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Help Promotion Codes

Promotion Codes

A promotion code forms part of an invitation for shoppers to purchase goods from your shop at a discounted rate, or to receive a free gift or free shipping. You can offer your customers a once only gift certificate or you can advertise a discount coupon that is made available to anyone who wishes to use the code you provide.

You can dictate what the actual code is so that customers can easily remember the code when they reach your shop checkout. Or you can allow the system to auto-generate a code for you.

Discounts can take the form of dollar value, percentage rate, free shipping or a free gift. Redemption conditions can be set if you choose to do so, including minimum quantity purchase or minimum spend dollar value.

Your promotion codes can apply to single products or categories, or select products and categories, or products across your entire shop. Promotions can run indefinitely or can operate between a select date range. You can also set a maximum discount ceiling if you wish, to protect profit margins.

On this page

  1. Gift Certificate or Discount Coupon
  2. Create Promotion Codes
 

 

Screen illustrations

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Gift Certificate or Discount Coupon?

Why not try:

Reward customers who spend over a certain value in your shop by sending a “free shipping” or “free gift” Gift Certificate for their next purchase. Use the customer’s postcode and surname as the unique promotion code.

Why not try:

Promote a slow-moving product by offering an accompanying free gift.

Before creating a promo code you should determine whether the code is to be used by multiple customers between a set date range or whether it is a once-only code to be used by one customer either as a reward or as a purchased gift certificate.

Gift Certificate

A gift certificate can be created before handing the certificate’s unique code on to the customer. Once the customer redeems the certificate in your shop, the code is then “spent” and can not be used a second time, making Gift Certificates ideal for once only rewards for your VIP customers.

Gift Certificates can also be sold in your shop as stand alone products for shoppers to buy for friends or family. However, when selling Gift Certificates you will need to manually create, and then send to the buying customer post-sale, the unique promo code for each certificate sold.

Discount Coupon

This type of promotion code is best suited to campaigns made available to one or more persons, to be redeemed on more than one occasion between a set date range or  indefinite period. Discount Coupon codes can be sent to VIP customers via e-newsletter or advertised on your website so that all website visitors can access and redeem the code at checkout.

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Create Promotion Codes

Why not try:

Create a 24-hour sale across one or more shop categories, or use a 24-hour campaign to announce a brand new product. Announce the sale to email subscribers and/or VIP customers a few days in advance.

Why not try:

Create different dollar value Gift Certificate products in your shop to sell, and be sure to check the Free shipping? checkbox on the product’s Shipping and taxes navigation tab. Within Preferences > Orders and Email Notifications select Yes for Allow personalised Gift Tag Message, before clicking the Save Preferences button.

This will allow customers to include the gift recipient’s name and postcode information - the information you will then use to create a unique promo code for the gift certificate. Once created, email the promo code to your customer or, alternatively, mail a physical Gift Certificate to the customer, writing the unique promo code on the certificate or voucher.

The first step in creating a new promotion code is to give the promotion a unique name, e.g. “25% Off Sale Discount Coupon”. With this in place, you must devise a unique promotion code to be used by your customer/s, or allow the system to auto-generate a code for you.

To create either a new Gift Certificate (can only be used once) or Discount Coupon (may be used until the expiry date), follow these instructions:

  1. Go to My Shop > Promotions > Add a Promotion
  • Promotion Name: enter a unique identifier. Spaces, numbers and characters are okay to use 
  • Promotion Code: enter a unique code that customers can remember easily, e.g. “summersale”, “24hoursale”, etc.
    • Spaces and characters (e.g. #$%) will automatically be removed so keep your promo code text-based and simple. The key is to create a code that customers can easily remember; avoid complicated codes.
    • Leave the Promotion Code field empty if you would prefer the code to be automatically generated.
  • Promotion type is: Select the promotion type from the drop-down menu list: Gift Certificate (can only be used once) or Discount Coupon (may be used until the expiry date) . Refer to the section ‘Gift Certificate or Discount Coupon’ for a detailed explanation.
  • Discount Value: enter a dollar or percentage value; select free shipping to remove shipping cost at checkout, or select free gift to include a pre-determined free gift.
  • Conditions: from the drop-down menu list, select one of the following:
    • No Minimum to set no minimum purchase criteria, i.e. a customer can purchase any product of any dollar value in order to be able to redeem the voucher or certificate.
    • Minimum Spend so that a customer must spend a minimum amount before discounts apply
    • Minimum Quantity so that a customer must purchase a minimum quantity before discounts apply.
    • Minimum quantities apply across any given product or product category/s.
  • Categories and Products: from the drop-down menu list, select one of the following:
    • All Products and categories apply the promo code across all shop categories and products without exception.
    • Selected Categories: select one or more checkboxes that correspond to the category or categories for which the promo code will apply.
    • Selected Products: select one or more checkboxes that correspond to the product or products for which the promo code will apply.
  • Start Date: use the pop-up calendar to select a start date or enter using the dd/mm/yyyy format. If you leave this field blank then the promo code will be start from the day on which you create the promo code.
  • Expiry Date: use the pop-up calendar to select an expiry date or enter using the dd/mm/yyyy format. If you leave this field blank, the promo code will be indefinite.
  • Maximum Discount Value: enter a numerical value if you wish to place a cap on the maximum discount offered for percentage-based discounts.
  1. Click the Save Promotion button to save the promotion code.

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