DBC: Coupons

Overview

Back-Office Controls

From your new distributor admin site, you can navigate to the Checkout section and select the Coupon Codes option. In the image below, you can see the default settings that you can control for the coupon types. For each of the three coupon types, you can select a default charge code to use. For DB/d, this allows you to select which special charge code should be used when the charge is passed into DB/d. For EQ/d, you can select a product code that should be used when the special pricing is passed to EQ/d.

You also have the option of determining if the discount should be sent to the back-office system as a “debit only” or as a “debit and credit”. When sending as a “debit only”, it is sent as a true discount, which will result in a lower invoice amount. If it is sent as a “debit and credit”, it will be sent for reporting purposes, but will also send a reversal amount to go along with it, which will result in an invoice for the non-discounted order amount.

On the next page, you can see that in addition to the distributor defaults, you can change the defaults for a specific customer, or even at the coupon-level if needed.

At the company-level, if you click on the Override Distributor Settings checkbox, you will have the option of changing the default charge code and transmission type based upon the type of discount for any single client. Additionally, you will be presented with a list of coupons that have been created on the customer site. You can click on the edit icon next to any existing coupon if you need to change the charge code or transmission type for any specific coupon. Note: those are the only two fields that can be modified from this area. The other fields related to the coupon must be managed from the Manage Coupons area of the customer site.

Coupon Creation

A customer admin user can create Coupons on the customer site by clicking on the Manage Coupons option in the Control Panel/Admin Settings once the navigation option has been enabled. (You can enable this nav option either at the group level in Work With Groups > Nav Permissions on the customer site or at the company level in Site Defaults > Company Default Nav Permissions.)

If you have existing coupons, they will be listed here, where you can view their basic information, activate, and deactivate them as needed, or click on the Details link to review their full details. To setup a new coupon, you’ll need to click the Create a New Coupon Code link at the top, which will then prompt you with a simple box to enter in the new coupon code:

Enter in the coupon name, and then click on the Add Coupon button to create the new coupon code. You will then be prompted to enter in the coupon details, as shown on the next page.

The following data will then need to be entered:

• Description – A description of what the coupon will be used for.
• Start Date – The date that the coupon will become active. This can be set to the current date to become instantly available or set to a future date if you are creating this in advance.
• Expiration Date (Optional) – If the coupon expires, you can enter the date here. This will make it so that you do not have to come back later to manually deactivate the coupon.
• Status – The coupon can be activated or deactivated at any time.
• Discount Type – Choose from one of the following options:
  • Flat Amount – When choosing this option, you will be prompted to enter in the flat dollar amount of the discount.
  • Percentage Off – When choosing this option, you will be prompted to enter in the percentage amount, which will be calculated against the net sale of the user’s shopping cart to calculate the coupon value (discount amount).
  • Free Shipping – When choosing this option, the coupon code value will be equal to any freight and handling charges that are calculated on the order. You will have the option of having this coupon apply to all shipping methods, or you can select to apply it only to individual shipping methods, which will prompt you to select one or more of the available shipping options on the site.

Once those details have been entered, you can then designate if the coupon only applies if the order reaches a minimum amount. Checking this box on will present you with a field to enter in what the minimum net sale amount needs to be.

A User Association section is available where you can specify if the coupon is available to all users, or only specific groups. If choosing the Individual Groups option, you will be presented with a list of user groups where you can select one or more groups the coupon will be available to.

An Item Association section is available where you can specify if the coupon is valid for all items, specific catalogs, or only individual items. If choosing the Catalogs or Individual Items options, you will be presented with a catalog listing or item listing to choose the catalogs or items that the coupon can be applied to. Note: when an option besides All Items is selected, having any invalid items in the cart will result in the user being unable to use the coupon.

The last section available in the details is the Usage section, where you can see which users have used the coupon, and on which orders.

User Experience

At checkout, the user will be able to enter in a coupon code. Entering in a valid coupon will give them a message that it was applied, and the discount amount will be shown.

If the coupon code is not accepted, they will receive a message that will indicate why the coupon was not applied.