The Timestone Internet Ordering System (IOS) includes the ability to generate coupons that can be used online to discount an order. The coupons can then be used by an online customer at checkout to discount the order total by a fixed amount or by a percentage.
The coupons are generated in the site’s Control Panel. Apart from the discount level, other parameters can be defined for a coupon such as:
an expiry date
a limit to the number of uses for the coupon
a minimum spend requirement
Further Reading: Dynamic Price Lists
A popular method for discounting prices is by using conditional price lists, which dynamically change the prices of Packages when user-defined conditions are met.
Conditional price lists are often used instead of (or in addition to) coupons.
Connecting to the Control Panel
Coupons are defined in the Coupon object of the Control Panel. Access to the control panel is found by navigating to https://{yoursite}/control-panel and is protected by the same credentials used when logging into tsIOS.
Figure 1: The Coupon Page in the site control panel
To create a New Coupon, click the + New Button. Coupons that are already made can be edited by double-clicking on the coupon code in the table of created coupons.
Defining coupons
Defining coupon codes is simply a matter of giving the coupon a code and a discount amount, either as a fixed amount or a percentage of the order. All other parameters are optional.
The following can be defined for a coupon:
Code
Expiration date
Number of uses
Minimum spend amount
Fixed Discount amount
Percentage Coupon Amount
Free Delivery
NOTE
Percentage discounts are only applied to the value of the products in the cart, and are not applied to tax and postage fees.
100% discount (bypass payment) codes
A coupon defined with a 100% discount (and no other parameters) acts to completely bypass the payment gateway. Such a coupon is very popular for internal use, where staff can enter orders into IOS without payment.
The code CSR_PKG_25, from Figure 1, is an example of such a code that allows anyone who possesses the code (probably a customer service representative) to input an order into IOS for no cost. The 100% discount also inherently waives the shipping costs. Its Configuration is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The management page for coupon CSR_PKG_25
NOTE
Leave all other parameters blank when creating a 100% discount (bypass payment) coupon.
Expiry date
To avoid confusion and variation as to the format for entering the date, it is highly recommended that the user set the date using the Calendar option built into the panel. This option bypasses the need to decipher the date order (month/day/year Vs day/month/year).
Coupons expire at 11:59 PM site time on the date set.
The Coupon below is an example that has both a Minimum spent and an expiration date.
Figure 3: A 25% off coupon with an expiration date of December 31, 2025, and a minimum spend of $10
Applying the Coupon Code
The coupon is entered as the final step of the checkout page of IOS. The customer will type the given code into the appropriate box (Figure 4) and click Apply to use the coupon. The site then displays the adjusted price of the customer’s shopping cart.
Figure 4: The Coupon input area of the checkout page
FAQ
Does the coupon code appear in emails?
Optionally yes. If it’s not in your emails now, please contact us and we will add it.
Are the coupons in any reports?
At time of writing the coupon appears in the Orders Mode of tsPortal reports and in some of the tsPortal reports. It will be added to the Online Reports in due course.
Can we hide the coupon area on the site? I don’t use them. Customers see this and call us asking “where’s my coupon?”
Yes, if you never use coupons, this area of the site can be removed completely. Alternatively, we can change the wording of it to say something like “Office Use Only” so you can still use it for customer service but it won’t mention coupon so your customers will ignore it.