Discounts

Optimizely Commerce has a powerful and flexible feature for applying discounts to create targeted campaigns. Optimizely Commerce offers a set of standard discounts, featuring the most common setups, which you can customize to accommodate specific campaigns.

Discount colors

A discount is color-coded to help you identify its components.

• Gray. Products or categories from which purchases must be made to activate the discount.
• Blue. Discounted items.
• Green. Discount amount or percentage.

Creating a discount

Discounts are a key component of an effective marketing campaign, for example "buy 3, get the cheapest for free."

Prerequisite: A campaign. If no campaigns exist, create one.

1. Access the Discount view using any method listed below.
   • From the Campaigns view's top left corner, select Create > Discount.

     When using this option, you select a campaign then define the discount.

   • From a campaign's context menu, select New Discount.
   • While editing a campaign or creating a new one, select + New Discount.
2. Assign a name to the discount.
3. Choose a discount type. (See Built-in discounts.) The Edit Discount view appears.
4. Complete the fields using the following information, then click Save.

   Discount fields

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter the name of the discount.
   Description	Enter a description of the discount. The description only appears on this view. Use it to communicate the discount's purpose to other merchandisers.
   Banner Image	If you want to use a banner image with this discount, upload it to the Optimizely media folder, then select it here. See also: Uploading media. The image can illustrate the discount on the web page. Your developer determines how to display the banner.
   Scheduling and Status—By default, a discount's start and end dates match its campaign's dates. To change the discount's active dates, click Different start and end dates, within the campaign dates and complete the following fields.
   Available from	Select the date and time when the discount is available. The discount is active only if the shopping date/time is between the Available from and Expires on dates/times, and the Active box is selected. The time refers to local time on the Optimizely server. For example, you manage the website from Stockholm, Sweden and set a campaign to expire at 11:00 PM. Due to a nine-hour difference, for a customer in California, USA, the campaign expires at 2:00 PM.
   Expires on	Select the date and time when the discount is no longer available.
   Active	For a discount to be active, the shopping date/time must be between the available and expiration dates/times, and the active box must be selected. Active check box examples While setting up a new discount, keep Active cleared. When everything is correct, select Active, and the discount is live. An active discount is configured incorrectly. Clear Active to pause it, correct it, then select Active to enable the discount.
   Promotion codes	If applicable, enter a promotion code for this discount. Promotion codes are also known as coupons. See also: Using promotion codes.
   Discount Complete the information to define the discount. See Example: Buy three items, get cheapest free and Built-in discounts.
   This discount does not apply to these catalog items	Use this area to exclude catalogs, categories, or catalog entries from a specific discount. See Exclude catalog items from a discount.
   Redemption limits	If applicable, enter one or more redemption limits for this discount; that is, the maximum number of times a discount can be redeemed. See also: Applying redemption limits.

Example: Buy three items, get cheapest free

Assume you want to implement the following discount: If a customer buys 3 automotive accessories, the least expensive item is free. To create that discount, follow these steps.

Prerequisite: A campaign. If no campaigns exist, create one.

1. From the Campaigns view's top left corner, select Add > Discount.
2. Select the campaign to which the discount will belong.
3. Assign the name AutoAcc Buy 3 get cheapest free.
4. For Type, select Get Cheapest for Free.
5. At the Scheduling and Status area, select the discount's beginning and ending dates and whether the discount is active.
6. This example assumes that the discount does not use a Promotion code, so ignore that field. See also: Using promotion codes
7. At the Buy... at least X items field, enter 3.
8. From the top right corner of the view, click Catalogs .
9. Select Automotive > Accessories then drag and drop it to the area below from these categories/entries. See also: Selecting discount-eligible items.



10. At the Get cheapest Y for free field, enter 1.
11. Click Save.

Selecting discount-eligible items

To select discount-eligible items, drag and drop them from the catalog Commerce: a top-level container for catalog entries such as categories, products, and variants (SKUs). or click Browse.

When working in the gray area of the view, you can select:

• One or more categories Categories let you adjust the structure and range of a catalog to optimize the selling potential of products. You can use categories to search for products. You can also assign products to categories by creating relations.. Its products are eligible. Use the Include subcategories box to determine if products in selected categories' subcategories also are eligible. By default, the box is selected.
• Individual products, SKU Commerce: Stock keeping unit; corresponds to a purchasable product with specific characteristics. For example, a product line of shirts has individual variations/SKUs for sleeve size, color, and collar size., or package Commerce: a sellable unit that contains variants and/or other packages, with a single price; similar to an SKU because it must be purchased as a whole (such as a computer system)..
• Some discounts let you select a catalog Commerce: a top-level container for catalog entries such as categories, products, and variants (SKUs).. If you can, Catalog appears on the view.

  

Copying a discount

You can copy (or cut) and paste any discount to another campaign using menu options or drag and drop. You can also copy and paste a discount to its current campaign. If you do, a number is appended to its name to distinguish it from the original discount.

