Create A Coupon

Create A Coupon

Introduction

There are two types of discounts available in the City Hive Merchant Dashboard; coupons and automatic discounts. In this article, we'll go over how to create a coupon code and several use cases for this type of discount.

What is a coupon code?

A coupon code is fairly self explanatory. It's a discount that requires your customers to enter the code at checkout to receive the discount.

Types of coupons

There are endless variations of discounts able to be created in the City Hive Merchant Dashboard but in this article we'll focus on the three most popular iterations. Keep an eye out for other articles that will go over how to create the more advanced iterations. These three types are:
  1. Order discount
  2. Product specific discount
  3. Free delivery/shipping discount
Keep in mind that all of these discounts can also be created as automatic discounts as well.

Order Discount

An order discount is a coupon that gives a specified amount off of the order total, whether it be dollar or percentage based.

Step 1. Create A New Coupon

Click on the promotions menu in the City Hive Merchant Dashboard, navigate to the "Coupons" section, and click "New Coupon"

Step 2. Fill out the details

1. Coupon Name: This is the code that your customers will use at checkout to receive the discount. Make sure to keep it under 12 characters, one word, and don't use any special characters.
We recommend that coupon names be ALL CAPS and remember you can't repeat names. 
2. Coupon Description: This is where you describe the discount the customer will receive. It will be visible to your customers so make sure it is clear and concise.
3. Discount Amount: This is the amount that will be taken off the total. You can toggle between dollar and percentage modes by clicking the symbol in the text field.
4. Discount Options: These are some of the advanced options that we'll discuss in a later article.
5. Order Limit: This is the number of times that a single customer can use the code. This can be left blank.
6. Max Discount Amount (percentage mode only): This is the max dollar amount that can be given to a customer when using a percentage coupon. This can be left blank if you wish.

Once you've filled out the details of the coupon, click "Continue" to proceed to the coupon options. 

Step 3. Choose Coupon Parameters

Each of the plugins in the list gives the coupon a more detailed set of parameters, for almost infinite uses. We'll go over each briefly below, the more advanced plugins will be covered in future articles.
For a basic order coupon, you can choose to skip all of the plugins.
  1. Offer type - Limit the coupon to specific order types (pickup, delivery, shipping)
  2. Email - Limit the coupon to specific email addresses (youremail@domain.com) or email domains (anyone with "@gmail.com")
  3. Date Limited - Limit the coupon to a specific set of dates (today to next Monday)
  4. Time Limited - Limit the coupon to specific hours of the day
  5. Day Limited - Limit the coupon to a specific day of the month (every month on the 21st) or day of the week (every Friday)
  6. Minimum Order Amount - Limit the coupon to only apply on orders with subtotal above this amount
  7. Category and Product - Limit the coupon to only apply on certain products, categories, or quantities.
We'll go into detail on this plugin for product specific coupons
  1. First Order - Limit the coupon to only apply to customers who have less than a specified number of orders
If you want to create a First Purchase Promotion for your store, contact us, we'll help pay for it!
  1. Excludes Discounts - Limit the coupon to only apply on non-sale items or items without the "NODISCOUNT" tag
We strongly suggest using this plugin for every coupon to prevent "double dipping"
  1. Geo - Limit the coupon to only apply to a specific geographic area
  2. Customer Specific - Limit the coupon to only apply to specific customer IDs

Make sure to click continue after each plugin that you activate to save the setting.

Step 4. Review and Save

Once you've gone through all of the plugins, you'll be able to review the options you've selected and then click "Create" to save your coupon.

Product Specific Discount

A product specific discount uses the category and product plugin to limit the coupon to only apply on certain products, categories or quantities.
If you're looking to create a case discount, that's best done as an automatic discount
Create the coupon by following the steps above

Category and Product Plugin

In this plugin, there are several different ways to limit the coupon to certain products.
  1. Select a filter from the dropdown menu to choose how to filter the products. Some of the more popular filters are:
    1. Views - Choose from the categories of products in your store (wine, beer, spirits, etc)
    2. POS ID - Enter the SKUs from your POS that you want the coupon to apply to
    3. Tags - Enter the product tag that you want the coupon to apply to
    4. Size - Choose the size of product you want the coupon to apply to (750mL)
  2. If there is a minimum or maximum quantity of products, you can enter that here.
The checkboxes are advanced features that will be covered in a future article

Free Delivery/Shipping

Free delivery/shipping coupons can give a 100% discount on any delivery/shipping fees you charge, or a specific amount.
Create a coupon by following the steps above.

Step 1. Create the coupon

Follow the steps above for creating a coupon as you normally would, except for the discount amount put "0". Then continue through the rest of the discount plugins, filling out any necessary parameters. 

Step 2. Navigate to Add Ons - Discount Feature

Just before the Summary screen where you can review the details of the coupon, you'll find the discount feature section.

Step 3. Set delivery/shipping discount

Each coupon can only give a discount on either delivery or shipping, not both. Choose which you would like to provide by checking the box next the option. For free delivery/shipping, enter 100 in the discount amount, then check the percentage box. This will give 100% off the delivery/shipping fee. For a dollar based coupon, just enter the amount in the discount amount field (for example $5 off a $10 fee). Make sure to click continue to save.

If you have any questions or need a more advanced coupon, contact the support team at support@cityhive.net

    • Related Articles

    • Create A Case Discount

      Introduction Case discounts are a great way to incentivize customers to buy more while only sacrificing a small part of your margin. The most popular case discount is 10-20% off 12 bottles of wine, but our system supports many forms. Another name for ...

    • Create an Automatic Discount

      Introduction There are two types of discounts available in the City Hive Merchant Dashboard; coupons and automatic discounts. In this article, we'll go over how to create an automatic discount and several use cases for this type of discount. What is ...

    • Turn Off a Discount

      Step 1. Navigate to the promotions menu Find the promotions menu in the Merchant Dashboard by going to the left hand orange menu bar, and clicking on the price tag icon. Coupons and Automatic Discounts are turned off the same way. Step 2. Find the ...

    • How to Build 2 for $X Coupons

      Note: This method will work for any # for $ coupons (ex. 3 for $24, 4 for $20, etc.) Step 1. Navigate to the promotions section of the Merchant Dashboard Create a coupon of your choice, either automatic discount or coupon code. We recommend using an ...

    • How to Build Buy One, Get One Coupons

      Step 1. Navigate to the Coupons section of the Merchant Dashboard Step 2. Create a new coupon Name the coupon and fill out the description. When choosing the discount amount, it depends on what kind of BOGO deal you're offering. A good rule of thumb ...