CHAPTER 4 Discounts

The Discount page is where quantity discounts are set up. Quantity discounts are discounts that are applied when a certain number of the same product is purchased. Applying quantity discounts is a great way to motivate customers to buy, which will in turn increase your sales. The Discounts menu is shown below.

Quantity Discounts are tiered such that different discount amounts can be triggered at different quantity levels. For instance, a discount can define that when 1 through 10 items are purchased there is a 5 percent discount, and when 11 or more are purchased there is a 10 percent discount. The levels of discounting will appear in a table form with the ability to add as many rows as needed.

Adding a Discount

To add a discount, click the Add button from the Discounts menu. This will open the Add Discount form shown below.

Enter the name of the discount. This is used only for identifying the discount within the Merchant Administration. It is not displayed to the customer.
If you want this discount to automatically apply to all products in your store, check the Global Discount option. If you do not set this as a global discount, you will have to assign this discount to specific products from the product editing interfaces for it to be effective.
Indicate whether this discount will apply to all groups, or to selected groups. If you are selecting groups, highlight the groups in the list that are eligible to receive the discount. For further information, see "Discounts, Groups, and Products" later in this chapter.
Enter the minimum and maximum quantities that must be purchased to receive the discount. Enter the amount of discount that applies to the quantities entered. Also indicate whether the discount is a flat amount or a percentage to be subtracted from the product price. You can leave the minimum or maximum blank, which will indicate no minimum or maximum for that row.
Repeat step 3 until all quantity ranges and amounts are defined for the discount. You can add a row by pressing the More Rows button and remove a row by pressing the Less Rows button.
When you have finished editing the quantity ranges and amounts, click the Update button to save changes.

Discounts, Groups, and Products

In AbleCommerce, merchants have the ability to define groups and to manage the members of these groups. The groups can be used together with discounts to make special membership pricing rules. When groups are configured, you have the ability to restrict a discount to a specific group (or groups) of customers.

An example of membership pricing might be to define a discount that gives 10 percent off all product prices. To do so, simply create a discount that has one quantity range, the minimum is set to 1 and the maximum is left blank to indicate no maximum. Then the amount is set to 10 and this is marked Percentage Off.

Now this discount can be assigned to a group that contains customers who have purchased membership in your store. If you did not choose the Global Discount option, the last required step would be to assign products to the discount. This would be accomplished from the product editing interfaces.

Special consideration should be taken if you have multiple groups or multiple discounts. Customers can belong to any number of groups. Discounts can be assigned to any number of groups. Products can have any number of discounts attached. In these situations, AbleCommerce will automatically calculate the best possible price for the customer based on all available discounts and group memberships.