Coupon discounts

A coupon discount is a discount which is triggered when a specific, non-unique value is entered into a custom order field during checkout. Coupons are a simple and useful way to make customers visit a shop – hopefully leading to more sales down the line.

Coupon discounts can easily be limited to apply only to some products or trigger only above a certain threshold – in this case we will make it a condition that the total order price should be in excess of $15 before the coupon can be applied (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 A coupon

Coupons are triggered when the coupon code is entered into a field during checkout – so we will create a custom order field for that purpose:

  • Go to Settings > Ecommerce > Orders > Order fields
  • Click New order field in the toolbar
  • Provide a value for Name, System name, and Template tag – we suggest Coupon
  • Set the field type to Text 255
  • Save

The coupon field will be used when creating the discount, to define how the discount is triggered.

Discounts are rich objects, with many possible configurations and tweaks – the trick is to go in with a clear idea about what you want to accomplish and then do only that.

In this case we want to create a $5 OFF order discount, which triggers for orders above $15 when a specific code is entered into a specific field during checkout:

  • Go to Ecommerce > Discounts & Offers
  • Click on the Order Discounts node
  • Click New discount in the toolbar and open the edit discount view (Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.1 Creating the discount

Fill in the details:

  • In the general section enter a name, e.g. $5 OFF Coupon
  • In the discount section:
    • Apply as: Order discount (Exclusive)
    • Discount type: Amount
    • Amount: 5
    • Currency: USD
  • In the triggers sections, leave everything as is except:
    • Total Price: Select Greater than or equal to and enter 15 in the total price field
    • Product Quantity: Check Apply discount only once
    • Fields & Vouchers: Select the Coupons order field
    • Field value: Enter a coupon code, e.g. $5OFF

The result of this is a simple $5 discount which is triggered once for orders with a total price of $15 or above when the value ’$5OFF’ is entered into the Coupons field during checkout.