You can use marketing offers as promotions or discounts to entice shoppers to purchase products from your site. You can create many types of offers, including bundle offers that tie two or more products together.
The steps required to create an offer vary based on the type of offer you create and the options you want to enable for the offer.
Before you create an offer
The following list outlines what you should consider before you create an offer. Knowing how you want the offer to behave will help you choose the correct settings in the Create Offer wizard.
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Know what kind of offer you want to create.
Example: You could choose one of the following options:
- Provide a simple discount on one or more products.
- Entice shoppers to buy a more expensive version of a product.
- Bundle two or more products together for a greater discount.
- Create an offer for a free gift or free shipping with purchase.
- Provide an offer that applies to all products within a specific category.
- Provide an offer that applies to all but just a few of your products.
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Know how the shopper will redeem the offer and how the offer will be triggered.
Example: You could decide to:
- Ensure the offers is "always on" so that any shopper who satisfies the criteria for the offer can redeem it.
- Provide a link to the offer in an email or social media campaign.
- Provide the offer in a point of promotion (POP) in your store.
- Provide a coupon code that shoppers can use to redeem the offer.
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Decide how many times individual shoppers or all shoppers can redeem the offer.
Example: You could decide to:
- Restrict how often individual shoppers can redeem the offer.
- Restrict how many times the offer can be redeemed in your store by all shoppers.
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Decide how to communicate or present the offer to shoppers.
Example: You could decide to:
- Use a banner add or POP to inform shoppers of the offer. Note that some offers require that you use a specific POP. See Type for more information.
- Use email or a social media campaign to promote the offer.
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Decide what locales the offer will support.
Example: You could choose to:
- Restrict the locales where shoppers can redeem the offer.
- Display localize the content of the offer for your supported locales.
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Decide what, if anything, will the offer discount.
Example: You could choose to:
- Discount all products or selected products
- Discount the price of a product by either a specified value or a percentage off the list price.
- Discount the shipping costs associated with the product.
Choosing the offer type
The offer type determines how the offer behaves and the settings you need to define for the offer. There are two main types of offers: offers that Offers that discount product cost or order total, and offers that Offers that discount shipping costs (for products or the entire order).
Note: Some of the offer types listed here may not appear when you create an offer if you did not set up your site to use them. See Configuring offer types for more information on how to set up offer types for your site.
Offers that discount product cost or order total
The following table describes the scenarios where you want to provide a discount on the product or order cost. It also provides the appropriate offer type for each scenario.
| You want to... | Offer Type |
|---|---|
| Discount on one or more products in your catalog or a category in your catalog. | Discount |
| Encourage the shopper to buy another product in addition to the one they already selected. | Cross-Sell |
|
Encourage the shopper to buy another version of the product instead of the one they already selected. Example: Upgrading to the "professional" version from the "standard" version. You usually use this offer type when your products consist of different versions at different price points. |
Up-Sell |
| Provide a discount when a shopper purchases one or more specific products. | Bundle |
| Allow the shopper to choose one or more products from different groups of products that may provide unique discounts and may have different purchasing rules. | Custom Bundle |
|
Provides a discount on one product when a shopper purchases any other product. |
All Products Bundle |
| Allow the shopper to choose two or more products from a selected list of products to get a discount. | Shopper-defined Bundle |
| Give the shopper a free or discounted product when they purchase another product. | Buy M, Get N |
| Provide a discount if a shopper orders a specific quantity (and discount does not change). | Discount |
|
Display an offer on a specific place in your store. |
Banner |
|
Encourage shoppers to purchase one of a select group of products "featured" on a specific place in your store. |
Feature Products |
Offers that discount shipping costs (for products or the entire order)
The following tables describe scenarios where you want to provide a discount on the shipping costs for a product or order. It also provides the appropriate offer type for each scenario.
Note: Some of the offer types listed here may not appear when you create an offer if you did not set up your site to use them. See Configuring offer types for more information on how to set up offer types for your site.
