Benson is back: the short version
The original discount extension blocker relaunches to show stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions, and what they cost.
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In short
London, 4 October 2026. Benson, the original discount extension blocker, relaunches today at trybenson.com. It shows online stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions, what they cost, and lets merchants hide, cap or replace them. Its long-term aim is to make extensions and agents play by the rules, so merchants can work with them instead of fighting them.
The founder#
Doug Silkstone has spent 15 years building products and growing businesses. He started on the paid search team at vouchercloud, one of the UK's top three affiliate publishers, where he watched coupon extensions take commission meant for other affiliates.
"Internally we called it the Honey Hoover. A shopper would find a brand through a review or a creator, then a pop-up at checkout would claim the last click and the commission."
Doug Silkstone, founder of Benson
Doug now runs his own affiliate publisher, which partners with official brands and gives them control of how their discounts appear online.
Back after Shopify closed the checkout#
Benson first launched in August 2022, removing coupon extension pop-ups with one script tag. When Shopify closed its checkout to scripts in 2024, Benson's checkout protection stopped working and the product stalled.
Coupon extensions didn't go away. A December 2024 investigation into Honey led to creator class actions, and in January 2026 Rakuten Advertising, impact.com and Awin removed Honey from their networks. Meanwhile AI shopping agents now read product pages, fill carts and try codes on a shopper's behalf.
"I'm back, and I'm not taking no for an answer."
Doug Silkstone
What Benson does#
- Labels every session as a person, a coupon extension, an AI agent or automation.
- Shows how agent traffic converts and how many codes it tries, and caps code attempts. Detection and agent analytics are free on every plan.
- Hides extension pop-ups by rule, with an observe mode first.
- Lets stores run their own coupon assistant for a fixed monthly price instead of commission.
- Measures every change against a holdout.
It installs with one script on Shopify and other platforms, and there's a Free plan.
What comes next#
"Discount extensions will always exist, but they'll start to play by the rules. Benson is here to police them, and to help both sides understand the value each one brings. In an ideal world Benson wouldn't need to block anything."
Doug Silkstone
Doug sees the same questions arriving with AI agents. Stores can't always tell whether a session is a person, a person with an extension, or a bot buying for someone. They will have to decide whether to expose more data, change their pages or give agents clearer instructions: conversion rate optimisation for bots.
Doug also builds Benson largely with agents of his own. "I have the same 24 hours in the day as everyone else," he says. "Now I can hand a lot of the work to agents and spend my time on the hard problems."
Read the full release.
Interviews and partnerships#
Doug is available for interviews, podcasts and comment on coupon extensions, affiliate attribution and AI shopping agents. Benson is looking to partner with performance and affiliate agencies, e-commerce brands, and extension and agent builders.
Contact: [email protected]
About Benson#
Benson shows online stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions and what they cost, then lets them hide, cap or replace them with a holdout behind every change. It first launched as getBenson.com in 2022 and relaunched at trybenson.com in October 2026.
