Stop discounts stacking: sale prices, coupons and quantity tiers
Each of your offers can be sensible by itself. The problem starts when a customer’s cart qualifies for three of them at once. The price they pay is then lower than any offer you designed, and you only see it in your profit report.
An example
A product costs you 8. Its normal price is 20, and it’s on sale for 16.
| Step | Price each |
|---|---|
| Normal price | 20.00 |
| Sale price | 16.00 |
| Quantity discount, 3 items get 10% | 14.40 |
| Coupon, 10% off | 12.96 |
The customer pays 12.96, a discount of about 35% from the normal price, and your profit per item is 4.96, a margin of 38%. None of the three offers looked dangerous. Together they cost you more than a third of the price.
Decide the rules before the offers
For every product, choose one main offer and decide whether the others may be added on top. Then write it down.
| Question | Typical answer |
|---|---|
| May a quantity discount apply to a sale item? | Usually no, as the sale is already the incentive |
| May a coupon work with a quantity discount? | Only for loyalty or welcome offers, with a limit |
| May two plugins discount the same item? | No |
Sale items
A product already on sale is discounted at its sale price, unless you tell the shop otherwise. If a quantity discount on top of a sale gives away too much, exclude sale items from it.
Coupons
Most shops allow coupons on everything by default. Review them:
- Limit a code by date, number of uses and a minimum order.
- For products with a quantity discount, decide whether a coupon can be used with it.
- Treat “free shipping” coupons separately. They don’t lower the price of items.
Rounding
Rounding makes small differences that add up. A 10% discount on 9.99 is 8.991, which is rounded to 8.99. Three items then cost 26.97. Work out the price of one item first and round that, then multiply by the quantity, so customers can check the sum on a calculator.
Never let a discount raise a price
A fixed price that is higher than the product’s current price must not be applied. A discount should only ever lower the price a customer pays, and a product priced at 0 should stay at 0.
Two discount plugins, one item
If you run a bundle plugin and a quantity discount plugin, make sure an item in a bundle isn’t discounted again as a quantity. Test it with a bundle that contains an item with a quantity discount.
Test the cart
Run these checks before you publish an offer:
- Add a product to the cart in each quantity of your tiers. Note the price.
- Add a sale product and check it again.
- Apply a coupon and check it again.
- Check the order in your dashboard and see what each line says.
- Look at the lowest price a customer can reach. Is your margin still acceptable?
Doing this with C4D Buy More Save More
C4D Buy More Save More has two settings on its Advanced tab: Do not discount products that are already on sale, and Allow the tier discount together with coupons. A discount never makes a price go up, a product priced at 0 is never discounted, and the discounted price of one item is rounded first. Items that are part of a C4D Product Bundle are left out, so the two plugins don’t discount the same item twice. The details are in Tiers. If you haven’t chosen your tiers yet, start with how to choose quantity discount tiers. The plugin is coming to WordPress.org soon.