Get started with promotions
Optimizely Configured Commerce includes a sophisticated promotions engine that allows for the creation and management of complex promotional incentives that can be applied to customer orders. These promotions can be applied automatically to customer orders or triggered by a promotional code entered by the customer during the checkout process. Promotions or incentives are not just a great way to drive new traffic to your site, they can also play a big role in keeping your existing customers coming back.
Note
If a sales representative provides a price quote on a product, any available promotions cannot be applied. If promotions are applied prior to submitting a quote request, the promotions will be removed.
Construct promotions
Promotions consist of two major components, Promotion Rules and Promotion Results. Think of Promotions as an "IF/THEN" statement for customer orders. Promotion Rules represent the IF and Promotion Results represent the THEN portions of the statement. Therefore, IF a customer order satisfies the Promotion Rules, THEN Promotion Results are applied to the order.
Promotion rules
Promotion Rules define a set of criteria that a customer order must meet in order to be eligible for the promotional incentive. These rules can be simple, such as applying the promotion if the customer order contains a specific product or if a promotional code was entered. Or, combine promotion rules using AND/OR statements to create a series of complex conditions, such as applying the promotion if the customer order contains a specific product, the order total is over $100, and the order is shipped via FedEx Overnight to Minnesota. Promotion rules also can limit a promotion to specific customers or a maximum number of uses.
Rule groups
Rule Groups allow promotion rules to be grouped into parenthetical AND/OR statements to qualify or disqualify orders from receiving the promotion. Rule Groups execute in the order they are displayed on the page. To change the Rule Group order, click within the Rule Group and drag it to the correct order position.
Simple promotions without multiple promotion rules do not require multiple Rule Groups. However, Rule Groups are necessary when creating complex promotions with many promotion rules.
Promotion results
Promotion Results are the actions or incentives applied to a customer order if it meets the promotion rules. Generally, promotion results consist of incentives, like free or discounted products or shipping. However, discounts also can be given at the order level (such as dollar amount or percentage off the order total).
There are three different types of promotion results:
Product/Orderline level promotion results
- Add Free Product
- Discount Product
- Set Product Price
- Discount Products in Category
- Discount Products of Vendor
- Discount Products with Price Code
- Order level promotion results
- Discount Amount Off Order
- Discount Percent Off Order
- Shipping level promotion results
- Discount Amount Off Shipping
- Discount Percent Off Shipping
For more information, review the Promotion Result Type Descriptions article found at: Promotion result type descriptions
Note
If a customer enters a promotion that results in a higher price than what's on file for them, their set, lower price applies.
Allow one or multiple promotions
Choose to allow either single or multiple promotions for a given transaction, defined at the website level in the Admin Console.
Note
If you want the promotions to show on the Cart page, set the Show Tax & Shipping Amount in Cart setting to Yes. If this is set to No, promotions show when the customer clicks Checkout.
If Allow Multiple Promotions is set to Yes, multiple promotions are allowed, and each applicable promotion registers when a customer goes to the cart. If the promotions have Promo Codes, the customer may enter each code on the checkout page; if the promotions do not have Promo Codes, they register automatically when the customer accesses the Cart page.
When multiple promotions are allowed:
- Product/Orderline level promotions only allow one promotion per orderline. The qualifying promotion that provides the best deal is applied to each orderline.
- When an Order qualifies for multiple Percentage Off Order or Shipping Level promotions, the percentages are totaled and then applied. For example, if a $100 order qualifies for one promotion that takes 10% off and another promotion that takes 20% off, it does not apply the 10% off and then apply the 20% off; it applies 30% off to result in $30 off.
- When an Order qualifies for Percentage Off and Amount Off promotions, the percentages are totaled and applied and then the amount off is applied to that result. For example, if a $100 order qualifies for one promotion that takes 10% off and another promotion that takes $10 off, it takes 10% off and then subtracts $10 to result in $20 off.
If Allow Multiple Promotions is set to No, the system reviews the promotions for their Rank. Rank is a numerical field assigned to the promotion. When the website searches for a promotion to apply to the cart, it starts at the lowest rank number (0), and continues searching up the ranks until it finds a matching promotion. Since only one promotion may be applied to the order in this instance, the website stops searching once it has filled the promotions slot.
If Allow Multiple Promotions is set to No, and a user enters a Promo Code after a ranked promotion has been applied, the Promo Code promotion overrides the ranked promotion.
Allowing single or multiple promotions can be configured by website on the website's Details tab. The Allow Multiple Promotions toggle is set to Yes by default; click the toggle to change it to No.
Promotion activation and deactivation dates
Promotions can automatically be activated and deactivated at a pre-specified date/time. This lets you create promotions ahead of time and schedule them to be activated when your incentive campaign begins. Additionally, this functionality enables promotions to be automatically deactivated precisely when the incentive campaign ends or outside of normal business days/hours (such as New Year's Eve at 11:59PM) when an employee may not wish to manage the site manually.
Note
The Activate on field does not act as a timer and will not automatically set the promotion to Live.
When a customer enters a promotion code that has passed its Deactivate On date, the system displays the Promotion_Expired application message. The default text is "Promotion has expired." Customize this message under Administration > System > Application Messages.
Promotion codes that do not match any existing promotion display the Promotion_InvalidCode message.
Promotion rounding
Modify the Setting Promotion Rounding Level to change how Order level percent off promotions are applied. Select Order to apply the percent off to the order subtotal, OrderLine to apply the percent off to the OrderLine extended price, or UnitPrice to apply the percent off to the product unit price. This Setting does not apply to Product or OrderLine level promotions, as they are calculated and applied to the product's Unit Price.