Discounts Functionality in e-Cart
Date: 26-Jul-2010
There are 3 different ways to apply discounts in the e-Cart (shop) component:
1) e-Cart Membership discounts
2) Multi-purchase discounts
3) Vouchers/Gift Certificate discounts
These different discount types work independently of each other and the way in which each type of discount functionality works is explained in more detail below:
1) e-Cart Membership discounts:
There are 3 types of discount that can be applied to an e-Cart Membership level:
a) Global discount attached to e-Cart Memberships
b) Category Discount attached to e-Cart Memberships
c) Product Discount attached to e-Cart Memberships
Additionally, there is an option to apply the following settings to the Category & Product levels under the e-Cart Memberships section:
· No discounts – no e-Cart Membership discounts applied to a particular product or category
· Hidden – product or category is hidden from view for users logged in with the specified e-Cart Membership
· No orders - product or category is displayed, but users logged in with the specified e-Cart Membership are unable to add them to their shopping cart
The e-Cart membership discounts work on a hierarchal basis so that the most specific level takes precedence. A PRODUCT level discount takes precedence over CATEGORY level discount which in turn takes precedence over a GLOBAL discount. The “No discount”, “Hidden” and “No orders” settings will override any discount settings applied within the e-Cart membership settings.
Note: the “No discount” flag only applies to discounts being applied within the e-Cart membership settings, i.e. If the no discount box is ticked then it will override any e-Cart Membership discounts that have been set at Global, Category or Product level. It is NOT a system wide “No discount” setting so will not prevent discounts from being applied as a result of the multi-purchase discount & voucher discount settings.
2) Multi-purchase discounts:
There are 2 types of multi-purchase discounts available in Shop:
a) Multi-product discounts – this is where you can set a discount either as an absolute dollar value or a percentage discount based on a customer buying multiple units of the same product. (e.g. buy 3 pairs of the same socks and receive a 20% discount)
b) Multi-category discounts – this works in the same way as the multi-product discount, except that the discount is applied when a customer buys multiple units within the category specified (e.g. buy any 2 DVD’s from this category and receive a 10% discount)
In both multi-purchase discount situations the discount action is triggered once the requisite number of items have been added to the cart. So in the case of example (a) above, the first two pairs of socks added to the cart will not show a discount, but once you add the third pair of socks to the shopping cart, it will show the discount applied. (NOTE: the shopping cart may still show the non discounted price for the first 2 pairs of socks – but will calculate the discount correctly either once you proceed to check-out OR if you click on the “update” or “calculate discounts” buttons which appear in the shopping cart.
Multi-purchase discounts work independently of the e-Cart memberships discounts – so that if you have a e-membership discount set as well as a multi-purchase discount set in the system, then BOTH discounts will apply.
Conversely, if you have set a “No discount” flag at e-Cart membership level, then a multi-purchase discount WILL STILL APPLY.
3) Vouchers/Gift Certificates discount:
Discounts applied through vouchers and gift certificates are completely separate because they work by applying a specified discount on the total amount at checkout. Therefore any voucher discounts will apply on top of any previously applied discounts in the shopping process.
Note: There are 2 system default e-Memberships in e-Cart (Validated eMembership & Shopper eMembership) that must be set up in the system before the discount functionality is able to work.
