Promotion codes, or coupons, can be applied to the entire order, specific items, or specific item categories.
Before you begin: Important information
Review the following important information before you begin creating promotion codes:
- Only one promotion code can be applied per cart checkout.
- Promotion codes for new member joins or renew in advance are supported but are not yet supported for renewal invoices.
- Promotion codes cannot be applied to existing invoices, including those created using Pay Later.
- Promotional codes can be applied to charitable events and products but cannot be applied to donations (where donor selects or enters an amount).
Tip! For information on membership promotion code, see Membership promotion codes.
You must be a staff user with an Orders: 5 module authorization level to create a promotion.
Creating promotion codes
Do the following to create and manage promotion codes:
- Go to Commerce > Promotions.
- Click the Add a new promotion icon (
). - Enter a Promotion name. This name is for internal use and should use a naming convention that takes advantage of sorting group discounts together. This allows for simple promotion management.
- Enter a Promotion code. This is the code that will be shared externally with your customers to provide the discount.
- Enter availability dates in the Promotion available fields, unless you want your code to never expire.
- For What kind of promotion is this?, decide whether the code will apply to the entire cart or to specific items or kinds of items that might be in the cart. Discounts can only apply to sales products, event registration options, and event program items.
- Discount applies to entire order: Currently, this percentage discounting applies to every order line in the cart to which discounts apply.
- Discount applies to specific item(s): The discount will only apply to the specific items you select. Click the Add item icon () to select an item and define a new item discount, either percentage or fixed amount.
- Select the Item category from the drop-down, then choose the individual items to which you want the discount to apply.
- For event discounts, choose the Event Function category and select each individual registration option and program item to which the discount should apply.
- For promotions regarding membership products, choose the Chapter, Dues, Section, or Subscription categories. Promotion codes for new member joins or renew in advance are supported but are not yet supported for renewals.
- Discount applies to specific item categories: The discount will apply to the entire category. Click the Add item icon () to select an existing category and define a new category discount, either percentage or fixed amount.
- To apply the discount to event registration fees, choose the Event category. Your events must have registration options defined in order to apply this discount.
- To apply the discount to event program items, choose the Event Function category.
- To apply the discount to an entire registration including registration fees and program items, choose both the Event and the Event Function categories.
- To apply discount to membership products, choose the Chapter, Dues, Section, or Subscription categories. Promotion codes for new member joins or renew in advance are supported but are not yet supported for renewals.
- Discount based on quantity purchased: The discount applies to specified event registration options and program items when a defined number of these items are purchased.
- Required
purchase
- Make a selection from the Which purchases qualify? drop-down:
- Items in the same cart
- Items for the same registrant
- Items billed to the same customer
- Items billed to a customer in the same organization
- Enter a value to define the Quantity required to qualify.
- Add the program item or registration option to the Select event functions that qualify as a purchase for this discount table. These event items will count toward the quantity required to qualify. However, this does not apply to event program items and registration options that allow multiple quantities per registrant.
- Make a selection from the Which purchases qualify? drop-down:
- Discounted items:
- Enter a value for Quantity discounted. Leaving the field blank allows for unlimited discounts regardless of the quantity in the Cart.
- Add the registration options and program items that will receive a discount when the required purchase is met (Select event functions that receive a discount if the required purchase is met). Choose the Discount Type and Discount Amount.
Registration options and program items that allow multiple quantities per registrant do not qualify.
- Limit usage (cannot be used with Apply promotion automatically): Enable this option to restrict usage of promotion codes to the following parameters:
- Maximum cart uses per customer: Enter a value to limit the number of times a customer can use the promotion during check out, not the quantity the code may be applied against. Also assign a maximum number of times that a given customer may apply this promotion in the cart.
- Maximum cart uses overall: Define a value to limit the number of times the promotion can be used by anyone. For example, a value of 20 means the promotion has a lifespan of 20 uses. This applies to the number of times a customer may check out using a promotion code, not the quantity the code may be applied against. Also assign a maximum number of times that this promotion may be applied in the cart across all customers.
- Minimum cart total: The number defined is the amount, equal or greater, that must be added to the cart before the promotion can be used.
- Qualified customers: The Qualified customers query must be configured with the following filter and display properties:
- Filter tab:
- Add only one ID property with In Search? set to Required.
- No optional filters.
- Additional filters are allowed, as long as In Search? is set to No.
- Display tab:
- An ID property with an Alias of ID.
Important! The Qualified customers query must be stored in the $/Commerce/DefaultSystem/Queries/Promotions folder. If the query is stored elsewhere, the promotion code will not function correctly in the cart, and an error will be logged indicating that the system could not find the specified query.
- Filter tab:
Note: Each cart with a promotion applied may contain multiple line items, which counts as only one usage. If a cart contains both event registrations and commerce purchases, that is considered to be two usages of the promotion.
Note: Each cart with a promotion applied may contain multiple line items, which counts as only one usage. If a cart contains both event registrations and commerce purchases, that is considered to be two usages of the promotion.
Tip! Assign a minimum line item total that must be included in the current cart (excluding discounts and additional charges) in order to apply the promotion.
Note: Billing product promotions are not supported by this option.
Note: By default, the cheapest item in the list of eligible items will be discounted.