Configure Discounts

This guide explains how to create a new discount and the different types of discount settings, as well as provides examples of common discounts and how to configure them. For more information about how this page displays discounts in a folder hierarchy and allows you to manage existing discounts, see Discount Folders.

Create a Discount

To create a new discount:

1. Go to Main > Marketing > Discounts.
2. Select the desired catalog you want to make the discount for in the top of the page.
3. Click Create New Discount. 

Within the editor that opens, you can configure various settings for the discount by following the steps outlined in the next sections of this guide. To edit an existing discount, simply click the discount in the table displayed on the Discounts page and you will be able to update these configurations.

General Settings

The General settings specify the framework of the discount, such as the discount name, the type and amount of the discount, and what part of the purchase the discount applies to. Note that some options, such as the subscription and stackable discount configurations, may not be displayed depending on your implementation.

To configure a disocunt:

1. Toggle whether you want the discount to be immediately enabled or not. If you are editing an existing discount, you can use this toggle to manually enable/disable a rule that was deactivated or activated by a campaign.
2. Toggle Available for Public API if you want this discount to be accessible by your storefront and other custom code. If not public, then the discount will only be accessible to the storefront via secure endpoints by users with Discount Read behaviors. See the API documentation and guide for more details.
3. Enter a Name for the discount. 
4. Enter a Code for the discount. 
5. Specify a Start and End date for the discount.  If the discount is enabled and the start date is left blank, it will be immediately activated. If you leave the end date blank, the discount will never expire.
6. Choose whether the discount Applies To:
   • Line Item: The discount applies to the price of a line item(s) in the order. Line item-level discounts are useful when you want to apply the discount to specific products in the order, or when you want to provide granular shipping discounts for specific products.
   • Order: The discount applies to the subtotal of all items in the order. Order-level discounts are useful when you want to apply the discount to all products in the order.
7. Choose whether the discount Affects:
   • Product: The discount applies to the cost associated with products in the order.
   • Shipping: The discount applies to the cost associated with shipping the order.
8. Choose a discount Type and enter the Amount Off:

   Discount Type	Example
   Percentage	Subtract 20% from a particular cost.
   Amount	Subtract $10 from a particular cost.
   Free	Provide free shipping or a free product. Note: This type does not display when the discount applies to the whole order.
   Fixed Price	Provide shipping or a product at a certain cost. Note: This type does not display when the discount applies to the whole order.
   Auto-Add Free Product	Automatically adds a product to a shopper's cart and sets the product's price to free. Note: To view this option, you must set the Applies To field to Line Item and the Affects field to Product.

9. If you want the discount to only be applied on specific sites, then select those sites from the Exclusive Sites drop-down list. These options are limited to the sites associated with the same catalog you are creating the discount in. If this field is left blank, then the discount will be able to apply to all sites of the catalog.
10. If subscriptions are enabled on your tenant (not shown above), select whether the discount applies to One-time sales only or Subscriptions only. One-time sales are standard discounts that can be applied to regular orders, while subscription discounts can only be applied to subscriptions and their continuity orders. 
    • Selecting Subscriptions only will cause additional subscription configurations to appear, where you can select the required frequency (for item-level discounts) or continuity order (for order-level discounts) at which the discount can be applied. For more details about these subscription-specific options, see the Subscriptions documentation.
11. If you want it to be stackable with other discounts, toggle Stackable on and select the discount layer at which this discount is applied to. Layers help the system determine which discounts can be stacked together.
12. Enter an optional Description of the discount. You can display this description to shoppers if you customize your theme to include this functionality.
13. Enter Discount Labels if you want to use additional tags to differentiate and organize your discounts. 

After you configure these initial settings, the following options display: Discount Conditions, Target Criteria, Attribute Conditions, Message Conditions, and Discount Limitations. Continue with those steps to finish configuring the discount.

Discount Conditions

The discount conditions determine what must happen before the discount applies. For example, you may want the pre-discounted order total to exceed $50 dollars before you apply a discount, or you may want the shopper to purchase at least three clothing items before you allow them to use a coupon. If you do not want to apply a condition, leave it blank. All discount conditions are optional.

In the case of competing discounts, such as when a shopper has a subtotal of exactly $100 in their cart and applies for a discount that gives 25% off when they spend $100 or more as well as a discount that gives 50% when they spend $100 or less, the discounts compete for the best deal. In this case, the order would be 50% off.

