Promotion Manager

[jim]

Ok, I'll try to post at least one new topic per week. I think the Promotion Manager is one of the tools with more potential but I know it's not easy to set up.

I'll give you a brief description and then you can post your questions about it.

The promotion manager is located under the Marketing menu on the administration panel. To create a new promotion you only have to enter the basic information Name, Description, Start and End Date for the promotion.

Once the promotion is created you're taken to the details page. On the first section you have to specify the "total uses" and the "uses per customer", these are pretty clear but remember that both need a value higher than 0 in order to make the promotion work.

Then we have the "Promotion Rules" section where we specify when the promotion applies or what does the order requires to receive the promotion. We can require a coupon code or just apply it automatically, you can also restrict the promotion to a particular customer group, and you can specify a minimum number of items or a minimum amount in order to get the discount. With the Categories and Products you can specify what products the customer have to buy in order to receive the promotion, not necessary the products that they will get the discount on.

On the last section "Promotion Offers" is where you actually specify what the customer gets with this promotion. The discount can be a dollar amount or a percentage, if it's a dollar amount then it can apply per item. With the Category and Products fields you specify on what items they'll get the discount, this is different to the products and categories on the previous section (i.e. "Buy any Monitor and get 5% off on accessories" so the Monitors category goes on the Rules and the Accessories category goes on the Offers. The promotion could also give you Free Shipping or a Free Product.

If you leave the products and categories blank then the promotion will be store-wide.

With this you should be able to create a promotion for Wholesalers only (customer group) with the coupon code MARCH05. "Buy more than $100 from the Monitors Category and receive 5% off on any item from the Accessories Category".

The new promotion is ready but it won't be active until you go to the main promotions page and check the ENABLED checkbox.

[mueller]

Jim, very helpful post.

In looking at this and the shipping admin page I was wondering if the only way to set up free shipping for orders over a certain dollar amount for say retail orders only (not wholesale) is through the promotion manager, or if this can be set up on the shipping page?

Also, if the free shipping for a specific price level should be done in the promotion manager, what dates would you use to make it active perpetually? Would I just set it from today to some far off day in the future? If this is the case it seems like a check box for a perpetual promotion would be a nice addition.

[materialpleasures]

Hi Jim,
Is there a way to show the promotion, or do we have to add it ourselves on the paes we want...
For example, I have running a sale on Beaded Appliques and Trim...I created the promotion, enabled it, and did a test, the discount comes off in the cart.
Is there a box to check to advertise the promotion...or do I need to go to the home page and update it manually, and the category manually?
Thanks,
Dana

[dynoJean]

If the promotion is for a free product for every order over a certain amount, how do I get the freebie to show up in the cart on both the view cart and checkout pages? Now when it goes over my amount, the free product doesn't show up.
Thanks,

EDITED: Ignore the above, I had a later begin date which explains why it didn't show up --my bad!

The free item now shows up in the cart on the view cart page with Valid Promotions listed below the cart. Why would there be a "remove" button there? Would someone actually remove a free gift or discount?

[jim]

Originally Posted by mueller

In looking at this and the shipping admin page I was wondering if the only way to set up free shipping for orders over a certain dollar amount for say retail orders only (not wholesale) is through the promotion manager, or if this can be set up on the shipping page?

Also, if the free shipping for a specific price level should be done in the promotion manager, what dates would you use to make it active perpetually? Would I just set it from today to some far off day in the future? If this is the case it seems like a check box for a perpetual promotion would be a nice addition.

When the Free Shipping depends on the Order Amount and/or the Customer Group then the best way is to do it as Shipping Option. If more conditions are required to get the Free Shipping like certain amount only on specific categories or between specific dates, then you should create it is as a Promotion.

J

[mueller]

When the Free Shipping depends on the Order Amount and/or the Customer Group then the best way is to do it as Shipping Option.

I am trying to set up a free shipping option for a Customer Group based on Order Amount. e.g. Free shipping for Wholesale (customer group) for orders above $100. I understand how to set the range for the amount, but I can't find anywhere to set the Customer Group this applies to.

[dynoJean]

Jim:

We can require a coupon code or just apply it automatically, you can also restrict the promotion to a particular customer group...

My free product for orders over $50 is for regular retail shoppers. If I set it up for "None" in the customer group, the discounted Reseller Group and the Wholesale Store groups will also get the free product and they shouldn't.

Instead of restricting it to a particular customer group, I need to restrict it from two groups. A coupon code won't work because new shoppers won't know that.

I think I need a way in Customer Groups to choose which promotions they are eligible for. Any way to do this?

[mueller]

My free product for orders over $50 is for regular retail shoppers. If I set it up for "None" in the customer group, the discounted Reseller Group and the Wholesale Store groups will also get the free product and they shouldn't.

You are definitely correct about this and it appears to be a bug. If you need to create a Retail Customer Group and assign a Promotion to it to keep it from working with a Wholesale Discount Group, then new problems would be encountered.

The problem that immediately comes to mind is that a new customer who registers during checkout will automatically be added to the None customer group and would not receive the Retail discounts they should be eligible for. If you register by going to www.your_domain.com/register.asp you will notice you can select what type of account you are registering for. The problem is if you have a retail and wholesale Customer Group then the user will see a default of "Customer" in the list box and if the other options would be "Retail" and "Wholesale". This is confusing to the user and us because you now essentially have two retail customer groups.

What we need is the ability to get rid of the "Customer" option and have all people who register either through the register.asp page or during the checkout process end up in a "Retail" customer group which we would define as the default group in the admin panel. This would remove all of the problems with regard to two retail groups and would allow the assigning of Promotions, Shipping Methods, etc. to this group, knowing exactly what you were getting. I guess this could be done by checking a box in the admin which would say "This site is a Retail and Wholesale site". Once checked you would then loose the None option and everyone would have to be assigned to a group which is the way it should work to ensure that proper price levels, discounts, etc. are applied properly. Having a "None" group to deal with is a bit odd and considering we cannot change it, disable it, etc. it creates a big hole in the work flow.

One of the reasons I switched to 3dCart was the Wholesale Retail functionality. I had never seen a solution that attempted to deal with this like 3dCart. Now after working with it a bit I realize that it is an amazing start that 3dCart should be commended on, but the work flow is missing a bit and needs to be fixed.

Just my $0.02