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FoxyCart Coupons and Discounts

Coupon codes can be a very significant marketing tool, so it's important to understand what is and isn't possible with FoxyCart's coupon and quantity discounting functionality. While coupon codes and quantity discounts may not seem inherently related, FoxyCart uses almost the same logic and syntax for both, so we'll discuss them together.

We've found that stores with coupon codes tend to generate 60% more revenue and 83% more transactions than stores not utilizing coupon codes, and those numbers increase (significantly) as the number of coupon codes increases. (Stores with 10 or more coupon codes do 3.8x the revenue and 3x the transactions. According to our data, at least. No joke.) It's not a magic bullet, but simply having coupon codes available can motivate an otherwise “too busy” merchant or marketer to do some email marketing or advertisements promoting the coupon codes. Try it! According to our system-wide data, you won't regret it.

How They Work

It's important to understand that both coupon codes and discounts can apply a value or percentage based discount, based on the value or quantity “tier” of the cart (or of specific categories, or specific products, depending). This is a critical piece to understand, because in FoxyCart you cannot simply apply a “$5 discount” without a tier, even if that tier is simply “minimum quantity of 1 product”.

That might sound confusing, but once you understand the logic and syntax you'll see how it's possible to create very advanced discount structures without much trouble at all.

Important Words to Understand

In order to make sure we're on the same page, let's review the terms we'll be using.

Discount Name
The text displayed to the customer where a discount is applied. For example, “Spring Cleaning Special” or “Wholesale Quantity Discount”.
Discount Method
The type of discounting method being applied, such as “discount by the price based on the quantity” or “discount by a percentage based on the cart subtotal”. Details.
Discount Type
The specific type of discount, such as an “all units quantity discount”, a “one off” discount, a “Buy One, Get One”, or etc. Details.
Discount Tier
The threshold (either a currency value or a product quantity value) that must be reached in order for a the corresponding discount amount to be applied. All discount types can accept multiple tiers except for the repeat type.
Discount Amount
The amount of the discount, either applied as a set dollar (or other currency) amount or as a percentage of the product price. Details.
Discount Logic
The combination of the discount type (if specified) with the discount tiers and amounts. For example this could be allunits|1-10|2-20 or 1-5|5-10|3-50 or 1-50.

Discount Methods

Four different methods are provided for discounts to dictate what type of discount is applied based on what criteria

discount_quantity_amount
Accepts: A valid discount string.
Notes: Discounts by an amount, based on the quantity of to-be-discounted products. Abbreviated $/qty.
discount_quantity_percentage
Accepts: A valid discount string.
Notes: Discounts by a percentage, based on the quantity of to-be-discounted products. Abbreviated %/qty.
discount_price_amount
Accepts: A valid discount string.
Notes: Discounts by an amount, based on the price of to-be-discounted products. Abbreviated $/$.
discount_price_percentage
Accepts: A valid discount string.
Notes: Discounts by a percentage, based on the price of to-be-discounted products. Abbreviated %/$.

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Discount Types

allunits
Also Called: All-Units Quantity Discounts
Description: Discounts the price of all of the products affected by the discount. Also referred to as “volume discounts” or “bulk order discounts.”
Notes: allunits is the default discount type for quantity discounts applied to products. If a discount type isn't specified, allunits is applied.
Examples:
  • Scenario: Buy two products, take $2 off of both.
    • Method: discount_quantity_amount
    • Logic: allunits|2-2

  • Scenario: Orders of five or more get a 10% on every item ordered. Orders of 10 or more get a 20% discount on every item ordered.
    • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
    • Logic: allunits|5-10|10-20
incremental
Also Called: Incremental Quantity Discounts
Description: Discounts only the units above the tiers you set.
Notes: Most useful for individual products or many products with the same price. Not useful for $/$ discount methods.
Examples:
  • Scenario: Buy two products, get additional products at $5 off. (The first two are not discounted.)
    • Method: discount_quantity_amount
    • Logic: incremental|3-5

  • Scenario: With a quantity of 1-10, all products are at 100%. With a quantity of 150, 10 products would be at 100%, 40 would be at 90%, 50 would be at 85%, and 50 would be at 80%.
    • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
    • Logic: incremental|11-10|51-15|101-20
repeat
Also Called: Buy One, Get One (BOGO), or “Repeatable Incremental Quantity Discounts”
Description: Repeatable discounts are somewhat similar to incremental discounts, but only have a single tier that repeats. Using this method you can achieve “buy one get one free” types of discounts that repeat (buy 1 get 1, or buy 3 get 3). You can also do something like “buy 3 get the 4th at $5 off”, so buying 5 or 6 would only get a single $5 discount, but buying 8 would get a $10 discount.
Notes: Not useful for $/$ discount methods. Only accepts one tier.
Examples:
  • Scenario: Buy one, get one free (100% off).
    • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
    • Logic: repeat|2-100

