Promotions

Promotions enable you to offer customers incentives to purchase. WebSphere Commerce supports numerous types of promotions such as price promotions including simple discounts; merchandise specials such as gifts with purchase and buy one, get one; and service promotions including reduced shipping costs.

Promotions are created and managed using the Promotions tool in the Management Center.

 

Promotion groups

Promotion groups, as the name implies, group promotions according to their type. These groups have no hierarchical structure, or priority. By default, each store has three promotion groups. Promotion groups serve the following two purposes:

  1. All of the promotions within a group share a common set of promotion policies.

  2. Promotion groups are one factor that determines the order in which promotions are evaluated to determine whether they apply to the current shopping cart or order. By default, promotions are evaluated according to their promotion group in the following order:

    1. Catalog entry level group

    2. Order level group

    3. Shipping group

This table lists the promotion groups, and the promotion types that make up each group:

Promotion Group Promotion Type
Category-entry level promotions Percentage off catalog entry X
Fixed amount off each catalog entry X
Percentage off each catalog entry X
Fixed amount off subtotal of catalog entry X
Buy catalog entry X, get catalog entry Y free
Buy catalog entry X, get additional catalog entry X at a discount
Buy catalog entry X, get percentage discount off catalog entry Y
Percentage off on subtotal of catalog entries from category X
Fixed amount off on subtotal of catalog entries from category X
Fixed amount off per catalog entry from category X
Percentage off per catalog entry from category X
Buy catalog entry from category X, get catalog entry Y free
Buy catalog entry from category X, get additional catalog entries from category X at a discount
Order-level promotions Percentage off
Fixed amount off
Free gift with purchase
Shipping promotions Fixed cost shipping promotion

 

Redemption methods

You can select the redemption method associated with any promotion. The choices include:

Qualifying purchase

This option is the default. With this option selected, customers who have met the purchases requirements will automatically qualify for the promotion.

Promotion codes

This option requires that a customer enter a promotion code to have the promotion applied to their order.

Coupon

This option requires that a customer possess a virtual coupon. Coupons are frequently made available through e-Marketing Spots, which the customer clicks to acquire. When the order is evaluated, if the customer has the coupon, the promotion is applied to the order. If you select this option, also enter a number of days after which the coupon expires. This expiration date means that customers have a limited time in which to redeem the coupons.

 

Combination with other promotions

Each promotion has an exclusivity setting, called Combination with other promotions. This setting governs how the promotion should be evaluated with respect to other promotions. For instance, you can configure a promotion so that it has one of the following settings:

Combine with other promotions

Select this option to permit the promotion to be combined with all other promotions. The promotion is not exclusive. For example, a customer can receive both an order level promotion, and a shipping promotion, if they qualify.

Exclusive within selected groups

If the promotion is applied, no other promotions from the same group can be applied. Select this option to prevent the promotion from being combined with other promotions from the same promotion group. This means that if the promotion is applied to a catalog entry, the customer cannot receive any other catalog entry level promotions.

Note that specifying an order level or shipping promotion as exclusive within the selected group effectively does nothing. By default, both of these promotion groups only allow a single promotion within the group to be applied to a single order.

Exclusive within all groups

The promotion is globally exclusive, so that if the promotion is applied, no other promotion can be applied to the order. Select this option to prevent the promotion from being combined with any other promotions.

 

Promotion states

There are three promotion states:

Active

A promotion that is available to customers in the store. Any submitted orders will respect the promotions active at the time they were submitted. However, there is a possibility of a customer adding SKUs to a cart that qualify for a promotion, and that order no longer qualifying for a promotion if it is deactivated between when the SKUs are added to the shopping cart, and the order is submitted.

Inactive

New promotions are inactive by default when created. Inactive promotions are not available to customers.

Suspended

When the total maximum redemptions are reached for a promotion; the promotion state changes to suspended. For example, if a store created a promotion with a redemption limit of 1000, the next customer qualified for this promotion does not receive it. The promotion state changes to Suspended. Promotions in Suspended state can be deactivated. Note that the Suspended state displays on the Promotions List when one or more promotions are in this state.

 

Storefront availability

To determine whether a promotion is available, the system checks its status. If the promotion is currently in the Active state, then the evaluation continues. If the promotion is Inactive, it is considered unavailable, and is not evaluated. The next consideration is a promotion's schedule. When you create a promotion define availability dates, which act as boundaries. Furthermore, when you create a promotion, you might optionally specify that the promotion is only available on one or more specific days of the week. In the same manner, you have the ability to define a promotion such that it is only available within a certain time period, such as between noon and 5:00 PM. If the current timestamp (according to the WebSphere Commerce Server) falls between the two availability dates, and meets the other optional scheduling criteria, it is considered available. Otherwise, the promotion is considered unavailable, and the promotion is not evaluated further.

