Astro Coupons | Opting Out Of or Opting Back In to a MFG Sponsored Coupon
Coupons can only be redeemed on Standard Astro Accounts. At this time, Coupons are not compatible with POS Report style or Nightly Data Feed style Astro Accounts.
Astro Coupons Are Different!
Astro Coupons were designed to help brands communicate targeted promotions to your customers while still directing them to redeem those promotions at your store!
- Astro Coupons benefit the Vendor - they can offer special promotions to their existing Frequent Buyer customers, and they can send targeted campaigns that get results.
- Astro Coupons benefit the Customer - they receive personalize promotions from the brands they already love and they have the convenience of redeeming them at your store.
- Astro Coupons benefit you, the Retailer - they are only redeemable at your store, their publications are orchestrated and spread out so a full month will pass before the new group of coupons are announced, their publications are announced well ahead of time so you can prepare, the vendor handles the marketing and delivery of the coupon so your customers are already in the know, and best of all your reimbursement for coupons issued is guaranteed since they are reported to your chosen distributor via Astro.
Astro's number one goal is to keep your customers walking through your door. Astro will always provide you with an adequate window of time to decide whether or not you want to participate, or are able to participate, in an Astro Coupon.
Notification Process New Coupons- Pending MFG Coupons Pop-up:
To make sure you are fully aware of an approaching Astro Coupon we will email the Admins on your Astro Account and we will generate a pop-up that will great you upon signing into your Astro Account as an Admin.
You will always have at least 1 Week or more to decide whether to Accept or Decline a Pending Coupon.
If you do not see the following pop-up on your Astro Account, check the following.
- Make sure you are logged into your Astro Account as an Admin User. This is most likely the original User that was created when you first registered for Astro.
- If you have a Multiple-Location Astro Account make sure you are logged in as a Master Admin associated with your Primary/Parent Location.
- Click the ASTRO logo located at the top left of your header menu beside Frequent Buyer. This will bring you back to the main landing screen, where the pop-up lives.
To proceed to the Coupon click the Click Here to Review button on the pop-up.
If you have a Multi-Location account only Master Admins associated with the Parent/Master Account will see this pop-up upon logging in to Astro. There currently is no way to opt-out at some locations and opt-in at others. So if you, as a Multiple Location Account decides to Accept the Pending Coupon, all of your stores will therefore Accept the Coupon.
Coupon Details while Pending
Upon clicking the Click Here to Review button on the Pending Coupon Notification Pop-up you will find yourself on the following screen. Or by going to Offers > MFG Sponsored Coupons. Click on the blue title of the Coupon to open it's details.
To the right you will see the number of coupons issued, which in this case translates to 1 coupon per customer, and the number of communications currently pending. Below the coupon it will state the dates between which the coupon is valid and redeemable. In the example above, the coupon will become Active on 03/05/2020 and customers have until 03/31/2020 to come into your store to redeem them.
The email communication to your customers is what launches the Coupon, so pay close attention to the date it states the coupons will be emailed. In the example above it states to the right in red " Coupons will be emailed and active on 03/05/2020". If you are viewing a Pending Coupon it means the communications are queued and ready to go out. If you Decline the coupon those communications will be halted, if you Accept they will eventually be sent on the date stated. Once those communications go out to your customers the Coupon is considered Active and you can no longer change your Decline/Accept status.
Program Fulfillment:
The distributor associated with the MFG (manufacturer) coupon will be the same distributor that you have chosen to report that MFG's Frequent Buyer Program to. If you want to change this you can by clicking the name of the distributor the coupon is currently set to report to.
Multiple Location Account: If you have a multiple-location account and several of your locations are reporting the corresponding Frequent Buyer Program to different distributors then the MFG Coupon will mirror those fulfillment selections and the coupon will report to those different distributors as well based on the location of redemption. If you need to change a Location's Fulfillment you can do so by logging into that location directly as an Admin user then going to Offers > MFG Sponsored Coupons. From there you can click on the Coupon and select the Program Fulfillment distributor for this location. 
