How to Stop Losing Money From Coupons

No buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) deals with other promotions. The cartfuls of free merchandise extreme coupon users score are often the result of BOGO promotions combined with BOGO coupons. By disallowing such combined promotions, you eliminate that risk, Phibbs says.

Cut the copycats. Limiting the number of identical coupons--perhaps two or four--per purchase or per customer can eliminate buyers walking off with all your inventory for free or at a deeply discounted price. If your point-of-sale system can track it, you may also consider limiting the number of identical coupons customers can use over a specific time period, such as no more than four in a month. However, Phibbs admits, that can be trickier to track.