This article explains how to create a code that your online customers can apply in the checkout to receive a discount on a product or a group of products. Coupon Codes are created in Cloud MT and are for use on your website.
General Coupon Settings
When you are logged into Cloud MT, there are some global settings which you can access that will dictate the general terms of how coupons can be applied on your e-commerce site. The settings here will be applied to all coupons created.
Apply Coupons to On-Sale Items - Ticking this will allow coupons to be used on sale items and items discounted from their regular price along with regular full priced items. Leaving this unticked will block the coupon from being used on Sale items.
Allow Multiple Coupons - Selecting this option will allow multiple different valid coupons to be applied to one transaction.
Allow Coupons on Star Buys - Ticking this will allow coupons to be used on Star Buy items and regular priced items. Leaving this unticked will block coupons from being used on Star buys.
Creating a Coupon
1) When you are logged into Cloud MT, select Marketing and Promotions from the menu on the left and then select Coupons List:
2) When the Coupons List page opens, click the New Coupon in the top left:
3) Run through the following steps to create a new Coupon Code:
- Activate Coupon - Leave this box unticked until you are satisfied that all fields are completed.
- Code - Enter a Coupon Code. This is the code that you will give out to your customer.
- Description - Give the coupon a description so that it can be easily identified.
- Promote on Website – Here is where you select if you would like a visual promotional banner adding to the item on your website – this will display on the product page as standard and can show on the Find and Filter results page if the Find and Filter configuration is set to ‘Rich’.
Item Page:
Find and Filter Page:
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Coupon Minimum Spend - Here you will enter the minimum item or basket value required to use the coupon. For example, if you entered 100 into this field, the coupon could only be used if the order value is £100.00 or over;
Matrix Items
PLEASE NOTE: If a coupon minimum spend is set, and the coupon is set to promote on website, this will only display on a MATRIX item if the LOWEST priced Child item, meets this threshold.
EXAMPLE - If a coupon has a minimum spend of £30.00, and a Matrix item has child items of the value of £35.00, £30.00 and £25.00 – in this case, the coupon promotional banner will not show, as the lowest priced item in the Matrix item does not meet the minimum price threshold. However, this does not stop the coupon from being used on the valid child items.
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Discount Type – Select either:
- Fixed Value – a specific cash amount applied to the entire basket. This can only be applied on an all-items basis
- Percentage – a percentage discount applied to each applicable line in the basket.
If you select the Percentage option, this will reveal an additional option, Applies To, with a dropdown box giving the following options:
All items – the coupon can be applied to all active items on your e-commerce site; except for those blocking coupons.
A specific item – this reveals a further dropdown from where you can select the specific item.
All items within a category – this reveals a further dropdown from where you can select the specific category to apply the coupon.
All items within a Find & Filter address – this means that the coupon will be applicable to all items within a specific Find & Filter address. Selecting this option will reveal a further dropdown from where you can create the Find & Filter URL.
All items within a Collection – the coupon will be applicable to all items within a specific Collection. Selecting this option will reveal a further dropdown from where you can select the Collection for this to be applied to.
- Apply Discount to - The price which the discount will be applied to.
- Sale Price - The discount will be applied to the sale price of the item, meaning the item discount is applied first, and the coupon discount is calculated from that reduced amount. For example: £100.00 item → 10% item discount (sale) = £90.00 → 20% coupon is applied to £90.00.
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Base Price - The discount will be applied to the base price of the item, as long as the coupon is a higher discount than an active Sale Price discount set against the item.
This means that if your item is on sale for 20% off and a 10% coupon is applied, no discount will be applied from the coupon. If your item is NOT on sale and a 10% coupon is applied, the 10% will be taken from the full price of the item.
To help determine if you are applying the correct discount, there is a handy calculator that can be accessed by clicking on the ‘i’ icon next to Apply discount to.
- Block On-sale Items – This will apply the coupon to full priced items only
- One-Time Usage – This can be ticked if a coupon is only to be used on a single transaction, such as a gesture of good will.
- Expiry Date – Enter a date and time when you’d like the coupon to expire. Excellent for ‘Flash discount’ promotions. Click on the small calendar icon in the right hand side of the bar to open up an easy click and select option
When you are happy with that all the fields are completed correctly, tick the Coupon Active checkbox at the top of the page and then click the Save Coupon button in the bottom right.
Bulk Creating Coupons
This feature allows you to create multiple, unique coupon codes, based on the main coupon code you have specified. This can be really useful for email marketing or specific promotions for VIPs or Club Members.
1) Once we have set up the coupon to our specifications, we can click the View Advanced Options button to create the coupons:
2) 3) Ticking the Bulk Create tickbox and entering the number of Coupons you’d like to create will allow you to generate multiple coupons at once. The coupons will be created with the settings currently set above, in the main Coupon creation section.
Bulk Coupon Creation
PLEASE NOTE: We would recommend ticking ‘One time usage’ for bulk creation, so that each individual coupon can only be used once, and NOT promoting on the website, as these will be customer / mailing specific Coupons.
3) Click on Bulk Create Coupons.
You will then see a ‘sense check’ pop-up, to make sure you're happy with the number of coupons you're going to make.
4) If you are happy to proceed click Yes, Create Coupons.
You will then be taken back to the Coupon List page, where a Banner at the top confirms the Coupon creation and gives the option to Export Coupon Codes to CSV.
You'll then get a file that will look something like this:
You can then use these promotional codes in email marketing, or to send to VIPs, Club Members or friends of the business.
These codes can also be viewed and searched for in the main Coupon List table
Testing your Coupon
Before giving out the Coupon Code to your customers, you should always ensure that it is working as you would like it to.
1) Go to the front-end of your e-commerce site and create a basket containing the correct items.
2) In the checkout, apply the Coupon Code and ensure that it is applying the desired discount.
3) Only once you have confirmed the coupon is working correctly should you give the coupon code(s) out to your customers.
Reporting on Coupon Usage
To look at how your customers are using coupons, there are two reports in Cloud MT that will provide you with different degrees of data:
This filterable report shows the total use of each coupon per day, with the total discount value:
Detailed Coupon Usage Report
Detailed Coupon Usage Report
As the name indicates, this filterable report shows coupon usage in great detail, with the forename, surname and email address of each customer who has used a coupon, the coupon name and code, total discount the coupon gave on the order, the order number, and the date it was placed.