1. Specify the pre-discounted subtotal that must be in the shopper's cart in order for the discount to apply (Minimum Order Amount) and/or the pre-discounted subtotal that the shopper's cart must not exceed in order for the discount to apply (Maximum Order Amount). When both of these criteria are used, then it will create a range in which the discount is valid.
2. (Optional) Select products that you want to exclude from the pre-discounted minimum and/or maximum order subtotal.
3. (Optional) Select product categories that you want to exclude from the pre-discounted minimum and/or maximum order subtotal.
4. Specify if you want the shopper to use a Required Payment Method for the discount to apply. You can only select from payment types that belong to the site(s) within your current catalog. If a catalog has a single site attached to it, payment types only for that site will be displayed. If a catalog has multiple sites and a payment is common across two or more of them, the option will only be displayed once in the dropdown but it can be applied across both sites.
5. (Optional) Specify if you want the shopper to meet a Minimum Lifetime Value Amount for the discount to apply. For example, you may want to apply a discount when a shopper spends a cumulative amount of $500 or more since the opening of the customer's account.
6. Click Add to specify which customer segments the shopper must belong to for the discount to apply. For example, you may want to create a discount for employees or students. To create new customer segments, use the Customer Segments page located at Main > Customers > Customer Segments. Refer to the Customers for more information about creating customer segments.

The next section of Discount Conditions, titled Purchase Requirements, changes depending on your selections. These options are detailed below - all of the following settings are optional unless otherwise noted.

After you have selected your discount conditions, move on to the Target Criteria section.

Target Criteria

The target criteria specifies the details of what the discount applies to once the discount conditions are met. For example, you may want to provide a free bracelet (target criteria) if a shopper purchases more than $100 of your products (discount conditions). Or you may want to provide 15% off the entire order (target criteria) if the shopper purchases products during a sale period (discount conditions).

For line item discounts, if multiple discount conditions apply but there is a restriction on the number of redemptions, then you can specify whether the discount applies to the highest-priced qualifying product(s) first providing the shopper with the most value. For example, you have a buy one get one free discount on water bottles that shoppers can redeem once per order. A shopper buys two different water bottles and one model costs $8 while the other costs $6. In this case, if you specify for the discount to apply to the highest-priced qualifying product first then the shopper receives the discount on the more expensive $8 model.

After you have selected your discount conditions, move on to the Message Conditions section.

Attribute Conditions

Attribute conditions allow you to configure logic based on custom attributes that have been enabled for discounts. This gives you more flexibility in how discounts can be applied, such as offering discounts to Harvard alumni based on whether an "alumni" attribute is set to "Harvard." Customer, B2B, order, and location attributes are supported for use in discounts.

1. In the Attribute Conditions sections, click Add.
2. Select an Attribute Type (B2B, Customer, Order, or Location) from the drop-down menu.
3. Select the attribute you want to add from the Attributes drop-down menu.
4. Select the Operator Type.
5. If you select a comparison operator, another field will appear where you should enter the value that the attribute should be compared to. For example, you may set the operator type as "greater than" and the value as "2."
6. Click Add. This attribute and its selected logic will now be displayed in the Attribute Conditions table.

Message Conditions

Message conditions specify rules which must be met before a threshold message will display. A threshold message notifies a shopper of a discount and what they need to do to qualify for it. For example, you have a discount that applies to orders totaling $75 or more. You set up a threshold message to display to shoppers to notify them of the discount and the dollar amount of products that they need to add to their order before they can qualify for the discount.

This feature requires changes to your core theme. Ask your theme developer to make the required changes to your theme to enable this feature, as detailed in the GitHub pull request.

1. Specify if you want to display a threshold message for this discount.
2. Specify the dollar amount that the shopper's order must exceed before the threshold message displays.
3. Specify if you want the message to display on the cart page, checkout page, and/or whether the shopper needs to enter a coupon code to view this message.
4. Enter the message you want to display when the shopper meets the conditions for the message.

Discount Limitations

Discount limitations provide rules for the use of discounts, in addition to the discount conditions you already configured. For example, you may want to limit shoppers to using a discount only one time, or limit the discount to $50 worth of value. You may also want to require that shoppers enter a coupon code to receive the discount. If you do not want to apply a discount limitation, leave it blank.

1. Specify a Max Discount Value (Per Redemption). For example, you have a Buy One Get One Free discount on potted plants. However, you limit the max discount value per redemption to $30. In this case, a shopper who buys a $35 potted plant must pay $5 for the second plant.
2. Specify a Max Discount Value (Per Order). For example, you have a 40% sale on all products. However, you limit the max discount value per order to $100. In this case, a shopper receives the discount only for the first $250 worth of goods in their order.
3. Specify a maximum number of Total Redemptions that applies across all of a customer's orders. For example, you have a 10% discount on five distinct items in your store. However, you limit the max number of redemptions to three. In this case, shoppers receive the discount on all five items if they purchase all the items with their first order. However, if a shopper purchases the items one at a time in separate orders to space out purchases, they receive the discount only on the first three orders.