Discount shipping for any product
| You want to provide free or discounted shipping when... | Shipping Offer Type |
|---|---|
| A shopper purchases any product from your catalog or from a category in your catalog. | Individual Products |
| A shopper purchases any product from your catalog or a category in your catalog and the requests the order be sent to a specific country. | Individual Products + Shipping Destination |
| A shopper purchases any product from your catalog or a category in your catalog and uses a specific shipping method. | Individual Products + Shipping Method |
| A shopper purchases any product from your catalog or a category in your catalog and requests the order be sent to a specific country and uses a specific shipping method. | Shipping Individual Products + Shipping Method + Shipping Destination |
Discount shipping for the entire order
| You want to provide free or discounted shipping when... | Shipping Offer Type |
|---|---|
| Shopper purchases specific products. | Shipping Product Present |
| A shopper purchases a specific product and requests the order be sent to a specific country and uses a specific shipping method. | Shipping Product Present + Destination + Shipping Method |
Discount shipping for specific products
| You want to provide free or discounted shipping when... | Shipping Offer Type |
|---|---|
| A shopper purchase a specific number of a specific product. | Shipping Product Quantity |
| A shopper purchases a specific number of a specific product and requests the order be sent to a specific country and uses a specific shipping method. | Shipping Product Quantity + Destination + Shipping Method |
| The shopper requests the order be sent to a specific country. | Shipping Destination |
| The total value of all products in the order meets or exceeds a specific amount. | Shipping Order Value |
| The total value of all products in the order meets or exceeds a specific amount and shopper uses a specific shipping method. | Shipping Order Value + Shipping Method |
| The total value of all products in the order meets or exceeds a specific amount and the shopper requests the order be sent to a specific country. | Shipping Order Value + Destination |
|
The shopper uses a specific shipping method. Example: UPS, USPS, or FedEx. |
Shipping Method |
Other settings
The following table describes scenarios that show you how to choose the right settings for your offer to ensure that your offer behaves as expected.
| You want to... | Settings | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Add a shipping discount to your Discount offer type. (This is different than creating a shipping offer.) | Shipping Cost Discount | The discount offer type allows you to add a shipping discount in addition to the discount the offer normally provides. The discount offer type is the only product offer type that allows you also add a shipping discount to the offer. |
| Add a description of the offer that appears in the Shopping Cart. | Offer Description in Cart | The description you enter appears in the shopping cart when the offer can be redeemed with the order. |
| Restrict how many times the offer can be redeemed (by all shoppers in your store). | Offer Controls | None. |
| Restrict how many times an individual shopper can redeem an offer. | Offer Controls | You can only restrict a shopper's use of an offer if the offer uses the promotional URL or coupon code trigger. |
| Control what locales can redeem the offer. | Supported Locales | None. |
| Control when the offer is valid (how long the offer can be used). | Start and end dates | None. |
| Provide a discount on the product price that changes based on how many of a product is ordered. | Tiered discounts |
You can only use tiered discounts for the product price with the following offer types: |
| Provide a discount on the order total that changes based on how many of a product is ordered. | Tiered discounts |
You can only use tiered discounts for the order total with the following types:
|
| Create an offer for a Private Store. | Offer Controls |
Offers can only be made available to Private Store shoppers if you: |
How to create an offer
Required Role: Merchandising Manager
This Global Commerce user role allows users to create and manage marketing offers, tracking programs, and storefront links. The role also allows the user to import and export offers and preview the store. and Merchandising Discount Manager This Global Commerce user role allows users to create and manage marketing offers, tracking programs, and storefront links. The position also lets users import and export offers and preview the store.
- Select Marketing, select Offers and Programs, and then click Create Offer. The Type step on the Create Offer page appears.
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Complete the fields in the Type step.
- See Choosing the offer type for information on the type of offer you should create depending on what you want the offer to do.
- See Configuring the offer type for information on the panes and fields.
- See Configuring offer types if you need to create a new offer type.
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See the following topics for more information on creating specific types of offers:
- Click Next. The Behavior step appears.
- Complete the fields in the Behavior step. See Defining how the offer behaves for information on the panes and fields.
- Click Next. The Products and Pricing step or Pricing step appears.
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Complete the fields in the Products and Pricing step or Pricing step. See Associating products and pricing with the offer for more information on the panes and fields.
If you are creating a custom bundle offer, see Custom bundle offers for more information.
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Click Next. The Display Content step appears.
If you are creating a custom bundle offer, see Custom bundle offers for more information.
- Complete the fields in the Display Content step. See Configuring the offer's content for more information on the panes and fields.
- Click Next. The Review step appears.
- Complete the fields on the Review step. See Reviewing the offer for more information on the panes and fields.
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Click Finish. One or more of the following messages appear:
- If you are creating a coupon code offer, click Yes when prompted to add a coupon code, and then complete the fields to add the coupon codes.
- When a message appears asking you if you want to deploy the offer now, click OK to create and deploy the offer or click Cancel to just create the offer. You can deploy them when you want them to appear on your site. Shoppers will not see the offer on your site until you deploy the offer.
Note: Once you complete the Create Offer wizard and save an offer, you cannot change the type.