Sales: Call 877.832.5289 (N America)Community Chat v.2 - Thursday, August 9th 11 AM PST
Posted by RoyRubin on Monday, August 06, 2007 |11 comments
We had a great turnout last week for our inaugural community chat. The ambitious plans to discuss a wide array of topics was scaled back and concentrated on US Taxes, Coupons/Promotions (see transcript below) and Taxonomies (specifically integration with 3rd party providers). It was an absolute success and the conversation was flowing. Seems ya'll have a lot to say 
That said, we are already looking forward to our v.2 community chat, happening on Thursday, August 9th at 11 AM PST. We'll discuss user registrations, product search, and more (should time allow). Get those screenshots ready (we love 'em!).
We are opening this up for everyone across the world ... but, here's the catch ... there are only (roughly) 20 spots available.
Interested? We'd love to hear from you.
Step 1 - Contact Us
Step 2 - Get online on Thursday bright and early to ensure you have a spot
| Topic: Coupons / Promotions | |
| Roy R. | Outside of the standard percent off, fixed amt, minimum order coupons (and combinations of) what are some creative promotions/coupons that you've seen? |
| Matt G. | free shipping |
| Josh P. | We use free shipping coupons a lot. |
| Josh P. | And "Get X Product for free" coupons. |
| Scott S. | buy one get one (free|% off|$ off|specific product|multiple product choice) |
| Brandon E. | Free shipping definitely |
| Brandon E. | ability to restrict to certain products |
| Brandon E. | or exclude certain products |
| Josh P. | Ability to restrict to a group of products is huge. |
| Brandon E. | I've also had a lot of clients request the ability to do buy one get one or by 3 get 20% off |
| Brandon E. | not sure how to handle those |
| Matt G. | ability to limit coupons to one user per customer. |
| Matt G. | etc |
| Scott S. | as far as free/promotional shipping goes, I have a client on the east coast who can afford to ship free up to the mississippi river, but beyond, costs are increasingly greater after that point... |
| Nathan P. | What about upgrade to a better shipping method?\ |
| Scott S. | I've also seen free shipping on only one product, whereas the other items in the order are charged for shipping |
| Chris M. | For the appearance of free shipping to the customer, do you restrict it to a certain method (ground) and $0 that out, or do you just offer a new method Free Shipping which the customer selects? |
| Josh P. | On our free shipping we offer free on Parcel. If you want it faster, you can pay full price for Priority or Express. |
| Brandon E. | @Scott - I think if you allow to restrict based on product, and offer the coupon as free shipping, it should do just that |
| Scott S. | amazon adds an otherwise unseen shipping option for their free shipping, I think they call it super saver shipping... |
| Matt G. | we run into restrictions for free shipping coupon like lower 48 (not free for AK, HI, International) |
| Brandon E. | A new shipping option would be fine, as long as it was triggered by the coupon and not available to everyone |
| Nathan P. | Same here Matt, good point. |
| Brandon E. | I don't want to offer free shipping to everyone |
| Brandon E. | The ability to create a coupon for a specific CUSTOMER would be nice |
| Scott S. | What about promotions based on a certain order amount, quantity, etc? |
| Matt G. | we have offered a discount of the lowest shipping cost, so intl, hi, ak customers get a lowered shipping rate |
| Brandon E. | we often give them a credit, but giving them a discount would be a great way to apologize for messing up an order, etc |
| Josh P. | Yeah. We do a lot of "Orders of $100 get free shipping" |
| Josh P. | of=over |
| Moshe G. | @Brandon - how about customer group? |
| Matt G. | @brandon the customer specific option would be great |
| Josh P. | Well specific customer implies the customer is registered |
| Josh P. | Right? |
| Josh P. | If you just create a coupon and limit it to 1 use and give that to the customer...that would work as well. |
| Matt G. | how about automatic promotions/coupon with no code needed. |
| Brandon E. | @Moshe - that would be great too |
| Matt G. | like orders over $100 for example |
| Scott S. | Well, I've had clients who offer certain promotions to a group of customers who are marked as a member of a certain group within the ecommerce system, so that promotions are automatically calculated |
| Brandon E. | promotions and coupons are different, I think |
| Brandon E. | I perceive coupons as a code that people have to enter at checkout to get |
| Brandon E. | I'd love to be able to create promotions similar to coupons though |
| Moshe G. | @Brandon - it looks like coupon is just one more condition to promotion |
| Nathan P. | I agree with that statement (mainly). Coupons in my mind are external promotions, other types mentioned are internal promotions. |
| Scott S. | for instance: customer groups such as restaurants, hotels, grocery stores (these are groups listed in the system of a food supplier) |
| Brandon E. | also, don't see it mentioned but I think coupons should have an expiration date |
| Nathan P. | or.. "in-store" promotions as they're called. |
