Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Promotions tool > Work with promotions
Coupon promotions
Coupon promotions are a special kind of promotion, designed to mimic the experience of a customer clipping a coupon from a newspaper, or something similar, and redeeming it at a store. A coupon can apply to specific catalog entries or to the total purchase, depending on how the promotion is defined. Only the owner of the coupon can redeem the coupon.
For example, if you have a lot of patio furniture in stock, you can offer customers a coupon for 25 percent off the patio furniture.
Create coupon promotions using the Promotions tool in the Management Center. When creating the promotion, specify Coupon promotion as the redemption method. This redemption method is available for all promotion types in the Promotions tool.
Distribute coupons to customers
After you create a coupon promotion in the Promotions tool, decide how to distribute the coupon to customers so that the coupon shows up in the customer's coupon wallet on the storefront.
To distribute a coupon, you create either a Web activity or a Dialog activity in the Marketing tool. Your options are:
- Create a Web activity that uses the Recommend Promotion action to advertise the coupon promotion in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. When the customer clicks on the advertisement, the coupon is placed automatically in the customer's coupon wallet. For this to work, assign the advertising content the following click action: Add coupon to customer's coupon wallet. See Raise customer awareness for the promotions.
- Create a Dialog activity that uses the Issue Coupon action to issue the coupon when the customer does something specific, such as registering with the store. The coupon is placed automatically in the customer's coupon wallet when the customer triggers the Dialog activity and meets any target requirements. See Action: Issue Coupon.
Coupon wallets
A coupon wallet is a container for coupons a customer has received. Customers can use coupon wallets to manage their coupons. When customers check out, they can choose to apply coupons in their coupon wallet. If the order qualifies for the coupon promotion, then the server applies the adjustment to the order.
The following page from the Madisons starter store shows a customer's coupon wallet in the My Account page. This customer has two coupons:
When the customer checks out, the Shopping Cart page also shows the available coupons. The customer can choose the coupons to apply:
Before checking out, customers can remove a coupon after applying it, if they decide to save the coupon for later.
Coupons and guest users
A guest user is a user who has not registered with the store, but who has performed an operation that requires a unique identity, for example, adding a product to the shopping cart. A guest user can receive a coupon, view it on the Shopping Cart page, and apply it to an order. The guest user must use the coupon within the same session unless both the persistent session function and the Migrate Guest Orders listener are enabled for the store.
Coupon expiration
When you create a coupon promotion in the Promotions tool, specify an expiration period as a number of days. A coupon expires the number of specified days after it is issued. For example, if the coupon promotion has a 14–day expiration period, a customer has 14 days in which to redeem the coupon before it is deleted from the customer's coupon wallet. A customer can acquire another instance of the coupon at a later time, if the promotion is still active. Be aware that:
- The day on which the coupon is issued is counted as the first day toward the expiration date. Therefore, if a customer acquires a coupon that will expire in 14 days, they have 13 whole days, plus the amount of time remaining in the current day.
- A coupon will expire immediately if the end date for the promotion has passed.
- To receive the promotion, the customer must complete the checkout process before the coupon expires. If the coupon expires after the customer applies the coupon, but before the customer checks out, then the coupon is not applied to the order.
Coupon redemption limits
When you create a coupon promotion in the Promotions tool, you can set a redemption limit for a coupon in the Redemption Limits section. When the redemption limit is passed, customers can no longer get the coupon.
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