Reference Guide

Marketing

Coupons

In Miva Merchant, a coupon always has to be associated with a Price Group. The Price Group creates the discount. The coupon is just a way for customers to receive the discount.

For example, you could create a Price Group that is a 2-for-1 sale. If the customer buys quantity 1 of a product, you'll give them another of the same item for free. When you use a coupon, your customers are offered a 2-for-1 sale, and the way they get the discount is by entering a coupon code during checkout.

• Price Group Only: The customer gets the discount as soon as they add selected items to their basket.
• Price Group + Coupon: The customer gets the discount when they enter a coupon code during checkout

Miva Merchant lets you create two types of coupon codes:

• Generated coupon codes: You tell the system how many coupon codes you want to create. The system generates that number of codes, and each code is unique. You can control the total number of times each coupon code can be used, and the number of times it can be used by the same customer.
• Everyone gets the same discount, but everyone enters a unique coupon code.
• Single coupon codes: You create one coupon code. You can control the total number of times the coupon code can be used, and the number of times it can be used by the same customer.
• Everyone gets the same discount and everyone enters the same coupon code.

Depending on how you distribute and track coupon use, there may not be much difference in whether you generate a set of unique coupon codes for a discount, or give all of your customers the same coupon code. If you were selling coupons as gift certificates, though, you might want to generate unique coupon codes.

But see also Account Credit and Gift Certificates.

To Create a Coupon with a Single Code

1. Make the coupon code field visible on one or more store pages.

When you create a coupon, you also create a coupon code. Customers redeem the coupon (and get their discount) by entering the coupon code in a special field during checkout. You can add the Coupon field to one or more of the following pages:

• BASK - Basket Contents
• OCST - Checkout: Customer Information
• OSEL - Checkout Shipping/Payment Selection
• OPAY - Checkout: Payment Information.



1.1 Go to > User Interface > Pages tab.

1.2. Edit the page where you want to add the Coupon field. In our example, we'll add the coupon field to the Order Details screen. Note that in the admin interface, the Order Details screen is called "OCST - Checkout: Customer Information".

1.3. In the Edit Page screen, select the Page tab.

1.4. Scroll down to the Basket Contents section.

1.5. Click Allow Coupons to be Applied.

Click Update.



2. Create the Price Group.

2.1. Go to > Marketing > Price Groups tab.

2.2. Click Add Price Group.

2.3. Set the Eligibility to Coupon Only. But see also Eligibility in Price Groups and Eligibility in Coupons.

2.4. When you are creating a coupon, you can create a Price Group of any type. In our example, we'll create a Price Group of Type Legacy, since that's the simplest.

2.5. In our example, we'll set the Exclusions to Exclude for Same Basket, to prevent our coupon discount from being combined with any other discount.



2.6. Click Save.

3. Create the Coupon.

3.1. Go to > Marketing > Coupons tab.

3.2. Click Add Coupon .



3.3. Fill out the fields in the Add Coupon dialog box:

Code	Enter an alphanumeric string. This is the code that your customers will enter in the Coupon field to get their discount.
Description	Enter a description for the coupon as it will appear in the admin interface.
Eligibility	Select the group of customers that you want to receive the discount. All of your customers will see the Coupon field during checkout, even if you aren't permitting them to get the discount. However, a customer who isn't allowed to use the coupon code will always see the message: no matter what they enter in the Coupon field. See also Eligibility in Price Groups and Eligibility in Coupons. Specific Customers: You must select a list of customers after you create the coupon. Only these customers will receive the discount. All logged in customers: The customer must have a store account and be signed into their store account to get the discount. All Shoppers: everyone gets the discount.
Discount to Apply	Select the Price Group that you want to use with this coupon.
Max Use (Total)	Enter the total number of times the coupon code can be used. For example, if you enter "100" in this field, the coupon code can only be entered a total of 100 times.
Max Use (Per Shopper)	Enter the number of times each customer is allowed to use the same coupon code. For example, if you enter a "1" in this field, customers can only use the coupon code one time.

3.4. When you are done filling out the field in the Add Coupon dialog box, click the Save button.

4. If you selected "Specific Customers" from the Add Coupon > Eligibility field:



then you must select a list of customers who are allowed to use your coupon.

4.1. In the Coupons tab, select the coupon that you just created. You'll see a Customers button at the top of the record list.



4.2. Click on the Customers button.

4.3. In the Customers Assigned to dialog box, assign one or more customers, then click Close.

You can also click on the Price Groups button to associate your coupon with more than one Price Group.

5. Your coupon is ready to use.

Eligibility in Price Groups and Eligibility in Coupons

Eligibility lets you control whether everyone gets a discount, or whether only some customers get a discount. You set the eligibility when you create a Price Group (Add Price Group dialog box), but there is also an eligibility field in the Add Coupon dialog box.

This can be a little confusing, because, when you associate a coupon with a Price Group, you use both fields

• Price Group Eligibility: If you were only using a Price Group, without a coupon, the discount is applied to the customer's basket. As soon as the customer's basket qualifies for the discount from a Price Group, the discount is automatically applied. Price Group eligibility lets you control which customers qualify for the basket discount. For example, if you set the Price Group eligibility to Specific Customers, a customer who is not on the list doesn't get the discount, regardless of what is in their basket.
• Coupon Eligibility: The discount from a coupon is applied when the customer enters a coupon code during checkout. Coupon eligibility lets you control who is allowed to enter the coupon code. For example, if you set the coupon eligibility to Specific Customers, a customer who is not on the list doesn't get the discount, even if they enter a valid coupon code.

We'll go through a few examples so you can see how you can combine these fields to achieve different effects:

Example 1: You can only get the discount from the Price Group by using a coupon. The coupon code is available to everyone.

Example 2: A specific list of customers will get the discount automatically, based on the contents of their baskets. A different list of customers can get the same discount, but only by entering a coupon code during checkout.

To Create Generated Coupon Codes

1. Create a Price Group.
See The General Process of Creating a Price Group.
2. Enable the coupon code field in your store. See Make the coupon code field visible on one or more store pages.
3. Go to > Marketing > Coupons tab.
4. In the Coupons tab, click +Generate
5. Complete the fields in the Generate Coupons dialog box:
• Code: This is the "base" code that you want your customers to enter when they redeem the coupon. For example, if you enter "t_shirt_promo" in this field, and set the "# of Coupons" field to "10", the system will create 10 coupons like this: t_shirt_promoN43XBM2J t_shirt_promoC4G0U5JX t_shirt_promoBC12EC9W etc.
• Description: The description you enter in this field will only appear in the admin interface
• Eligibility: Who should get the discount?
• Specific Customers: Only a specific list of customers will get the discount. You'll create this list later on.
• All Logged In Customers: To get the discount a customer must have an account and be signed into their account.
• All Shoppers: Everyone who visits your store gets the discount.
• # of Coupons: Enter the number of coupon codes that you want the system to generate.
• Not Valid Before / Not Valid After: These two fields let you decide how long the coupon code will be active. Please see Not Valid Before for examples.
• Max Use (Total): The total number of times you will allow this coupon code to be entered. If you enter "1" in this field. The coupon code can only be used once.
• Max Use (Per Shopper): The total number of times you will allow any customer to use this coupon code. If you enter "1" in this field, each customer can only use this coupon code one time.
6. Select Customers. If you selected "Specific Customers" in the Eligibility field, the Select Customers button will be active. Click on this button to open the Select Customers dialog box and select the customer accounts that you want to offer the coupon to.



7. In the Generate Coupon dialog box, click Generate.
8. In the Coupons tab, you'll see that the system has generated the number of coupon codes that you requested.