Work with promotions

Current version: 9.3

Promotion management consists of two main elements:

  • Promotion books - A promotion book contains a collection of individual promotions, which can apply to sellable items, catalogs, or customer shopping carts. A promotion book can apply to products in one or more catalogs, making the promotions available for particular customer segments.

  • Promotions - A promotion is a set of qualifications used to apply benefits to a customer order. For example, to promote a specific product you offer 50% of the cart total when the customer buys the Optix camera. You can add any of the following parameters to a promotion:

Before you create promotions, review the prequalification filters and rules that are used to prequalify promotions before they are evaluated.

Note

To work with promotions, you must be assigned the Promotioner or Promotioner Manager user role. The only exception is when you are approving or rejecting promotions, or extending an active promotion, in which case you require the Promotioner Manager role.

Search for promotions

Using the Business Tools search feature, you can search for a promotion book or a promotion. For a promotion book, you can search on name and display name. For promotions, you can search on name, display name, approval status (for example, IsApproved:true), as well as Valid from and Valid to dates.

To search for a promotion book or a promotion:

  1. In Business Tools, in the left pane, click Promotions.

  2. In the Search section, in the Term field, enter the term you want to search for.

  3. Optionally, in the Filter field, enter a field or property to further refine your search.

  4. Press Enter or click the Search button.

Create a promotion book

The Promotions dashboard displays a list of promotion books in alphabetical order.

To create a promotion book:

  1. To open the Promotions dashboard, in the left pane, click Promotions.

  2. In the Promotions Book section, click +.

  3. In the Add dialog box, in the Name field, enter a name for the new promotion book. The display name and description are optional.

Note

Once you create a promotion book, you cannot delete it.

Associate a catalog with a promotion book

You can associate a promotion book with multiple catalogs, but you can only associate a catalog with one promotion book. If a catalog is already associated with a promotion book and you associate it with a different promotion book, this automatically disassociates the catalog from the first promotion book. You must associate a promotion book with a catalog before you can associate any sellable items with the promotion book.

To associate a catalog with a promotion book:

  1. In the Catalogs section of a promotion book details page, click Associate.

  2. From the Catalog Name drop-down list, click the catalog you want to associate.

Create a promotion

You must create a promotion book before you create a promotion.

To create a promotion:

  1. On the Promotions dashboard, in the Promotions Books section, click the name of a promotion book.

  2. On the promotions book detail page, in the Promotions section, click +.

  3. In the Add dialog box, enter a name, the dates and times that the promotion is valid for, the display text, and the display cart text. The display name, description, and if the promotion is exclusive are optional.

    Note

    If the Is Exclusive check box is selected, only this promotion applies to the shopping cart. If multiple cart level promotions can be applied to the order (for example, if they fall within the same validity period), the exclusive promotion with the earliest Valid From date is applied.

Important

The Commerce Engine evaluates Cart level exclusivity and line item level exclusivity separately, and it always evaluates and applies line item promotions first. If you define exclusive promotions both at the cart level and at the line item level, (and both promotions are within a valid time period), only the first exclusive promotion is applied.

Add a sellable item to a promotion

You can add individual sellable items to a promotion, instead of having a promotion be applied to a full catalog.

To add a sellable item to a promotion:

  1. On the promotion details page, in the Items section, click +.

  2. In the Add dialog box, in the Item Id field, enter an Id for the sellable item you want to apply the promotion to, such as Remote. The drop-down list shows all of the sellable items that use the term. Select the item that you want to apply the promotion to.

  3. Click the check mark to save your changes.

Add a qualification to a promotion

Qualifications are conditions that a customer order must meet for a promotion to apply to it. These can include:

  • Product qualifications (such as "Is the item In stock?")

  • Cart qualifications (such as "Is the item available?")

  • Cart line qualifications (such as "Is the cart contact registered?")

  • Shopper qualifications (such as "Is the contact registered?")

  • Shopper history qualifications (such as "Did the current customer purchase an item with a specific tag?")

  • Environment qualifications (such as "Is current day?")

  • Shop context qualifications (such as "Is this related to a specific shop name?")

You can add multiple qualifications to a promotion, so the first condition you select may trigger additional conditions that you can select.

To add a qualification to a promotion:

  1. On the promotion book details page, in the Promotions section, click the name of a promotion.

  2. In the Qualifications section of the promotion details page, click +.

  3. In the Add window, select a condition from the drop-down list.

  4. Click the check mark to save your information. New fields are displayed in the Add dialog box.

    Note

    Once you have saved your selected condition, you cannot change it.

  5. In the Add window, from the Condition Operator drop-down menu, select And or Or.

    Note

    The And condition operator means that an order must meet all conditions for the promotion to be applied to it. The Or condition operator means that an order can meet any single condition for the promotion to be applied to it.

  6. Click in the Condition field and select a condition to apply to the sellable item.

  7. Enter all required parameters and, in the Item Id field if it is available, enter the sellable item information in the format of Catalog Name|item ID|Variant ID. If there is no variant of the sellable item, the information must be in the format of Catalog Name|item ID.

Add a benefit to a promotion

Benefits are the discounts that are applied to a customer order as the result of a promotion. For example, free shipping, or 50% off the order total. You can add multiple benefits to a promotion.

To add a benefit to a promotion:

  1. On the promotion book details page, in the Promotions section, click the name of a promotion.

  2. In the promotion details page, in the Benefits section, click +.

  3. In the Add dialog box, click in the Action field, and click a benefit from the drop-down list.

  4. Click the check mark to save your changes.

Create a public coupon

You can create a public coupon, which is a discount code that can be used by any customer. It can be used multiple times with separate orders. Public coupons are frequently created for promotions that are publicized through social media, or displayed on the storefront, category, or sellable item pages. Using public coupons is optional.

To create a public coupon:

  1. On the promotion details page, in the Public Coupons section, click +.

  2. In the Add dialog box, enter a coupon code.

Create and allocate a private coupon

You can create a private coupon, which is a discount code that you assign to a single customer. You can specify how many private coupons you want to create and how many of these codes are allocated to a specific promotional campaign. After a private coupon is created and allocated, you can download an Excel document that contains the codes for each allocation. Using private coupons is optional.

To create and allocate a private coupon:

  1. In the promotion details page, in the Private Coupons section, click +.

  2. In the Add dialog box, enter a prefix, a suffix, and the total number of the private coupons available.

  3. Click the check mark to save the information.

  4. On the promotion details page, in the Private Coupons section, click the name of the private coupon.

    The Private Coupon summary page opens.

  5. In the Allocations section, click + to open the Allocate dialog box, and then, in the Count field, enter the number of coupons to allocate to this campaign.

  6. Click the globe icon to generate the private coupon codes and save them as an Excel file (the Excel file with the generated coupon codes is saved to your Download folder).

Request approval

You must submit your draft promotion to the approval workflow before it can become active on the storefront.

To request approval of a promotion:

  1. On the Promotions dashboard, click the name of a promotion book.

  2. On the promotion book summary page, in the Promotions section, click the name of the draft promotion you want to submit for approval.

  3. In promotion Details section, click the drop-down menu, and then click Request Approval.

  4. Click the check mark to save your change.

    The promotion goes from the Draft status to the Ready for approval status. You cannot edit a promotion that is ready for approval.

Approve or reject a promotion

As a promotion manager, (a user with the Promotioner manager role assigned), you can approve or reject a promotion submitted to the approval workflow. If you approve the promotion, it becomes actives on the configured start date. If you reject the promotion, it returns to the draft status.

To approve or reject a promotion:

  1. On the Promotions dashboard, click the name of a promotion book.

  2. On the promotion book summary page, in the Promotions section, click the name of the promotion to approve (the status should be Ready for approval).

  3. In promotion Details section, click the drop-down menu, and then click Approve to approve it, or click Reject to return it to a draft status . (You can optionally provide a comment or reason for rejecting the promotion).

    Note

    You can also change the duration of the promotion by clicking Edit End Date before approving the promotion.

  4. Click the check mark to save your change.

Change the duration of an active promotion

As a promotion manager, you can change the duration of a promotion that is already active on the storefront by changing its end date. For example, you can extend the end-date of the active promotion, or you can modify it to end sooner than currently configured.

Note

This change affects the duration of a promotion that is currently active on the storefront and requires the Promotion Manager security role.

Important

The Commerce Engine stores date and time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) standard. When a Business Tools user views a promotion, the Business Tools application converts the promotion's validity dates from UTC to the user's local time zone. The Business Tools application always displays time and date in the business user's time zone.

When you edit a promotion's end date, always consider the time zone in which the promotion was created. If a promotion was created from a different time zone, you must factor in the time difference between your time zone, and the time zone of the promotion creation, and set a new end date accordingly.

To extend the duration of an active promotion:

  1. On the Promotions dashboard, click the name of a promotion book.

  2. On the promotion book summary page, in the Promotions section, click the name of the promotion you want to change.

  3. In the Details section, click the drop-down menu, and then click Edit End Date.

  4. In the Edit End Date dialog box, in the Valid To field, click the calendar icon, and set a new promotion end date (optionally you can also specify a time).

  5. Click the check mark to save your change.

Note

You can also change the promotion end date when approving the promotion.

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