| Scott S. | the client offers discounted prices on products as well as other promotions |
| Brandon E. | so maybe have a "promotions" and offer a selection to whether it's automatic or by coupon code? |
| Roy R. | What type of information would you expect from a coupon report (from both a financial and marketing/conversion perspective)? |
| Scott S. | What about promotions where there's more than one reward for an action, such as by 3 of product X and get a discounted price AND free shipping? |
| Scott S. | Primarily, I just want to make sure that type of functionality works and is well tested... |
| Scott S. | I've ran into some issues with it in the past. |
| Brandon E. | I'd want to be able to run a report to see how many times the coupon code was entered, and maybe a list of all customers/orders associated with the coupon |
| Nathan P. | From a reporting perspective, I would like to see a complete funnel report based on an email campaign. I assume that's how users would get the coupon code in general. |
| Scott S. | Maybe conversion goals could be tracked for both orders with coupons and without. |
| Nathan P. | Otherwise, we would do most of our reporting in our financial statement analysis and consider coupons as a deduction from gross sales. |
| Brandon E. | I track conversion goals through Analytics, but would love to be able to setup goals in my e-commerce software and track within |
| Brandon E. | but that's not just coupons, it's for all conversionsx |
| Ryan B. | I agree w/ Brandon |
| Scott S. | I do as well. |
| Matt G. | Kind of related... we offer packages of products (with a discounted package price). So when someone adds all the product individually, the ability to realize this and offer the same discount. |
| Brandon E. | Right now I setup goals in Analytics for sales in general and also through major channels |
| Roy R. | @Matt - so it sounds like a virtual bundle of some kind? |
| Matt G. | basically |
| Yoav K. | one more question on coupons - does anybody allow multiple coupons per order? or is it usually limited to one coupon per order? |
| Scott S. | interesting |
| Josh P. | @Yoav: We only allow one. |
| Nathan P. | That's a great idea Matt! |
| Ryan B. | What I am looking for is a very flexible coupon system -- with the ability to add in coupon codes and define what exactly that coupon applies to -- current ecommerce usually only offer options such as free shipping or a percentage off -- but what if I'd like to add a few calendar for orders over $75 for example -- |
| Scott S. | coupons, maybe just one, promotions could be many |
| Matt G. | Yoav - we have a flag for coupons to weather it's exclusive or not |
| Josh P. | We actually only allow one coupon ever over promos. So like you can't use your 10% off coupon AND get free shipping on your order over $100. |
| Scott S. | but it may be a good option when setting up a coupon to mark that it can be used with other offer |
| Scott S. | offers* |
| Ryan B. | free calendar, not few -- lol |
| Nathan P. | It would be nice to have an option to select what restrictions apply. |
| Ryan B. | yup |
| Brandon E. | multiple coupons would be fine for one-product coupons if they have multiple products -- for instance I might have a coupon for $20 off a specific printer and $10 off a toner cartridge |
| Nathan P. | I would like to restrict to different variables (max promotion, min promotion, etc.) |
| Brandon E. | they should both work if they don't conflict |
| Matt G. | also related are miniminum advertised pricing... we have several product that need coupon code or add to cart functionality to get the discount. |
| Brandon E. | but it should be an option that a coupon (like 20% off total order) won't work with any other coupons |
| Moshe G. | @Brandon - that sounds like multi-tier coupon discount right? same coupon code affects different products differently |
| Scott S. | maybe coupons marked as usable with other promotions are only usable with other promotions marked as the same |
| Brandon E. | @Moshe... not necessarily. Coupons can apply to one product (or several) or the whole order. There should be a setting to whether or not the coupon can be used with other coupons. If it is checked, if they overlap (i.e. a product specific coupon and total order coupon used) it wont work |
| Brandon E. | but two coupons that do not apply to one another would be okay together |
| Brandon E. | I think Staples has a pretty good coupon system actually |
| Brandon E. | I order from them a lot and they send out a LOT of coupons |
| Brandon E. | you can add coupons to your cart much like you add a product |
| Brandon E. | by clicking a link in the email or website, or by entering a code |
| Brandon E. | and they work very well, as far as recognizing conflicts and notifying the user |
| Scott S. | that sounds like a good option |
| Nathan P. | That makes sense to me too. So if coupon A is a subset promotion of coupon B's promotion, there should be an option to prevent the use of both coupon A & B. |
| Scott S. | I like being able to visually see the promotions |
| Scott S. | How about a "choose one" dialog when two conflicting coupons are entered? |
| Nathan P. | That's an interesting idea. |