 

Applicability to customers and shopping carts

When a promotion is determined to be available, it is evaluated to determine whether it is applicable to the current shopping cart. You can target specific customers by selecting one or more customer segments to either target or exclude during promotion creation. If the current customer is not a member of the target segment, or is a member of an excluded customer segment, then the promotion is not applicable. You must define purchase conditions during promotion creation. These conditions may be at either the product level, or the order level. For instance, if you want to offer a 10% price reduction on a product, the purchase condition would require that the customer's shopping cart contains the specific product. In the same manner, if you wanted to offer free shipping on orders totaling over $100, the purchase condition would require that the shopping cart total exceed $100.

 

Redemption limits

You can impose limits on your promotions' applicability, called a redemption limit, in three different ways:

Maximum redemptions for this promotion

This option limits the number of times that a promotion can be used in total, by all customers. This could be used to define a loss-leader style of promotion, which limits redemption of the promotion to the first 100 qualifying orders. When the Maximum redemption limit is reached, the promotion status changes to Suspended the next time the promotion is evaluated.

Maximum redemptions on a single order

This option limits the number of times that a promotion can be used in a single order. This could be used to define a promotion, which limits redemption of the promotion to the first 5 qualifying catalog entries in an order. This option has no effect on order level or shipping promotions.

Maximum redemptions by a single customer

This option limits the number of times that a promotion can be used by a single customer. This could be used to define a promotion, which limits redemption of the promotion to a single use per customer. For example, if you had a gift with purchase promotion that offered a free tie when a customer buys two dress shirts, you might only want to allow a customer to apply this promotion once on any given order. Otherwise, a customer buying ten shirts might qualify for 5 ties.

For order and shipping level promotions with a maximum redemption of one by a single customer, the promotion is applied to the first order placed by the customer. Subsequent orders by the same customer will not qualify for the promotion.

Redemption limits are often communicated to customers so that there are no surprises. For example, some promotions are communicated as being in effect, "while supplies last", while other limits are communicated directly, such as "Limit, two per customer". If you impose redemption limits on a promotion, consider including this information in any advertising messages to ensure accurate customer expectations.

 

Minimum purchase conditions

If required, you can define multiple discount ranges (minimum purchase conditions) for a single promotion, which increase the amount, or percentage of a discount as the volume of the order grows. For example, when creating a percentage discount on a total order, you might create a promotion that offers a 5% discount on an order that totals less than $100, but offers a 10% discount on orders that total $100 or more. Another example might give $5 off shipping on orders that total $50, $10 off shipping for orders between $50 and $100, and free shipping on orders that total $50 or more. You can define as many purchase ranges as necessary for a promotion.

 

Advertising your promotions

You can advertise promotions using creating a Web activity using Management Center Marketing tools. To do so, create content which supports the promotion, and select the content when you are assigning the advertisement to a particular e-Marketing Spot. The content you create can range from simple flat text describing the promotion, to images with actions defined for how to respond when a customer clicks on them.

Web activities that raise awareness for your promotions are not tied to the promotions within WebSphere Commerce. If the expiry dates do not align, you could continue to advertise a promotion that is no longer available.

 

Changes in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator promotions and Management Center promotions

There are several changes between Promotions functionality in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator and the Promotions tool in Management Center.

The following table shows the promotion type in the Management Center and the corresponding name in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.

Promotion Group Management Center promotion type WebSphere Commerce Accelerator promotion type
Category-entry level promotions Percentage off catalog entry X Percentage off per item
Fixed amount off each catalog entry X Fixed amount off per item
Percentage off each catalog entry X Percentage off per item
Fixed amount off subtotal of catalog entry X Fixed amount off for all
Buy catalog entry X, get catalog entry Y free Free gift with purchase
Buy catalog entry X, get additional catalog entry X at a discount Buy X, get additional items at a discount
Buy catalog entry X, get percentage discount off catalog entry Y Not available in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
Percentage off on subtotal of catalog entries from category X Percentage off per item
Fixed amount off on subtotal of catalog entries from category X Fixed amount off for all
Fixed amount off per catalog entry from category X Fixed amount off per item
Percentage off per catalog entry from category X Percentage off per item
Buy catalog entry from category X, get catalog entry Y free Free gift with purchase
Buy catalog entry from category X, get additional catalog entries from category X at a discount Buy X, get additional items at a discount
Order-level promotions Percentage off Percentage off
Fixed amount off Fixed amount off
Free gift with purchase Free gift with purchase
Shipping promotions Fixed cost shipping promotion Discounted shipping

Other terminology changes between WebSphere Commerce Accelerator and Management Center include:

Management Center term WebSphere Commerce Accelerator term
Promotion group

Promotion group

  • Product level

  • Order level

  • Shipping level

Priority

A value ranging from 1–1000.

Priority

  • Highest

  • High

  • Moderate

  • Low

  • Lowest

Minimum purchase condition Discount ranges
Promotion status

  • Active

  • Inactive

  • Suspended

  • Active

  • Inactive

WebSphere Commerce Accelerator provided reports to detail the information gathered during the current, or most recent active period. The Management Center does not provide any promotions reporting.

In the Management Center, you can select which price to use as a price adjustment base, either the standard offer price, or the contract price. In WebSphere Commerce Accelerator the contract price was used by default. Additionally, the price adjustment base selection was configured as site level. In Management Center, the price adjustment base is selection is configured by promotion which enables you to create more dynamic business rules.