If one of your locations was not enrolled in the Frequent Buyer Program that is related to the Coupon you Accepted then your Coupon's Fulfillment for that location will be Temporary Holding. Temporary Holding is not a real distributor so you will need to edit that Coupon's Fulfillment (see directions above in blue). This will not affect the location's Frequent Buyer enrollment for that manufacturer and they will remain un-enrolled in the Frequent Buyer program unless you decide to change that.Astro Coupon Details
Here you will see the number of coupons that are pending. In most cases coupons are issued one per customer, and this number will more than likely be less than your total number of customers. The coupon will tell you why these customers were chosen for this coupon, and the coupon can only be issued to these customers.
Export Customers
Below the number of pending coupons there is a link to Export Customers. Clicking this link will generate an excel file that lists your specific customers who will be sent the Astro MFG Coupon on the Coupon's start date. The export will include the Location name, location's City, location's State, the customer's First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Coupon Code (they are unique to each customer), the Coupon Status and the distributor Fulfillment option currently chosen for each location.
Example of export:
Coupon Status per Customer
- Pending - Decline or Accept has not been selected and the start date for the coupon has not yet approached.
- Ready - Accept was selected and the start date for the coupon has not yet approached.
- Declined - Declined was selected. If a coupon was Declined the status will say Declined whether or not the start date of the coupon has passed.
- Active - The Coupon is fully Active and is redeemable by that customer. A coupon activates if Accept was selected, or Decline was not selected prior to the date of Activation.
- Redeemed - The Customer has redeemed the coupon.
If you want to run your own campaign using the Marketing Suite please make sure that you are only contacting the customers on this list since they are the only ones invited to participate. Remember, these coupons are targeted so they were designed to either thank existing customers or to welcome back former customers of a particular brand.
Export Product List
The items promoted in the coupon will influence your decision as to whether or not your store will be able to participate. The Coupon will list out most of the items included, but to see the full list you may need to click
Export Product List. This link will be at the very bottom of the list of items visible below the Coupon so you may need to scroll down to see it.
Preview Communication Email:
You can view the email that is sent out to your customers under Coupon Details, if you choose to participate in the Coupon.
A pop-up will appear were you can read through the email prior to being sent out.
There are two possible options while a coupon is still Pending, Accept or Decline. Make sure to select one of these options before the coupon is active.
How to Accept a Pending Coupon:
1. Go to Offers > MFG Sponsored Coupons. Or upon clicking the Click Here to Review button on the Pending Coupon Notification Pop-up you will find yourself on the following screen.
2. Click on the blue title of the coupon to expand its details you would see the following.
3. To Accept the Coupon click the green Accept Coupon button.
On your MFG Sponsored page, it will the show that the Coupon has been accepted.
Once Accepted, on the Coupon description page the "Accept" button will no longer be available and only show Back or Decline.
As long as your Coupon is Pending you still have the option to Decline the Coupon.
Once that start date arrives you will not longer be able to change a Coupons status from Declined to Accepted or from Accepted to Declined.
How to Decline a Pending Coupon
1. Go to Offers > MFG Sponsored Coupons. Or upon clicking the Click Here to Review button on the Pending Coupon Notification Pop-up you will find yourself on the following screen.
2. Click on the blue title of the coupon to expand its details you would see the following.
3. Click the red Decline button to opt out.
4. This will generate the following pop-up where you can choose a reason for declining the coupon. You have two choices, ( 1 ) I do not stock this product or ( 2 ) Other. Once you have your reason selected you can select I wish to decline. If you changed your mind you can click I do not wish to decline to return to the coupon.
When you decline a coupon the MFG will be contacted and given your reason. At this point your MFG rep may reach out to you to offer you some support, or to find out exactly why you were not interested in participating and possibly see what they can do in the future to make their coupons more enticing to you and your customers.
Once your Coupon has been Declined all pending communications are halted and the coupon's status will be Declined.
How to Opt-In After Initially Declining
You cannot opt-in or opt-out after a coupon goes live. So if you change your mind, you must take action right away.
When you expand the details of a coupon that has been declined, you’ll see that the status says 'Coupon Declined.' However, if the coupon hasn’t launched yet, you still have the option to change your mind and opt back in. Just click the green link that says 'Click Here to Accept' located above the 'Coupon Declined' message.
Additional Info
Once the end date of the coupon has passed it will no longer show up under MFG Sponsored Coupons just like an expired Astro Offer no longer shows up under your list of Enrolled or Available Offers.