Create discount codes and automatic discounts

A discount takes money off at checkout. It can be a code the customer types, such as SPRING30, or automatic, applied to every basket that qualifies. Discounts belong to your whole account, so every store you run shares them. Sales › Coupons lists them all; you create and edit them in a store's Discounts tab.

Before you start

• A store. Without one, Sales › Coupons says "No stores yet" and offers Go to Stores.
• For a code on a product, category or order size, those products and categories set up first.

Steps

1. Open Sites › Stores, press Open store, and choose the Discounts tab. From Sales › Coupons you can also press Edit … discounts under the list.
2. Press Add discount.
3. Choose what comes off: Flat (an amount), Percent, or Free postage.
4. Type a Name. Customers never see it; it is for you, for example "Spring promotion".
5. Either type the Code customers will enter (for example SPRING30), or tick Apply automatically for a discount with no code.
6. For a code, set Allowed uses if you want a limit. Leave it empty for unlimited.
7. Tick Also works on sales pages if buyers may use the code at the checkout of your funnels' sales pages as well as in the store. It is off by default.
8. Enter the Percent off or Amount off.
9. Under Apply to, choose All orders, Orders over (then the amount in Only on orders over), Categories or Products, and tick the ones it covers.
10. Set Valid from and Valid to if it should only run for a while. Valid to includes the whole of that day.
11. Leave Allow with other discounts ticked if it may combine with others. Untick it and this discount applies on its own, beating any that would have combined.
12. Press Save. The discount appears in the list with its code (or "automatic") and what it takes off.

What happens next

• Each row says why a discount is not working, when it is not: Turned off, Not started yet, Finished or All used up. Sales › Coupons shows the same in its Status column, and Uses shows how many times it has been used out of the limit.
• Use Turn off and Turn on to pause a discount without deleting it, and Edit to change it.
• Deleting a discount does not change past orders; the code and the amount were copied onto each order.
• A use is counted the moment an order is written as paid or pending, and given back if a pending bank-debit payment fails.
• If a partner in your affiliate program has the same code set as their discount code, a sale using it is credited to them. See Commissions on your sales.

Rules at a sales page checkout

• Only codes with Also works on sales pages switched on are accepted there. Automatic discounts never apply on sales pages.
• A Flat code only comes off a product priced in the store's own currency. Percent codes work in any currency.
• A code is not added on top of an upsell's own offer; the offer on the page wins.
• On a subscription, the code comes off the first payment only.

For agencies

Discounts belong to each client's account. Create them inside the client with Sub-accounts › Open.

Troubleshooting

The customer sees "That code is not valid for this purchase". Check the discount's row. It may be turned off, not started, finished or used up; it may cover other products or categories; the basket may be under the Orders over amount; or it is a sales page and the code is not allowed there. Nobody is charged when a code is refused.

Save stays greyed out. A discount needs a Name, and a code discount also needs a Code.

An automatic discount does not show on a sales page. Automatic discounts apply in stores only.

Two discounts did not add together. One of them has Allow with other discounts unticked, so it applies on its own.

A flat £5 code did not work on a course priced in dollars. A flat code only comes off products priced in the store's currency. Use a percent code instead.

Related

• Offer a discount for an email on a first visit
• How checkout works
• Group products into categories
• Commissions on your sales