Impact of copying on a discount's field values

When you copy a discount, all field values from the original discount are copied to the new one with the possible exception of these.

• Status. The copied discount is inactive by default.

• Dates.

  If the scheduling value is Same as the campaign, the value is maintained, and the dates are adjusted to match the "copy to" campaign's active dates.

  If the scheduling value is Different start and end dates, those dates are copied to the new discount.

  • If one or both dates are outside of the "copy to" campaign’s date range, a warning appears next to that date. No other warning is issued either initially or if you later edit the discount.

    

    If a conflict exists between a campaign's and a discount's active dates, the campaign's active dates override the discount's active dates. For example, a campaign runs from June 1 until June 30 at midnight, while one of its copied discounts has a begin date of June 15 and an end date of July 15. As of July 1, that discount is no longer active.

Copy procedure

1. From Marketing view, identify the campaign that contains the discount that you want to copy.
2. Expand the campaign to see its discounts.
3. From the discount’s context menu, choose Copy or Cut.
4. Move to the campaign to which you want to copy the discount.
5. Select Paste from the campaign's context menu.

Editing a discount

Follow these steps to edit a discount.

1. From Marketing view, identify the campaign that contains the discount that you want to copy.
2. Click the small arrow on the left side of the campaign. Its discounts appear.
3. Hover over the right side of the discount until its menu icon appears.

   

4. Click the icon then Edit. To learn about the fields, see Discount fields.
5. Edit the desired information then click Save.

Deleting a discount

Follow these steps to delete a discount. You cannot recover a deleted discount.

1. From Marketing view, identify the campaign that contains the discount that you want to delete.
2. Click the small arrow on the left side of the campaign. Its discounts appear.
3. Hover over the right side of the discount until its menu icon appears.

   

4. Click the icon then Delete.
5. Click Save.

How Optimizely Commerce determines which items to discount

Sometimes, an order has several discount-eligible items but not all can be discounted. For example, if a customers buy 5 shirts, they get a discount on two. Or, the limit number of discounted items drop-down restricts how many items get discounted. To determine which items are discounted, Optimizely Commerce calculates the maximum customer savings.

Example

Discount: Buy at least 9 eligible items, and get a 25% discount on three. Assumes no redemption limits.

Sample order before discount

Item	Quantity	Cost per item	Item total
White shirt	5	$5.00	$25.00
Blue shirt	2	$10.00	$20.00
Yellow shirt	2	$15.00	$30.00
Total cost = $75.00

After discount

To maximize customer savings, the discount is first applied to the two most expensive items, the yellow shirts. Next, it is applied to one of the next most expensive items, a blue shirt. Since only three items are discounted, the second blue shirt is full price.

Item	Quantity	Cost per item	Line item total
White shirt	5	$5.00	$25.00
Blue shirt	1	$10.00	$10.00
Blue shirt	1	$7.50 (25% discount on 1 item)	$7.50
Yellow shirt	2	$11.25 (25% discount on 2 items)	$22.50
Total cost = $65.00

Using promotion codes

A promotion code (also known as a coupon) is an additional criterion that you can apply to any discount. A typical use case is: customers who enter promotion code CouponABC during checkout receive 10% off the order.

To apply a promotion code to a discount, create the discount as you normally do. Then, in the discount view's Promotion codes field, enter a unique promotion code.

If you create such a discount, it is activated if the customer enters the promotion code and the other discount criteria are satisfied (for example, the discount is active, date is within the active date range, eligible products are selected, and so on).

Applying redemption limits

When creating a discount, you can set redemption limits, that is, the maximum number of times a discount can be redeemed on a single order form. Set these limits on the Edit discount view. See also: Creating a discount.

There are three types of redemption limits.

• Total. The maximum number of times a discount can be redeemed across all orders and customers.
• Order. The maximum number of times a discount can be redeemed on a single order form.

  This limit is not available to discounts that apply to an entire order.

• Customer. The maximum number of times that one customer can redeem a discount. If you set this limit, the discount is not available to anonymous (not logged-in) users.

You can adjust redemption limits at any time during a campaign. If you do, it does not affect the number of redeemed discounts.

Combining redemption limits

You can set a redemption limit on the total number of discounts, or per order, or per customer. And, you can combine limits. If you set more than one, during validation, the lowest number of available discounts determines if the discount is still available. For example, a discount has three limits:

• Per discount: 500
• Per customer: 10
• Per order: 5

If a discount was redeemed 497 times, and the logged-in customer has not redeemed it yet, and the discount was not used on this order, the maximum number of redemptions is 3.

To continue the example, once the discount is redeemed 500 times, it is no longer available.

Here is another example.

• Per discount: unlimited
• Per customer: 10
• Per order: 2

If a customer creates an order and tries to apply this discount to three items, only two items (the per order limit) are discounted. The third item is full price.

Viewing the number of redeemed discounts

The Campaign View shows the current number of redemptions for each discount.