Promotions are stored in the Promotions repository, which is one of the default ATG Commerce repositories. When you create a new promotion, you must add it to the Promotions repository by doing the following:
Select Pricing from the main ATG Control Center (ACC) menu.
Select Promotions from the submenu.
The Promotions screen is displayed. You can click the List button to display all existing promotions. You can also narrow the list of displayed promotions by using the Item Type drop-down list to select a specific type of promotion to list. For example, you can list all the Item Discount promotions or, to narrow the list even further, only the Item Discount – Percent Off promotions.
Note that the type of promotions listed on the Promotions screen directly affects the type of promotion that you can create using the ACC menu commands and buttons. For example, if only the Item Discount –Percent Off promotions are listed, and you select File > New Item from the menu, you can only create a promotion of the same type. In contrast, if promotions of all types are listed on the screen, and you select File > New Item from the menu, you can create a promotion of any type.
Select File > New Item. The New Item dialog box appears:
From the Item Type drop-down list, select the type of promotion you want to create. Default choices are as follows:
Type of promotion
Use for the following type of discount
Item discount – Amount off
A specific amount off the regular price of a product. For example, you could offer any UltraLight T-Bike for $100 off the regular price.
Item discount – Fixed price
A specific product for a fixed price. For example, you could offer any UltraLight T-Bike for $500. Another example would be a “buy one item, get a special price on another” discount; for example you could offer a price of $5 for any helmet to any customer who buys a bike.
Item discount – Multiplier
Adjusts the amount of a discount by a factor N. For example, an item’s base price is $30. It is discounted by $5 through another promotion. The Item Discount – Multiplier value is 2, therefore he total discount is $10, and the item’s price is $20.
Item discount – Percent off
A specific percentage off the regular price of a product. For example, you could offer any UltraLight T-Bike for 10% off the regular price.
Order discount – Amount off
A specific amount off the total order. For example, you could offer a $50 coupon (“Use this coupon by August 31st and get $50 dollars off your total order.”). Another example would be a discount of $20 on any order over $100.
Order discount – Fixed price
The customer pays a fixed price for his or her order. For example, you could offer any product for $50 only.
Order discount – Percent off
A specific percentage off the total order. For example, you could offer a 10% discount off the total cost of an order.
Shipping discount – Amount off
A specific amount off the price of shipping. For example, you could offer $5 off the regular shipping charges for any order over $200.
Shipping discount – Fixed price
Shipping for a specific amount. For example, you could offer free shipping to customers who buy any bike today.
Shipping discount – Percent off
A specific percentage off the price of shipping. For example, you could offer a 50% discount on your regular shipping charges to anyone who buys any three items.
The options described above are provided with the system. However, the application developers working on your Web site can add others if needed. For information on how to do this, see the Creating Promotions section of the Using and ExtendingPricing Services chapter in the ATG Commerce Programming Guide.
After you choose the type of promotion you want to add, the system displays a form at the bottom of the dialog box. Use it to specify the properties for this new promotion.
The following table describes the properties:
Property
Purpose
Automatically apply to all orders
Use this property to identify the promotion as an “automatic promotion.” Automatic promotions are given to all visitors whereas non-automatic promotions are given to a restricted grouping of visitors who meet the criteria specified by additional promotion property values.
If you set this property to
true, all visitors who meet the criteria in the promotion’s discount rule (if specified) qualify for the promotion. That means the promotion is offered an unlimited number of times, to all visitors (including anonymous visitors), for use on an unlimited number of orders, for as long as the promotion is enabled.If you set this property to
false, you can specify values to the following properties in order to restrict who will receive the promotion:- Give to a customer more than once
- Give to anonymous customers
- Number of uses allowed per customer
- Usage period
- Redeemable for
- Usage start date
- Usage end dateAlso, if you set this property to
false, you must create a scenario that offers the promotion to the appropriate visitors. For more information on how to define who qualifies for the promotion, see Specifying the People Who Receive the Promotion.Creation date
The time and date that you added this new promotion to the Promotions repository. The system fills in this field automatically.
Description
Type a short display name for this promotion. The system can use this name to identify the promotion to customers on, for example, a checkout page or order form.
Discount price/amount/
percentageSpecify the amount of the discount. The type of value you enter depends on the promotion; for example, for a discount in which you are offering a percentage of the usual price as the reduction, you specify the percentage here.
Discount rule
This field allows you to set up the discount rule that controls the circumstances under which the system gives the promotion to a visitor (for example, a specific product to which the discount is applied or the number of items the customer must buy to receive the discount). For information on how to use this field, see Creating a Discount Rule.
Discount type
The item type for this promotion. The value is the type of new promotion that you chose to create in step 4 above. The system fills in this field automatically.
Distribute starting
Specify the date and time you want to start displaying this promotion on your site.
Contrast this property with the Usage Start Date property below.
Distribute through
Specify the date and time you want to stop displaying this promotion on your site.
Contrast this property with the Usage End Date property below.
