How do Coupons Work? When the customer goes to order from a site with coupons
enabled, there is an extra box in the secure shopping cart on the
payment methods page.
The customer can enter the coupon code in that box. If they have entered
a valid coupon number, the coupon discount will be shown in
any display where they see the entire order.
If there are no coupons active on your site,
this input box is not displayed.
Want everyone to know about your coupon? If you want
all visitors to your site to see that there
is a coupon available, when you create your coupon, there is an option
where you can enter some text thatwill be displayed on all your inventory
pages. If you don't provide any text
in this option, then no one will know about the coupon other than people
that you tell by other means (special mailing, etc.) This allows you to do
(in effect) 'private' coupons. Why do this? One use for a private coupon would be to give
a one-time discount to a special (or dissatisfied) customer. Or perhaps offer
a short-time discount to a special mailing list when you have new things. The choice is yours!
How do they work? Coupons are actually just inventory items with a negative value.
The are in a special category named 'coupon' and are set up with a status of 'hide-order', which means
that they don't appear to customers, but that they can be ordered. This category is invisible to you;
you can only add things to it with the coupon maintenance module.
Coupons cannot be applied to existing orders; once it has been accepted, the
coupon methods do not work. If you need to apply a discount (say $10 off or %10), calculate what
the amount is, Then in order maintenance (this is the program that is invoked when you click on
the order number when it is underlined -- the title of the page will be 'modify order'), add a line item to your orders with the negative value
of the discount that you want to give. Give the discount some neat name ('Special discount for xxxxx') because
the customer will see it and remember it!
NOTE: Coupons based on the number of items, specific items, progressive discounts
and or product categories are not supported coupon methods at this time.
How do I Create a Coupon? The coupon feature is automatically active on your site.
You get to it from the promotional tools menu. Click on the option to create coupons and then on the
'Add Coupon' button. You'll have the opportunity to enter:
