Promotions

Promotion groups

Promotions are grouped according to their type. There are three promotion groups by default:

• Catalog-entry-level promotions
• Order-level promotions
• Shipping promotions

Redemption methods

Qualifying purchase

Customers who meet the purchase conditions automatically qualify for the promotion; no promotion code or coupon is required.

Requires promotion codes

Customers must enter a promotion code to apply the promotion to their order.

For the Promotion code specification, specify either public or unique promotion codes:

• Public promotion codes can be reused by any customer, provided they know the promotion code. To create public promotion codes:
  1. Select Create public promotion codes.
  2. In the Promotion codes table, type a reusable public promotion code, for example, HOLIDAYPROMO.
• Unique promotion codes provide you the ability to prevent customers from sharing promotion codes. Unique promotion codes help ensure that only targeted customers are given discounts. To create unique promotion codes:
  • Select Simple system-generated unique promotion codes. Then, enter a prefix, code length, suffix, and the number of unique promotion codes to generate. For more information about this type of unique promotion codes, see Simple system-generated unique promotion codes.
  • Select Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes. Then, specify an advanced pattern of characters to generate promotion codes. For more information about this type of unique promotion codes, see Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes.
  • Select Using imported promotion codes. Then, find and add an existing list of imported promotion codes. For more information about using imported promotion codes, see Importing promotion codes.

Coupon promotion

Customers must possess a virtual coupon to qualify for the promotion. You can make coupons available to customers by using an e-Marketing Spot to display content that has the following predefined click action for a promotion: Add coupon to customer's coupon wallet. Another option is to create a Dialog activity that uses the Issue Coupon action to specify this coupon promotion. If the customer applies the coupon when checking out, the promotion is applied to the order. If you select the Coupon promotion redemption method, you must also enter a number in the Number of days until coupon expires field. This expiration date means that customers have a limited time in which to redeem the coupon, starting from when they receive the coupon.

Combination with other promotions

Promotion priority

Promotion states

When you change or recalculate an order, WebSphere Commerce reevaluates the order against promotions that are currently active. As a result, a promotion that applies to the order might be removed from the revised order if, for example, that promotion expires or deactivates. If you want the customer to receive the original promotion, you must manually adjust the order.

Storefront availability

To determine whether a promotion is available, the system checks the status of the promotion. If the promotion is in the Active state, then the evaluation continues. If the promotion is Inactive, it is considered unavailable, and is not evaluated. The next consideration is the schedule for a promotion. When you create a promotion, you can define start and end dates. Furthermore, when you create a promotion, you might optionally specify that the promotion is only available on one or more specific days of the week. In the same manner, you can define a promotion so that it is only available within a certain time period, such as between noon and 5:00 PM. If the current timestamp (according to the server) falls between the two availability dates, and meets the other optional scheduling criteria, the promotion is considered available. Otherwise, the promotion is considered unavailable, and the promotion is not evaluated further.

Promotion description display

The description of a promotion displays on the product display page for a particular product. The storefront JSP file that handles the display action uses a data bean to determine whether a product is entitled to a particular promotion. The data bean, however, is limited for filtering product attribute values. For instance, if a promotion applies to SKUs that contain specific attribute values, such as a medium size or red color, the promotion description can still display on the product display page regardless of which SKUs are selected for the product.

Given the limitation of this CalculationCodeListDataBean data bean, the promotion description can show up on product SKUs that do not qualify for the promotion. When a shopper views the promotion description on a product display page, the shopper can assume that the product SKU they selected is entitled to the promotion. To avoid this confusion, ensure that the promotion descriptions are descriptive enough to include any targeted attribute value conditions or customer segments. For example, instead of having a description that read: 50% off Luigi Valenti Empire Waist Slip Dress, the promotion can instead read: 50% off on Red Luigi Valenti Empire Waist Slip Dress. By including attribute value conditions in promotion description shoppers are correctly informed of the potential promotions that they are entitled to.

Applicability to customers and shopping carts

When a promotion is determined to be available, it is evaluated to determine whether it is applicable to the current shopping cart. You can target specific customers by selecting one or more customer segments to either target or exclude. If the current customer is not in the target segment, or is in an excluded customer segment, then the promotion is not applicable. If you include multiple customer segments in a promotion, the promotion applies to customers that belong in any of the segments. The customer does not need to belong in all of the segments.

You must define purchase conditions during promotion creation. These conditions might be at either the catalog-entry level, or the order level. For example, in a 10% price reduction on a catalog entry promotion, the purchase condition requires that the catalog entry is in the customer's shopping cart. If you wanted to offer free shipping on orders that total over $100, the purchase condition requires that the shopping cart total exceeds $100.

Redemption limits

A promotion is considered redeemed when a customer actually submits their order, not when their shopping cart is evaluated. If the customer later cancels their order, the promotion is still considered redeemed by that customer.

Redemption limits are often communicated to customers so that there are no surprises. For example, some promotions are communicated as being in effect, "while supplies last," while other limits are communicated directly, such as "Limit is two per customer." If you impose redemption limits on a promotion, consider including this information in the Customer viewable long description field and any advertising messages to ensure accurate customer expectations.

Multiple discount ranges

For certain promotion types, you can define multiple discount ranges for a single promotion. Defining multiple discount ranges increases the amount, or percentage of a discount as the volume of the order grows. For example, when you are creating a percentage discount on a total order, you might create a promotion that offers a 5% discount on an order that totals less than $100, but offers a 10% discount on orders that total $100 or more. You can define as many ranges as necessary for the promotion.

Advertising your promotions

You can advertise promotions by creating a web activity that uses either the Recommend Content or the Recommend Promotion action in the Management Center Marketing tool. To do so, create content that advertises a promotion and assign it to a particular e-Marketing Spot with a web activity. You can create content that ranges from simple, flat text that describes the promotion, to images with actions defined for how to respond when a customer clicks the image.