   If a maximum amount of redemptions is set here at the discount level, then the discount will only work when the shopper is logged into their customer account. If you want a discount to be available for guest shoppers, you must leave this option blank and instead set the maximum redemption amount on the coupon set.

4. Specify a limit of Max Redemptions (Per Order). For example, you have a 10% discount on five distinct items in your store. However, you limit the max number of redemptions per order to three. In this case, a shopper who purchases all five discounted items in one order receives the discount on only the three most expensive items.
5. Choose if you want to require Coupon Codes. If you chose to require a coupon code, the shopper must enter the coupon code once they meet the conditions of the discount in order to receive the discount. You can either create a single coupon code or multiple codes using a coupon set. If you choose multiple codes, select the coupon set for which you want to associate the discount with. Refer to Coupon Sets for more information about coupon sets.
6. (If applicable) If you required a coupon code, enter a desired Coupon Code or have the system suggest one for you. 
7. Specify whether the Discount can be redeemed one time per shopper.

   If a maximum amount of redemptions is set here at the discount level, then the discount will only work when the shopper is logged into their customer account. If you want a discount to be available for guest shoppers, you must leave this option disabled and instead set the maximum redemption amount on the coupon set.

8. It is very important to consider whether discounts should apply to orders that contain multiple destinations. The Discount will not apply on multi ship orders checkbox disables the discount on any orders that contain multiple destinations.

   Certain discounts should never apply to orders that contain multiple destinations. For example, consider a discount that takes $10 off shipping on orders of $100 or more. On a site that has multiple destinations enabled, a shopper can purchase three items collectively worth over $100, and then choose to ship each item to a unique address. If there was only one destination to ship to, this discount would have taken $10 off shipping one time, but because there are three shipments, the discount will take $10 off three times. In this case, you would want to use the checkbox to disable such a discount on orders that contain multiple destinations. For more information, refer to the topic on multiple addresses.

9. Select to exclude product discounts from applying on top of this discount.

   This field and the following two fields may not display depending on the type of discount you choose to edit. This is because eCommerce applies different types of discounts in the following order: line item product -> line item shipping -> order product -> order shipping. As a result, your options for excluding other discounts will change depending on what type of discount you choose to edit. For example, if you edit a line item product discount, you will see more options for discounts to exclude because line item product discounts are applied first when eCommerce calculates a product's price. However, if you edit an order product discount, you will see fewer options for discounts to exclude because eCommerce will have already applied any valid line item product and line item shipping discounts before it checks the settings for an order product discount.

10. Select to exclude line item shipping discounts from applying on top of this discount.
11. Select to exclude order shipping discounts from applying on top of this discount.
12. Click Save in the top right of the page to save your fully-configured discount.

Localize Discount Fields

If you have enabled multiple locales for this catalog , you can switch locales using the dropdown menu in the top right. This allows you to localize the discount name, description, and message text for that language. The discount type, application settings, target criteria, discount conditions, limitations, and other settings will not be displayed or editable, as those are only configurable on the default locale for the catalog.

Configuration Examples

Common Discount Examples

The following table lists some of the most common discounts and the configuration settings to replicate them.

Greedy Discount

You have a discount that enables shoppers to buy three shirts (Minimum Required Quantity Per Redemption set to 3) to qualify for 20% off a purchase of up to five shirts, and you set the Max Redemptions to 1 for the discount. If you enable this option and:

• The shopper buys 1-2 shirts the discount does not apply.
• The shopper buys 3-5 shirts all the shirts receive a 20% discount.
• The shopper buys 6 shirts the discount applies only to the first five shirts. To get a discount on the 6th shirt and beyond, the discount would need additional or unlimited redemptions set in the Max Redemptions field.

If you do not set the purchase requirements field to Target Only, the discount does not apply to the first three shirts in the cart but does apply to additional shirts added to the cart up to five shirts.

Discount Exclusion Examples

You may want to prevent some discounts from applying together. For example, you create a product discount named Discount A with a coupon code for $50 off Product A. You also run other discounts at the same time, for example a product discount named Discount B that gives the shopper %20 off their order. You do not want Discount A to be combined with Discount B or any other discount. 

To achieve this, you toggle the Order Product, Line Item Product, and Order Shipping Settings in the Discount Limitations configurations, indicating that Discount A should not be combined with any other discount.