Build better promotional campaigns and spark growth with our new Promotions app.
Promotions are a core part of any ecommerce business. Well-planned promotions attract new customers, encourage repeat purchases, and foster loyalty. They also clear out old inventory and open up space for new assortments. Merchants need flexibility to build promotions that maximize value without sacrificing revenue. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the new Promotions app, which empowers marketers to build sophisticated promotions with just a few clicks.
The new Promotions App
When you click on the new Promotions app from the Products section of our Hub, you can view active, upcoming, disabled, or all of your promotions by clicking any of the views. To build a new promotion, just click the “New” button at the top right of the list.
You have the option to build seven types of promotions from our new app, which include:
- Percentage discount: apply a specific percentage discount to the order subtotal
- Fixed amount discount: apply a fixed discount (like $10 off) to the order subtotal
- Fixed price: impose a fixed price for products belonging to a specified SKU List
- Free shipping: apply free shipping to the order
- Free gift: remove the cost of a product (or products) belonging to a specified SKU List
- Buy X pay Y: offer free products when users add X units of that product to their cart, for example “Buy 3 pairs of socks and only pay for 2”
- External promotion: promotions that are powered by custom or external logic, for example if you were using a third-party promotion engine and want to integrate it with Commerce Layer.
Our six preset promotions should cover most use cases for promotions. If they don’t, you can always connect custom promotion logic into our platform using external promotions.
How to build new promotions with our new app
To get an idea of what promotion set up looks like in our new Promotions app, let’s try setting up a 10% discount for US shoppers that are ordering over $100 worth of merchandise. Once you click into the percentage discount promotion, you’ll see some fields for preliminary set up such as:
- Naming the promotion
- Setting the dates for the promotion’s activation
- The discount itself
- The usage limit, which is optional and should be left blank if it’s meant to be unlimited
- Specifying if the promotion applies to all products or to specific SKUs on a SKU List
- Whether or not the promotion is exclusive or if it will run concurrently
- If it’s concurrent with other promotions, you should set up a priority score to see how it will apply over other active promotions
Once you click “Create promotion”, it doesn’t mean the promotion is active. You still have to set activation rules to ensure the promotion doesn’t apply to every single order. Scroll down to the section where it says “Apply when” and click on the +Rule button.
Here, you can set your first activation rule. On the first selection field, you have the option of selecting Market, Currency, SKU List, SKU Tag, or Customer Tag as parameters. There are also options to select Cart subtotal or total as parameters, but you must first apply a currency as an activation rule first.
Because the promotion should only apply to our US customers, we’ll first select Market as a parameter and set USA Market as the activator.
Click create and you have your first activation rule “Market is USA Market”, which means the promotion will apply to all orders in the USA Market. While that’s a sweet deal for our shoppers, we also want to make sure we’re protecting our margins. Let’s set another rule that makes sure this promotion will only apply for orders above $100.
By default, promotions are automatic and will be configured in the way you initially set them up when you created them. To gate promotions by coupon, click on the +Coupon button and it’ll show you the coupon set up page.
To set up a coupon, you’ll have to configure:
- The coupon code: Put whatever you want the coupon code to be here
- Expires on: Set the expiration date for the coupon. To avoid confusion, set it for the same date and time as the promotion expiry date you set up before.
- Usage limit: The total amount of times this coupon can be redeemed
- Customer options: Assign it to a specific customer email, which is useful for support cases. Or specify that coupons can only be used once per customer
Once you’re done, you’ll be sent back to the promotion’s main set up page. On the top right corner you’ll see the button to enable the promotion. Once it’s enabled, it’ll activate on its start date and apply whenever the conditions are met. If you want to adjust the promotion, just click on the promotion title and you’ll have the option to edit all of the previous options: percentage discount, start and end dates, SKU list, priority, activation rules, and coupon settings.
A powerful tool for growth
We’re proud of designing a powerful app that can build all sorts of promotions, from simple ones that apply a discount to all orders to sophisticated ones that are designed to clear inventory for certain SKUs. Creating the right promotion is an art form for ecommerce brands, they have to attract the customer’s interest in innovative and impactful ways. The new Promotions app gives you the tools to build campaigns that drive continued growth and success for your brand.
We’d love to hear what you think about our new Promotions App. If you have any feedback, join the conversation on Slack.
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