Discounting

[webbyduck]

Hi. I am trying to launch my company's first foray into eCommerce. I have everything set up and ready to go, except for the discounting.



The Discount

Basically we are offering numerous products all at the same base price, x. For the discounting, we have two scenarios. If the customer buys 3 or 5 products (can be various products or the same product), instead of paying 3x or 5x, the customer will pay 3x-15% or 5x-15%.



The Process

I have configured the discounts using the minimum item total, but there is no maximum item total so the discount doesn't turn off after the minimum is reached. Next I tried using a discount code, but the code is still applied once you exceed the minimum. Same problem.



The Dilemma

I can probably live with the discount being applied to orders of 4 products, but for anything over 5, my boss wants the person to either pay the full price or call to arrange bulk order discounting as well as other incentives. He can also upsell the client on other products that might also interest them. If the discount just gets blindly applied to all orders over 5, there is no incentive for the client to call.



The Question

It appears the only recourse I have left is to implement a variant, essentially coding in the bundled discount for each product item. The problem is that the variant seems to apply to individual products sold in multi-packs of the same product, whereas our scenario allows for cross-product bundling. Anyone have any ideas on how to work this type of discounting given the limitations of e-junkie? If there were a maximum item option, it would solve the whole problem, but there isn't.



Thanks!

[E-junkie_Guru]

There is a way of setting a maximum qty/total, in the sense that discounts with higher minimums override lower ones.



E.g., you could create a discount for 15% off the item total when Min. Items in Cart = 3, then create another discount for 0% of the item total when Min. Items = 6, which would override the first discount. Leave the Discount Code field blank if you want the discounts to be applied automatically, and make sure you give each discount a unique Discount Name (since that's what we use to keep track of which discount is which).

[webbyduck]

I just tried this, and it doesn't work. There is no override of any sort on items between 3 and 5 when I set the 0% discount to min 4 items, and it continued to add the 5-item discount to the cart when 6 or more items were in it. Is there anything else I can do?



In the interim, so I don't have to keep delaying our launch, I will just change our language to apply a flat 15% discount to all item totals over 3.

[webbyduck]

Well, you had said allowing the 15% discount on orders of 4 items would be acceptable, so my instructions were intended with that in mind for simplicity's sake. If you really wanted to make an exception for 4-item orders, you'd need to add two more discounts: one for Min Items = 4 applying 0% discount, and one for Min Items = 5 applying 15% discount.



I had a look at your current discount settings, and I suspect the reason your 6-item override discount isn't working is because it has no Min Item Total threshold, whereas your other discounts do use that settings, so I suspect this is tripping up the logic that determines which discount trumps which.



If you either remove the Min Item Total thresholds from your other discounts, or add one to your 6-item override discount, that should solve the problem. Then you'd just need to add another 0% override discount for 4-item orders -- remember to give that a unique Discount Name, since creating a new discount with the same Name as an existing discount would only replace that existing discount with the new one.

[E-junkie_Guru]

You had said allowing the 15% discount on orders of 4 items would be acceptable, so my instructions were intended with that in mind for simplicity's sake. If you really wanted to make an exception for 4-item orders, you'd need to add two more discounts: one for Min Items = 4 applying 0% discount, and one for Min Items = 5 applying 15% discount.



I had a look at your current discount settings, and I suspect the reason your 6-item override discount isn't working is because it has no Min Item Total threshold, whereas your other discounts do use that setting, so I suspect this is tripping up the logic that determines which discount trumps which.



If you either remove the Min Item Total thresholds from your other discounts, or add one to your 6-item override discount, that should solve the problem. Then you'd just need to add another 0% override discount for 4-item orders -- remember to give that a unique Discount Name, since creating a new discount with the same Name as an existing discount would only replace that existing discount with the new one.

[webbyduck]

I added a minimum item total to the 6-item override, and it worked. Thank you for helping with this!

[teachwithgames]

I added a discount 100% for a group of 10 people. it worked for 4 people.



Then today I added a tangible product that I did not want included in the discount. I messed things up and then the discount changed so everyone got 100% off, then I deleted the discount.



Now I put the discount back up for 5 more people and it says 'invalid discount code.' What am I doing wrong? How do I set it up for 5 more people? I would like to apply it to downloads only...is that possible?



chris/teachwithgames



ps. Is this where I am supposed to ask this question?

[E-junkie_Guru]

I'm not sure what you mean about setting up discounts for X number of people? If you're referring to the Max Use Count setting, that just limits how many times a discount can be used at all, so e.g. if you set Max Use Count = 10, that discount could be used once by 10 people, or 10 times by one person, or twice by 5 people, or any combination of people using that discount a total of 10 times among them.



The only way to have a discount that each buyer can use only once would be to use a list of Discount Codes with Max Use Count = 1, then issue each buyer their own unique code to claim the discount. If you leave the Discount Codes field blank, that would apply the discount automatically to every order that meets the Min Item Qty/Total thresholds you set for that discount.



If you want to limit which products qualify for a discount, you would need to set up a separate discount for each specific product. Make sure you give every discount a unique name, as that's what we use to keep track of which discount is which. You can give multiple discounts the same discount code, so buyers would need to enter that code only once to claim every discount that applies to the items in their cart.



P.S. Normally to ask a new question that doesn't really continue an existing discussion, you'd just start a new discussion at the bottom of the main topic page here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/forum/2

[upjp]

I need to apply a discount to the first two of a certain item but not to additional quantities of that item. I've tried creating two discounts as above (one with 10 off with min qty 0 and one with 0 off with 3 or more qty) with the same discount code and get the response "Discount code already exists!".



Alternatively, is there a way to add items to a cart using a discount code? For instance, a free item would be added to the cart with the use of a promo code.



Thank you.

[E-junkie_Guru]

This help page explains how our discount settings work:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.discounts.htm



To have the discount applied automatically to orders that meet its Min Item Total/Qty threshold(s), just leave the discount code field blank. Bear in mind that if you create a discount for All Cart Items, the Min. Item Qty would count all items in the cart, but if you make it a product-specific discount, the Min. Item Qty. would only count the number of units of that particular product in the buyer's cart.



Make sure you give each discount a unique Discount Name, since that's what we use to keep track of which discount is which. We don't have any way of creating a discount code that adds an item to the buyer's cart.