  • Scenario: Buy 3, get the 4th at 50% off.
    • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
    • Logic: repeat|4-50
single
Also Called: Single Discount, One-Off Discount; or Coupon mode
Description: Unlike the other discount types, the single discount type applies one single discount and not a quantity discount across all products.
Notes: single is the default discount type for coupons, as it makes the most sense in that context. For %/qty and %/$ a single discount type will yield the same discount as allunits.
Examples:
  • Scenario: Buy any 5 products, get $10 off your order.
    • Method: discount_quantity_amount
    • Logic: single|5-10

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Syntax

The discount syntax below shows all the pieces to creating a discount. In a coupon or category discount, the discount_method is specified separate from the

Example Discount Syntax
discount_method=Discount_Name{discount_type|X-A|Y-B|Z-C}
  • discount_method: One of the Discount Methods above.
  • Discount_Name: The text label applied to the discount and displayed to the customer in the cart. For example, “Summer Special” or “Local Coupon Discount”. A discount name is required for discounts to apply properly on cart pageloads.
  • discount_type: A Discount Type from above. Optional. Will default to single if a coupon, or allunits otherwise.
  • X, Y, Z: “Discount Tiers”. The threshold at which the Discount Amount will apply.
  • A, B, C: “Discount Amounts”. The amount or percentage discount to apply.

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Creating A Discount

There are three different ways that a discount can be applied - automatically at the product level or and the category level, or manually by the customer in the form of a coupon.

Need a hand creating your discount tiers?
Try out our helper interface to create your discount.

Product Discount

A product level discount applies to a single product and that product only. This is often desired for items that may be ordered in bulk, like screws or other hardware items.

For Product Discounts, allunits is the default discount type unless otherwise specified.

How are they created

Product discounts are added to the cart inside the product add to cart link or form that the product is created in.

How are they added to an order

Product discounts are automatically added with the product when it is added to the cart

How are they displayed

Product discounts are displayed as an option for the given product it applies to

Example

As part of a link:

  • discount_quantity_percentage=My Discount{allunits|5-10|10-20}

As part of a form:

  • <input type=“hidden” name=“discount_quantity_percentage” value=“My Discount{allunits|5-10|10-20}” />

Category Discount

A category discount is applied to all products that are assigned to that category equally, so category-based discounts work best when the category contains similarly priced items or you work with percentage based discounts.

If you would like your category discount to be applied only in certain cases (like when a customer is a member of a group that receives the discount), then you can create two categories, one with and one without the discount, and use the discounted category (or not) when adding products to your cart.

The default discount type for category discounts is allunits.

How are they created

Category discounts are created from within your store's FoxyCart administration, within the settings for each individual category.

How are they added to an order

Category discounts are automatically added to any products associated the category it applies to.

How are they displayed

A discount applied to products from a category level discount appear as an attribute for the relevant products in the cart display. It also modifies the per item price of the product based on the discount.

Example

Category Discount Type
Discount by a percentage based on the quantity
Discount Name
My Discount
Discount Details
allunits|5-10|10-20

Note

When using a category discount with a type of single, this will distribute the discount equally across all products. This means that in a situation with 2 products, 1 $10 and 1 $20 product, with a discount by an amount based on the quantity of single|1-10 (which says for 1 or more products, discount $10), the discount will apply $5 on each of the two products. Otherwise the discount is applied equally to each product, so for an example, a discount of $10 would mean that $10 is discounted from each product in the category.

Coupon Codes

Unlike product or category quantity discounts, coupon codes apply one single discount as a line-item in the cart, and do not affect the individual product prices. Coupon codes also can apply to one or many categories, but cannot be product-specific (unless the product is the only product in a given category).

The default discount type for coupons is single.

How are they created

Coupons are created from within your store's FoxyCart administration, on the coupons page.

How are they added to an order

Coupons can be added in two ways.

Automatically

Coupons can be added with a product add to cart link or form by specifying the coupon parameter with the coupon's code as the value. This means that the customer won't need to take any action for the coupon to be applied, and will appear in their cart when the order matches the coupons requirements.

Manually

A customer can enter a coupon manually on the cart page of the FoxyCart checkout process. If a valid coupon exists for the store, a link to 'Add a coupon' will appear within the carts totals area between the subtotal and the total. Clicking this link will display a text input that customers can enter the code into and click to update the cart and add the coupon.

Something to note here is that if there is currently no valid coupon for the store, then the 'Add a coupon' functionality won't be displayed in the cart. This prevents possible cart abandonment as people may possibly leave your store in search of a coupon that doesn't exist. There are a couple ways that a coupon may not be valid or active:

  • The current date is outside of the active date range set for the coupon
  • The coupon has been used as many times as is allowed

How are they displayed

A coupon is displayed as a line item in the totals section of the cart as a single discount amount.

