhere you can read them. A personalised voucher, by contrast, usually comes from a calculation running in the background that you cannot see, and which can differ from promotion to promotion and from person to person, without a fixed table of thresholds ever being published.
That explains why with a loyalty programme you know in advance what a particular behaviour will earn you, whereas with an individual voucher you usually only see afterwards what discount the shop has worked out for you. Both mechanisms can exist side by side, so one and the same shop can run a fixed tier system and also send out individual, personalised codes, without the two systems ruling each other out.
In practice, this means that a low personalised discount in one week does not stop you getting a much higher one in another week, once the underlying data has changed. A loyalty programme, on the other hand, keeps its basic structure stable over a longer period, even if individual promotions within the tiers may be limited in time.
Worked example: same basket, different discount
Say two people put together the same basket worth 50 euros. One of them receives a personalised win-back code for 10 percent by email, because she has not ordered for six months, which saves her 5 euros. The other, who buys regularly, gets no individual code for the same basket and would have to wait for a general promotion open to everyone. In the end both pay a different price for exactly the same items, without either price being wrong.
Why a personalised code passed on to someone else often fails
Because an individual voucher is technically tied to a specific account or email address, it usually cannot simply be passed on to someone else, even if the characters are typed in correctly. This is a different mechanism from codes that can only be used once, but both cases lead to the same error message at checkout. If you pass on a code you received through a referral programme, you should therefore not assume it will work for someone else, just as a new customer discount worked out for you personally will not automatically apply to anyone else either.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my friend get a bigger discount than me?
Because personalised vouchers are usually based on individual data such as purchase history or the time since the last order, a shop can assign different percentages to different people within the same promotion. It says nothing about how loyal someone is as a customer; it usually just follows an automated rule in the shop's system.
Can I pass a personalised code on to someone else?
Usually not successfully, because the code is tied to your account, your email address or your device. Even a correctly typed code will be rejected at checkout if it does not match the stored profile.
How does a shop know I deserve a bigger discount?
The shop relies on data it has already stored about your account, such as order history or the date of your last order, not on a person's judgement. With many systems, a longer period without an order automatically leads to a bigger incentive to come back.
Is a personalised voucher the same as a single-use code?
Not necessarily. A personalised voucher is tied to one person but could in theory be used more than once, whereas a single-use code specifically concerns the number of times it can be used. The two features often come together, but they do not have to.
