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33.12. Creating Retail Promo Codes
To create a retail promo code, go to the "Settings" page under "Invoicing" and click the "Pencil" icon next to "Manage Item Templates".
On the "Browse Item Templates" page, click the "+Create Item Template" button and choose either "Discount ($)" or "Discount (%)".
On the "Create Item Template" page you will have various options depending on the type of discount you choose to create.
The "Name" of the item will be the name you and your staff see. The "Description" will be what your guests see on their invoice.
Once you have completed all of the fields on the "Create Item Template" screen, click "Submit" to save your changes.
After you have created your discount item template you will be returned to the "Browse Item Templates" page. On the "Browse Item Templates" page, locate your new discount item template. From the "Tool" menu next to your item template choose "Automate".
On the "Automate" screen. Enter the name and description of the promotion. These names and descriptions can be different than what you used to create the item template originally if you want a way to distinguish between when the item was applied via promo code or when it was applied to an invoice manually. Most often the name and description will match what you created on the item template originally.
In the "Applies To" drop down, select "Retail Items". This will adjust the form to be used for retail items. In the "Retail Items" menu, you can choose between "All retail items", "Specific items (by UPC code)" or "Items in specific categories (including subcategories)".
The "Specific Items (by UPC)" option will allow you to select specific items you would like to include in the promotion. If you have some items that use item variants and some that are just single items, the list will return all of the variants and single items in the options to choose from. This is great if you want to put older variants on sale to clear them out but don't want the discount to apply to newer stock.
If you have a lot of items in your retail store, you can quickly locate specific items by starting to type the name of the item in the "Search Bar".
Doing this will bring up all the items with the name entered or that contain the word you entered.
Also once your items are selected, to help you easily see which items you have added to the promotion, you can click the "Show selected only" check box to see just the items you have added to your promotion for quick verification of what has been selected and to ensure you didn't miss an item you wanted to include.
The "Items in specific categories (including subcategories)" option will allow you to select items for your promotion based on the categories you have set up for your e-commerce store. (Settings->E-commerce->Manage Categories). If you have not set up any categories for your e-commerce store no options will be available here.
You can select as many categories as you like to include in your promotion.
After you have selected how you want your promotion to apply, you will enter the promo code you wish to use for the promotion. Codes can 3-16 characters in length and use a mix of letters and numbers.
The "Active" field should be set to "yes" to ensure your code will be usable by your guests. If the "Active" field is set to "no", anyone who enters the code will not receive the discount associated with it. You can use this to disable promotions that are not applying as expected or for promotions you are not quite ready to make live for use. For example, a BlackFriday promo code you plan to email out a few days before your sale officially starts and so don't want guests to be able to use the code early.
The final field is the "Expiration Date" field, if your promotion should expire on a specific date you can set an expiration for the promotion but if the promo code will be something you use regularly, for example a code you send to your guests to encourage them to pick up some gear for their upcoming trips, you can leave the expiration date blank and the code will work as long as the items the guest is purchasing are included in your promotion and as long as the "Active" field is set to "yes".
The completed form will look something like this:
In the next section we will cover how to use retail promo codes both online and in the retail terminal.
If you have any questions or run into any challenges creating retail promo codes, contact support and we will be happy to help.