Core Commerce treats coupons as a type of promotion (sometimes, coupons are referred to as “claimable promotions”). Coupons can be linked to new or existing promotions.
Create the coupon, as outlined in the Merchandising Guide for Business Users. It is possible to create either a free standing coupon, or a batch coupon. When you create the coupon, you create the parameters of the coupon, including the coupon name, the start and end date of the coupon, the number of coupons allowed in an order, and an option coupon code that the customers enter to claim the coupon. Associate the coupon with an existing promotion, or a new promotion. This provides the coupon criteria, such as 20% off a specific item, or buy three items and get $10 off the entire order.
The page or application developer sets up a form field where customers can enter the code. For example, he or she might add a field on the Checkout page and give it a label that says “Enter any coupon codes here:” The developer then hooks this field up to the part of Core Commerce that handles coupons (initially, the CouponFormHandler component). Information on working with forms is available in the Page Developer's Guide.
The page developer sets up an e-mail message (a JSP) to send to the customers you want to use the coupon. The message contains the claim code for the coupon as well as any additional text that you want to include. For information on setting up an e-mail message, see the Working with Targeted E-Mail chapter in the Personalization Guide for Business Users.
You define the list of people whom you want to receive the message (in other words, the people you want to be able to use the coupon). One way to do this is by creating and enabling a scenario containing elements that define the group of people who will receive the message, and a Send Email element that specifies the message to send. For more information on working with scenarios, see the Personalization Guide for Business Users.
When customers want to use the coupon, they do the following:
They visit the Web site and order the products or services to which the coupon applies. During the ordering process, they type the coupon claim code in the appropriate field on the page.
Core Commerce references both the Claimable repository and the corresponding item in the Promotion repository to determine, for example, whether the claim code is valid and the amount or type of discount to apply.
For additional information on the repositories used for coupons, refer to the Core Commerce Programming Guide.
