Spark Pay online stores will allow you to offer specialized discounts to your customers. Using the powerful Discount Rules engine, you can set criteria that must be met before shoppers receive their discount. Here's a small sample of discounts that you can offer:

• Special sales any time of the year
• Discounts for purchasing over a set amount
• Free shipping
• Flat dollar amount discount
• Percentage discount
• Free gift with the customer's purchase
• Buy one, get one free promotions

To begin setting up discounts, log into the Administration Console and go to Marketing > Discounts.

After navigating to this page, you'll be presented with a list of your existing discount methods. You can edit or delete these methods, or create a new discount method:

To get started, let's click on the New button (top right corner). The next page will display some options:

• Method Name: When an order qualifies for the discount, this will appear in the shopping cart.
  
  • To avoid customer confusion, make this name as precise as possible (e.g. "$5 Discount" instead of "5disc").
• Method is Active: Refers to a discount currently activated. Leave this box unchecked if you do not want the discount to be available to customers at this time.
• Method is Strict: Enabling this forces ALL Discount Rules to be followed for the method to apply.
  • If you have five rules, all must be true for the customer to receive the discount. Unchecking the box allows for the discount to apply if only one rule out of a group is true.
  • There is no way to mix and match rules. For example,  you can't have five rules and allow the discount if three rules are satisfied. To accomplish this, you would need two methods for the item. One addressing the rules that ALL must follow and another method for rules where ANY can be followed.
• Use Only Once Per Customer: Sets the discount to expire after the customer's first use.
• Expires: Determines whether the discount is ongoing or will be discontinued.
• Expires on Date: The date on which your discount expires.
  • If you want your promotion to run through the 15th, set it to expire on the 16th.
  • Dates are based on Central Time.
• Remaining Uses: Leave blank for unlimited uses or define the number of uses. Example 2, 5, 10, 100 etc.
• Discount Action: Allows you to subtract a flat amount or percentage from the subtotal or shipping. This also permits adding an item to the order as a complimentary gift.

Once you are through making changes, click Save. You may also delete the entire discount by clicking on More Actions > Delete.

Discount Rules

The next step is to setup Discount Rules. Scroll to the Rules area on this screen and click on 'New Rule'

Some rules involve specific instructions, which are outlined under the Discount Rules area. Make sure to adhere to these instructions to prevent errors with your discount.

Store-Specific Discounts

Note that the Rule Option allows you to apply a discount to just one store by selecting Store from the Rule Type menu. Your store list appears on selection of the Store Rule, and selecting the appropriate store will set the discount to that store only.

Free and Discounted Items

Some of the most popular sales include adding a free product to the customer's order. Another popular option is applying a discount to a specific product. To implement these discounts, you will need an Item Number or SKU that identifies the product. If you've already assigned an Item Number to your product, you may look it up using the Product Search:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products >Search Products.
2. Click Search Options, for advanced Search options, enter your search options and click Search
3. The next page will display the items that match your criteria. The item number will be listed in the ItemNr column.

The product requires an Item Number before creating a discount. To set one: 

1. Click on the Edit Product Icon
   
   
   
2. Enter the Item Number and Click Save
   
   
   

Once you know your product's Item Number, you may go ahead and create the discount:

1. Navigate to Marketing > Discounts
2. Click the New button to create a New discount method.
3. Enter a name in the Method Name box.
4. ​If you want the product to be free, select Add Free Item To Cart from the first Discount Action drop-down menu. To discount the product, select Subtract from the first drop-down menu, then enter the desired amount in the box to the right.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Save. Once the discount method is saved, you'll be able to add your discount rules.
6. If the discount applies to any purchase of this item, create the following rule:
1. Select "total dollars" from the Rule Type drop-down menu.
2. Choose "greater than" from the Operator menu.
3. Enter "0" (without quotes) in the Target box.
7. Next, create the rule that's described below:
1. Select "an item in cart" from the Rule Type drop-down menu.
2. Enter the product's Item Number in the Target box.
3. Click Save to save your new rule

##ORDERDISCOUNTEDSUBTOTAL## -Add this merge code to the shopping cart HTML of the Theme Editor. To do this, navigate to Themes > Edit Theme > Pages > One Page Checkout and Shopping Cart.

This will need to be placed before any discount merges as well as the cart  total.

Useful Discount Method Articles

• Common Discount Types
• How to Create a Coupon Code
• Allow The Customer To Choose A Free Item From Product List
• What Merge Codes Are Available?