In recent times, a coupon code has become a very important aspect of e-commerce and online shopping sites. A coupon code is a set of letters or numbers which can be used by the customers to avail discounts and promotional offers on various products available on the website. The consumers can enter the promotional code into a promotional box on the site’s checkout page. This way they obtain the discount on the product which might be in the form of a percentage off the purchase, free shipping, or some other discount. Online merchants use these codes as an incentive to shoppers to purchase from their website. Some of the companies might not offer these codes directly on their sites but send them across in the e-mail newsletter. Some of them also use well-known affiliate programs.

Traditionally, in marketing, a coupon or ticket was a document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate while purchasing a product. Usually, the manufacturers of consumer goods used to issue coupons for retail stores to be used in sales promotions. The mode of distribution of these coupons was also varied ranging from postal mail, magazines, newspapers, the Internet and mobile cell phones. However, these days, Internet coupons have gained popularity as there is no postal cost and the printing costs are borne by the users.
Online retailers often refer to Internet coupons as "coupon codes", "promotional codes", "promotion codes", "discount codes", "key codes", "promo codes", "shopping codes", or "voucher codes”. Although the online websites were around for a while, they are now making a huge comeback due to recession.
There are numerous products on which a consumer can use coupon codes. By using coupon codes, online customers can save a lot of money on a wide range of products and services. These include garments, sports goods, stationery, cosmetics, electronics, food and beverage, health products, web hosting, or even travel. The most important benefit for customers is that these types of discounts are offered by big brands so there can be no scope of compromise on the quality of the product. On some occasions, these codes can be clubbed with other promotional offers so the customers can enjoy very attractive benefits on their purchases. The online shoppers have to be quite vigilant if they want to make timely and proper use of the coupon codes. They can subscribe to company’s newsletter to keep themselves updated about the latest offers. It has been noticed that these codes are not available to the general public.