| Scott S. | Or some way to allow the user to choose which they'd prefer |
| Nathan P. | Something like... you can't use both, so which do you prefer? |
| Roy R. | anyone seen this on a site before? |
| Scott S. | not as far as I recall |
| Nathan P. | I'm trying to envision coupon collisions in general from a user experience perspective. You enter coupon A... the discount is applied. Then you enter coupon B. What happens if there is a collision? |
| Scott S. | The Staples site might do something like this if you can get ahold of two conflicing coupons |
| Brandon E. | Staples coupons |
| Brandon E. | 7720 2873 2296 xxxx |
| Brandon E. | $20 off $100 order |
| Scott S. | Although, I'm guessing the user would rather choose the option that get's them the cheapest order, am I right? |
| Brandon E. | 7395 0217 2307 xxxx |
| Brandon E. | $25 off $100 order |
| Brandon E. | neither has been used yet |
| Brandon E. | (please don't use 'em)  |
| Scott S. | are they one time use? |
| Scott S. | http://www.retailmenot.com/ is the site I use for coupon codes |
| Brandon E. | Yes |
| Brandon E. | one time use |
| Brandon E. |  |
| Brandon E. | Staples cart with both coupons added |
| Brandon E. | I think it displays the conflict on checkout |
| Roy R. | can you post a screenshot of the conflict in the checkout? |
| Roy R. | (these screenshots are really helpful for us) |
| Scott S. | Brandon, hope you choose something you want to buy |
| Scott S. | Roy, what about a batch coupon code creation utility for use in email campaigns? Something that can be uniquely sent to the people on your mailing list perhaps? |
| Scott S. | And tracked, as well. |
| Roy R. | We thought about it, Scott. You may see that in the future |
| Scott S. | Cool |
| Nathan P. | Scott, can you explain the benefit of this? |
| Brandon E. | Sorry, it's asking me to enter payment info... |
| Brandon E. | Ironically |
| Brandon E. | It took both coupons |
| Roy R. | no problem - we'll go on, post it whenever you have it (if you do) |
| Brandon E. | Ah |
| Brandon E. |  |
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2Dave |posted August 7 2007
Another issue I’ve run into with free shipping. You should be able to control it by some sort of zone. For example I only want to do free shipping to US customers. International customers still need to pay the regular price.
3Orajen |posted August 7 2007
Banana Republic and Gap also do a lot of coupons/promotions like “Enter BRCARD for free shipping when you use your Banana Republic credit card” or SAVE15 for 15% off orders over $150. You cna use both as long as you fulfill the requirements.
Another thing we currently do is use one coupon/promotion/gift card entry spot for all discounts. It’s just the code/promo that tells our back-end what type of discount it is and our rules do everything from there.
4Scott |posted August 7 2007
Dave, I brought up a similar issue in the above chat (see line 14) whereas a client of mine on the east coast can only offer free shipping to customers east of the Mississippi River. Beyond that, costs are exponentially greater. Shipping to Hawaii/Alaska/Puerto Rico bring up a similar issue. I’m curious to see what they will come up with as a solution for such an issue as we’ve encountered.
5Brian |posted August 7 2007
One-time use is a very important feature for me. “Use this code for 15% off your next order” - hard to find in most off-the-shelf shopping carts. Does anyone know of one that offers that functionality?
And what happens with a multi-ship order? Do the discounts apply to every destination address? What if each one uses a different ship method?
6Ian |posted August 8 2007
Don’t focus solely on the US, its ecommerce suicide! Not sure if mentioned in the above chat (i skimmed it) but did anyone put across the ability to place a value on a product by means of a discount code, i.e. product X at £Y instead of £Z? Time and time again shopping carts only allow currency or percentage discounts, which aren’t ideal if you have different products for the same customer, or they haven’t decided on a specific quality so currency discounts are no use. Just a thought
7YoavKutner |posted August 8 2007
@Ian - Magento’s Coupons will support, using the Shopping Cart Price Rules, the ability to set a percent off, set a fixed amount off, set the item price to a new fixed price and set the item price to a new percent of the original price.
8Scott |posted August 14 2007
How will large orders be handled as far as shipping?
Sometimes orders and shipping need to be split into multiple packages and calculated separately once they pass certain weight checkpoints. Other products are just too big to fit in a package as part of a larger order and need to be sent by itself. How do you plan to implement such a feat?
9roy from Los Angeles, CA|posted August 14 2007
Scott - We currently don’t expect to provide full fulfillment functionality (packaging, shipping labels, etc.) until Beta3 (this may be adjusted as well). Beta1, however, will support creation of invoices at the time of shipping. This allows the Store Owners to ship and fulfill multiple packages at different times per order.
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