Create promo codes and automatic discounts

In Marketing → Promo codes, you create two kinds of offers: the promo code, which your customer enters in their cart, and the automatic discount, which applies by itself to any cart that meets its conditions. Both are created with the same form, on all plans.

Create a promo code

1. Open Marketing → Promo codes and click ‘Create code’.
2. In the ‘Code and discount’ card, enter the code your customers will type (for example XMAS20), then the ‘Discount type’: ‘Percentage’ or ‘Fixed amount’, with its ‘Value’, or ‘Free shipping’.
3. In the ‘What does the discount apply to?’ card, choose ‘Whole cart’, a few ‘Products’ or a ‘Category’, subcategories included.
4. In the ‘Conditions’ card, set a ‘Start date’ and an ‘End date’ if needed: they follow your shop's time, whatever your customers' time zone.
5. Leave ‘Active code’ switched on and save. An inactive code is refused in the cart without being deleted: to pause an offer, simply switch it off.

The discount applies to the price of the targeted items, never to shipping costs, and never exceeds their amount.

A code's conditions

The ‘Conditions’ card decides who can use the code, and how many times. Each condition is optional.

• ‘Minimum cart amount’: the item total to reach. It counts the whole cart, even when the discount only targets one category.
• ‘Maximum number of uses’: each order takes its place when it is placed, just as it reserves its stock. An unpaid order gives its place back; a paid order keeps it, even if refunded. A payment in progress holds it for an hour at most.
• ‘One use per customer’ and ‘First order only’: your customer is recognised by their account or, if they order without one, by their email address.
• ‘Exclude items on sale’: the code does not reduce an item that is already discounted (a scheduled promotion in progress or a compare-at price). Without this setting, a 30% promotion and a 20% code add up to a 44% discount.

When a code is refused, your customer sees the reason in their cart: code expired, limit reached, minimum not met, items already on sale.

The ‘Free shipping’ code

With the ‘Free shipping’ type, the code does not reduce the items: it makes the cheapest option of each method free (home delivery, pickup point, store pickup). A more expensive option, such as Express, is still charged.

The minimum, dates and limits apply as for any code. If your customer chooses an option that is still charged, or if their shipping was already free (free-shipping threshold reached, free pickup), the code is not kept on their order and uses up nothing.

Automatic discounts

Switch on ‘Automatic discount’ when you create the offer: there is no code to enter, and the discount applies by itself to any cart that meets its conditions (targeting, minimum, dates, items on sale excluded). This choice cannot be changed once the offer is created.

Give it a ‘Title shown to customers’, for example ‘Black Friday’: it appears in the cart, at checkout, in the confirmation email and on the invoice. Write it in your shop's main language; it is translated automatically into the others. Without a title, the cart shows ‘Current offer’.

• Only one discount applies to the items of an order: the one that is best for your customer. A code only goes through if it does better than the current discount; otherwise, the cart tells your customer why.
• Free shipping adds to that discount, whether it comes from an automatic discount or from a code.
• Nothing identifies the buyer before their order: an automatic discount has no ‘Maximum number of uses’, ‘One use per customer’ or ‘First order only’. For those conditions, create a code.
• An order you enter yourself (Sales → Orders → ‘New order’) also receives the current automatic discounts, as in the shop. The summary shows them, and a cross removes them for that order only.

Announce an offer in the announcement bar

In the ‘Announcement’ card, switch on ‘Announce on the shop’: while the offer runs, a line presents it in the announcement bar at the top of every page. It gives the title or the code, the discount and its conditions, for example “Black Friday · 20% off · On the Winter category · Until 30 November”. Under ‘The bar will show’, the card shows the exact line.

• At most two announced offers are shown, the most recent ones. Each line disappears by itself when its offer ends.
• For an offer limited to one category, the line links to that category.
• The welcome pop-up code (Marketing → Newsletter, ‘Welcome pop-up’ tab) is not announced while the pop-up offers it: it remains the reward for signing up.
• The free shipping of your delivery methods is announced from Settings → Shipping instead: see Announce free shipping.

Announcing “20% off” means announcing a price reduction: in Europe, it must be real compared with the lowest price of the 30 days before it. As soon as the announcement is switched on, the card checks the targeted products and names those whose price was lower during those 30 days: on them, the announced reduction would not be real. Nothing is blocked: remove them from the targeting or drop the announcement. An offer that starts later is checked for its start, based on the prices and offers planned so far. If you change a price in the meantime, reopen it to check again. A ‘Free shipping’ code is not concerned, as it lowers no price.

How many codes your plan includes

The Starter plan includes 5 active codes, the Business plan 10; the Pro and Performance plans have no limit. Automatic discounts and codes that will start later also count. A deactivated, expired or used-up code frees its place, and the ‘Active codes’ card of the list keeps count.

Once the limit is reached, a new offer is refused, as is reactivating or extending a code that no longer counted. Editing a code that already counts is still possible.

For the holidays, prepare your offers in advance (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas) with their dates: each one starts and stops by itself, on your shop's time. They count towards your limit from the moment they are created.