Enabled
Specify
Truewhen you are ready to activate this promotion. If you specifyTrue, the promotion does not start displaying on your site until the Distribute Starting date and time, and it stops displaying on your site on the Distribute Through date and time.If you specify
False, the promotion never takes effect regardless of the Distribute Starting and Distribute Through dates and times.Give to a customer more than once
Tells the system whether to deliver this promotion (for example, by displaying it on a page) to each visitor only once. If you specify
False, the system delivers the promotion only once. If you specifyTrue, the system delivers the promotion every time the site visitor performs an action that qualifies him or her to receive it -- for example, he or she visits the page on which you have displayed the promotion.Note 1: If you specify
True, then a visitor may have multiple copies of the promotion. Consequently, a single order may be discounted by multiple copies of the promotion.Note 2: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.Contrast the use of this property with the Number of Uses Allowed Per Customer property below.
Give to anonymous customers
Tells the system whether to apply this discount to only visitors who have registered or to all visitors.
If this property is
Falseand the Automatically Apply to All Orders property isFalse, then only registered visitors who qualify can use the promotion. If this property isTrueand the Automatically Apply to All Orders property isFalse, then anonymous visitors and registered visitors who qualify can use the promotion.Note: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.Media
Specify the presentation media (for example, text or an image) you want to associate with this promotion.
Name
Specify a name that you can use to identify this promotion elsewhere in the ATG Control Center (for example, in the Give Promotions element in scenarios).
Number of uses allowed per customer
Determines the number of orders for a given customer to which the promotion can be applied. If you specify
1, for example, the customer can use the promotion on only one order. If you specifyinfinite, the customer can use the promotion on an unlimited number of orders during the period for which the promotion is usable.By default, the values you can choose for this property are
infinite,1,2,3,4,5,10,25,50, and100. However, your application developers can alter these choices to suit the needs of your Web site.Note 1: A promotion can sometimes discount a single order multiple times. This is still considered one “use.” For shipping promotions only, you can prevent the promotion from discounting a single order multiple times by setting the One Use Per Order property to
True. (See below.)Note 2: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.One use per order
A property used for shipping promotions only. It determines whether a shipping promotion can discount a single order multiple times. If you specify
True, the system permits the shipping promotion to be applied to an order only once. If you specifyFalse, the system permits the shipping promotion to be applied to an order for the number of times for which it meets the criteria of the discount rule. (See the Discount Rule property above.)Order of application
If a visitor qualifies for more than one promotion, the system applies them all cumulatively, calculating the new price for the order by combining the different discounts that the promotions contain. The order in which the system combines the discounts might be important in situations such as the following: You give two discounts to the same customer, one (Promotion A) offering $10 off any product and another (Promotion B) offering 50% off any helmet. Suppose the customer orders a helmet that usually costs $30. If the system applies the promotions in the order A-B, the final price of the helmet is $10. If the order is B-A, the final price is $5.
Use this property to define the order in which the discounts are applied. Enter
1to have the system calculate this discount first,2for second, and so on.If you give the same number to more than one promotion, the system calculates randomly the discounts for those promotions but preserves any order between those and other promotions with different numbers.
Note: To use this property, you must turn off the
filterTargetDiscountedByAnyDiscountIdproperty in/atg/commerce/pricing/Qualifier.Redeemable for
Used in conjunction with the Usage Period property when its value is “Period following receipt.”
Specify the number of minutes for which this promotion is valid. The start date and time of a promotion of this type is set when the visitor receives the promotion; that is, the promotion is added to the list of promotions in the visitor’s
activePromotionsattribute in his or her profile. The end date and time for the promotion is then determined by the start date/time and the number of minutes you specify in this property.Note: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.Usage period
Defines the duration of time for which this discount or coupon is valid.
You can specify a duration of time that follows the visitor’s receipt of the promotion; in this case, select “Period following receipt” as the value. Or, you can specify a duration of time with a fixed start date and end date; in this case, select “Fixed dates” as the value.
Note: The system ignores this property if the promotion is automatic as indicated by the Automatically Apply to All Orders property. Automatic promotions are usable for the duration of the distribution period.
Usage Start Date
Used in conjunction with the Usage Period property when its value is “Fixed dates.”
Defines the beginning of the period for which this discount or coupon is valid. Specify the date and time that visitors can either start purchasing a product with this discount or start using this coupon.
Note: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.Usage End Date
Used in conjunction with the Usage Period property when its value is “Fixed dates.”
Defines the end of the period for which this discount or coupon is valid. Specify the last date and time that visitors can either purchase a product with this discount or use this coupon.
Note: The system ignores this property if the Automatically Apply to All Orders property is set to
True.Version
The system uses this property to protect against data corruption that might be caused if two ATG Control Center users attempt to edit this repository item at the same time. The system updates the value automatically.
Note that the most important properties of a promotion are the
Discount price/amount/percentage/multiplier, theDiscount rule, and theDiscount type. These three properties combine to define the actual amount of the discount and the products to which it applies (if any). See the next section for more information on how these properties work together.Note: Several factors can affect whether a new promotion is available to a user at the desired time or at all. These factors include when the new promotion was added, when the user’s session was created, and the schedule for updating automatic promotions. Your developers can take steps to ensure that site visitors receive a promotion at the time you intend. For more information, refer to the Creating Promotions section of the Using and ExtendingPricing Services chapter in the ATG Commerce Programming Guide.
When you are finished defining the properties of the promotion, click the OK button to save the promotion in the Promotions repository.
