Product Promotions

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Introduction to Product Promotions for Stores

Promotions used by many types of businesses are similar to price rules. As they are defined in opentaps Promotions can be used to record special promotional offers which apply to an entire order, or to special pricing for a particular product, or a particular customer. For example, you can set up rules to give customers free shipping or a percentage discount if they purchase a minimum quantity. Many styles of promotional offers are possible.

Often, a business will design a few types of promotions, test them carefully for the results obtained, and then offer them from time to time on different products, to specific customers, or at certain store locations. Because creating Promotions is somewhat technical in nature, like writing a program, and because Promotions need to be tested before they are widely deployed, it is advisable to concentrate on careful development of Promotions.

Promotions are defined in the Catalog Manager, Promotions page, and they are then applied to specified Stores in the Promotions page > [Stores] tab, or alternately in the Store page, Promos Sub-Tab. In this section we will discuss how Promotions are defined in the Catalog Manager. (Also, in the Stores section of this User Guide, we will discuss the alternate way promotions are selected and applied to a Store.)

To access Promotions from the Main Navigation screen, 
Click: [Catalog] Icon > [Catalog Manager Application] drop down menu >
         [Promos] link.
The Promotions page opens to "Find Product Promos" screen displaying a list
of currently defined promotions, and a [New ProdPromo] button for creating
new promotions.

Defining Product Promotions

The guide to creating or editing a Product Promotion follows:

In [Catalog] > [Catalog Manager Application] > [Promos],
Click: [New ProductPromo] button, to create a new Promotion, or 
Enter: "Product Promotion Code ID" in the box, and Click: [Edit] or 
Click: "Product Promotion ID" in the "Product Promotions List" box
To open a screen for editing (or creating) a Product Promotion.

The screen which opens corresponds to the [Catalog] > [Promos] > [Promotions] Sub-Tab and it provides for editing these data fields as needed:

• Promo Name -- Name you give to the Promotion being defined
• Promo Text -- Promotion text to display to the Customer
• User Entered --
• Promo Show To Customer -- Show the Promotion details to the Customer Y/N
• Req. Code -- Does this Promotion require use of a Promotion Code from the Customer?
• Use Limit Per Order -- How many times can the Promotion apply to one Order?
• Use Limit Per Customer -- How many times can one Customer use this Promotion?
• Use Limit Per Promotion -- Will the Promotion expire after some number of uses?
• Billback Factor --
• Override Org Party Id -- Specify an Organization Party ID for accounting (different from your Company ID).

Click: [Update] to save your changes.

Now you can proceed with editing in the other Sub-Tabs of [Catalog] > [Promos].

Using Promotion Rules

Preparation of Promotion Rules is technical, like programming, and rules must be carefully tested before being deployed for Customers. It is beyond the scope of this User Guide to address the detailed preparation of new Promotion Rules, or the modification of the Promotion Rules which accompany the opentaps Demo Data that is available for installation.

For more information about the topic of preparing and testing Promotion Rules please refer to the Technical Reference Manual section Preparing Product Promotion Rules and the Testing Manual section Testing Product Promotion Rules.

Creating Promotion Codes

When the Promotion will require Customers to supply a Product Promotion Code in order to receive the offer, it is necessary to create and use Promotion Codes in the [Catalog] > [Promos] application. There are three ways supplied in [Promos] to address the subject of Promotion Codes.

To access Promotion Code functions from the Main Navigation screen,
Click: [Catalog] >  [Promos]
Either Select a Product Promo ID from the "Product Promotions List" box, or
    Click: [New ProductPromo] and create a Product Promotion, then save it.
On the [Edit Product Promos] screen which is open, 
Click: [Promotion Code] Sub-Tab

The "Find Product Promotion Code" screen opens displaying existing Promotion Code IDs in the list box, and providing three ways to create Promotion Codes, and a way to edit existing Promotion Code information. Once Promo Code ID's are created they appear in the list of existing codes, in the "Find Product Promotion Code" box, which is a list box without a Search function.

New Promotion Codes can be obtained in the following ways:

WARNING: Promotion Code IDs will be saved and displayed for a particular
Product Promotion, ONLY if the following items are selected:
    Req. Code = Y
    User Entered = Y
Otherwise Promotion Code IDs may be created but they aren't saved for use. 

• Create One Code Manually -- Enter a Promotion Code manually

Click: [New Promotion Code] button
Product Promo Code Id -- Enter the desired code manually, or
                      -- Leave blank to auto-generate one unique promo code
Product Promo Id -- Select the Promotion ID to use with this new code
                    from the drop down list
User Entered -- Select Y/N to specify User entry of the Promo Code ID number
Require Email Or Party -- Select Y/N for a required User identification for
    this Product Promo, User must provide their ID
Use Limit Per Code -- How many times can this Promo Code ID be used?
Use Limit Per Customer -- How many times can one Customer use this Promo Code ID?
From Date -- Start date for using this Promo Code ID
Thru Date -- Last date for using this Promo Code ID
Click: [Update] to save the Promo Code ID 

• Create One Code Automatically -- Create one Promotion Code automatically

Use the procedure described above, leaving the Promo Code ID field blank.
One code will be generated automatically when you Click: [Update].

• Create Code ID Sets Automatically -- Specify that a set of codes be created automatically

Enter the following items in the "Add Set of Promotion Codes" box,
Quantity: -- Enter the number of codes to generate
User Entered: -- Select Y/N for User entry of the Promo Code ID
Req. Email or Party: -- Select Y/N for User ID required
Use Limits: Per Code -- Enter number of times the Promo Code ID can be used
            Per Customer -- Enter number of times a customer can use the Code
Click: [Add] -- to create the specified set of codes.

• Upload Set of Codes -- Upload a set of Promotion Codes, you have generated elsewhere, in a file.

Using the "Upload Set of Promotion Codes" box,
Click: [Choose File] and select the file to upload from your operating
       system file browser box.
User Entered: -- Select Y/N for User entry of the Promo Code ID
Req. Email or Party: -- Select Y/N for User ID required
Use Limits: Per Code -- Enter number of times the Promo Code ID can be used
            Per Customer -- Enter number of times a customer can use the Code
Click: [Upload] -- Uploads the file to your opentaps system.

Excluding A Product From Promotion

Sometimes it may be required to run a Product Promotion, but to exclude a particular product from the Product Promotion and it's Rules calculations.

The following reference article explains how to exclude a product from your Product Promotion:

 Please refer to: Exclude Product from Promotion