Offers are set up at the register: open Checkout and choose Offers (discounts, packages, gift cards). Each kind is its own tab, shown when it is switched on in Settings, Menu. Loyalty is set up under Settings, Menu, in What you use.
Coupon codes and automatic discounts
A code typed at checkout can:
- take a percent or an amount off,
- take more off the more is bought (2 or more, 10% off; 3 or more, 15% off),
- take off some of what is bought when enough is bought (buy 2, get 1 free),
- or make the shipping on an online order free.
To make one, open Offers, choose the codes tab and add a code: what it takes off, what it works on (products only, or only some collections), the first and last day, how many times it can be used and whether once for each customer, and which other codes it can be used with. It can be kept to clients with some tags.
With automatic discounts switched on, a discount Applies itself with no code: at quiet times (on some days, between some hours), for tagged clients, or more off the more is bought.
A code comes off after any discount typed by hand and after a membership.
Bundles
A bundle is a few products or services sold together at one price, or a box the buyer fills with so many of the products in some collections (any 3 for $60). Sell it at the register, in the online store, or both. Codes and automatic discounts do not come off a bundle: its price is its discount.
Packages
A package is a set of visits for one service, paid for up front: ten blow-dries, a pack of eight classes. Sell it at checkout; each later visit is then paid with one of them (Package visit at the register), and the client's record shows what is left. Set how many days it is good for.
Memberships
A member pays the plan's price each period and gets a standing percent off. Make the plan under Memberships, then sell or renew it at checkout like anything else; the discount is taken off for them on every sale after that. A workflow can remind members before a membership runs out.
Gift cards and store credit
A gift card is sold at checkout and spent at checkout; its code prints on the receipt. Store credit is the same thing kept for one client, made when a refund goes back as credit. The tab shows what is waiting to be spent. Gift cards can also be sold in the online store (see The online store and orders).
Use Gift cards to issue a card nobody is paying for (a prize, a make-good). A card someone buys is added to a sale instead, so the money is counted.
Loyalty points
- Open Settings, Menu. With loyalty on, find Loyalty Points.
- Switch on Give points on what clients spend.
- Set the Points for each $1, the Points it takes to redeem and What they take off. The card shows what that comes to as a percent back.
- Choose Save the points.
Points are earned at the register and online on services and products, after discounts and before tax and tips, and spent for money off at the register, or online when the customer is signed in. A refund takes back what it earned.
The loyalty card
Below the points, The Loyalty Card rewards so many visits: set the Visits to earn it and The reward, and choose Save the card. The client's record shows their card; when the reward is given, start it again.
Best practices
- Give every code a last day. An offer with no end becomes your price.
- Keep codes to the collections you mean them for, so a sale on one line never drags down another.
- Sell packages and memberships to regulars; they come back more often and pay up front.
- Make loyalty worth about 3% to 5% back. Much less goes unnoticed; much more is a discount you did not mean to give.
- Never hand-make a gift card for one someone paid for. Sell it, so the money is in the day's totals and the books.