Details

Coupon codes have a variety of configuration options in addition to the discounting functionality described above.

Coupon Name
The name displayed in the cart, once a coupon has been added. For example, “Loyal Customer 20% Off Coupon”. This allows both the customer and store admin to easily see what coupon has been applied to their cart.
Coupon Code
This is the “coupon” itself; the actual text that is distributed by the merchant and entered by the customer. This should be alphanumeric, but care should be taken to ensure it's easily readable (ie. 0 versus O, 1 versus l versus I, etc.).
Coupon Variations
FoxyCart allows for a single coupon code to be defined, but to generate multiple distinct coupon variations (up to 100 at a time). This allows for easy creation of multiple unique codes, all with identical discount options, which can be very useful for mail merges or other coupon distribution where any individual coupon code may only have 1 single use, but you may need dozens or hundreds (or thousands).
Coupon Type
The type of discount you want to apply (see above for details on that)
Coupon Details
The discount logic, such as incremental|1-5|2-10
Combinable
If the “combinable” checkbox is left unchecked when creating a coupon it will not be added to the cart if another coupon is already in the cart. Similarly, if this coupon is added first, no other coupons will be able to be added to the cart.
Taxable
If the “taxable” checkbox is checked when creating the coupon taxes will be applied before the coupon's discount is applied. Check with your tax professional if you have questions about how you should calculate taxes.
Category Discounts
If this box is checked, category discounts will not be applied to the relevant parts of an order (and the coupon discount will be applied instead). As an example, let's say you have a 15% quantity discount (when quantity is 2 or greater) applied for category=shirts, and you have 3 shirts in the cart at $10 each. This quantity discount would be $4.50. Now let's say you have a coupon code with this checkbox checked. When that coupon is added to the cart, the quantity discount will be removed, and only the coupon discount will remain. This is most often useful in situations where you do not want coupons discounts to be added together with other discounts.
Line Item Discounts
This is nearly identical to the “Category Discounts” above, but applies to product-level discounts.
Valid Dates
If the coupon has dates set, it can only be used within those date ranges. The start and end dates are inclusive, so coupon codes can be used on the start and end dates as well.
Apply to Categories
Similar to the category quantity discounts, but can be applied to multiple or all categories. So if a coupon code only applies to the T-Shirt category and there are no T-Shirts in the cart, no discount will be applied.
# of Uses (Total)
If you want to limit the number of uses this coupon as a whole can be used, enter a number here. If, for example, only the first 50 customers can use the coupon, enter 50 here. This relates to coupon variants and the number of uses per code (below). If you have 1 coupon code and 10 uses, the coupon will not be able to be used after 10 successful transactions. If you have 1 coupon with 100 variants but only 50 uses, only the first 50 uses will be allowed, regardless of the number of uses per code.
# of Uses (Per Code)
This is similar to the total number of uses, but only limits individual coupon code variants. So if you have 100 coupon code variants and this value is set to 1, each variant will only be able to be used once. The total uses allowed (above) is a higher priority than this, however, so if a coupon's total uses has already been reached then this value doesn't matter.

General Discount Notes

It is important to note that the discount tiers only count against the portion of the cart that will actually receive a discount. So a category-wide quantity discount that has a quantity tier of 5 will not apply if there are only 3 products in the category, regardless the number of products in other categories.

All product and category quantity discounts are applied to the products themselves, and not as a separate line item like a coupon code. So if a product is ordinarily $10 and has a 10% discount, the discount is reflected in the product details and the product price becomes $9.

Product quantity discounts can be combined with category quantity discounts, as well as coupon codes, however it will likely result in confusion to mix product-specific and category-specific quantity discounts, so it's best avoided if possible.

Common Discount Examples

Below is a list of common discounts in stores detailing their discount method and logic. For applying to a specific type of discount (product, category or coupon), please see details above.

Buy two products, take $2 off of both.

  • Method: discount_quantity_amount
  • Logic: allunits|2-2

Orders of five or more get a 10% on every item ordered. Orders of 10 or more get a 20% discount on every item ordered.

  • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
  • Logic: allunits|5-10|10-20

Buy two products, get additional products at $5 off. (The first two are not discounted.)

  • Method: discount_quantity_amount
  • Logic: incremental|3-5

With a quantity of 1-10, all products are at 100%. With a quantity of 150, 10 products would be at 100%, 40 would be at 90%, 50 would be at 85%, and 50 would be at 80%.

  • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
  • Logic: incremental|11-10|51-15|101-20

Buy one, get one free (100% off).

  • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
  • Logic: repeat|2-100

Buy 3, get the 4th at 50% off.

  • Method: discount_quantity_percentage
  • Logic: repeat|4-50

Buy any 5 products, get $10 off your order.

  • Method: discount_quantity_amount
  • Logic: single|5-10

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