Let's say that you want to send out a discount coupon with a coupon code to selected customers for a $5 discount off any product in the store.
1. First, let's make sure that the Discount Coupon module is enabled in your Zen Cart by going to your Zen Cart admin and selecting "Modules -> Order Total". It should show a green dot next to Discount Coupon. If not, select Discount Coupon and click Edit button to enable it.
2. Now to create the discount coupon, go to "Gift Certificate/Coupons -> Coupons Admin" in your Zen Cart admin.
3. This will take you to a page that lists all your coupons. Since we don't have any coupons right now, we will click the Insert button to add a new coupon.
4. In the simplest case, you would type in the coupon name, coupon description, and a number for the dollar amount that you want to give discount. The rest of the setting should be similar to as shown here ...
In this example, we do not require that the customer makes a minimum order amount in order to use the coupon, so we leave "Coupon Minimum Order" blank.
Since we are applying a $5 discount amount, do NOT checkmark free shipping. If you checkmark free shipping, ZenCart will ignore your discount amount and only apply free shipping to your customer. You either have one or the other -- not both. More about this in the below section about Discount Types.
We can leave the Coupon Code blank and Zen Cart will auto-generate a random coupon code for you. Alternatively, you can provide your own arbitrary coupon code there.
For "Uses per Coupon", we leave it empty to indicate no restriction. That means that you can give this coupon code to as many customers as you want. And they can all use it.
However, since we put "1" in Uses per Customer, each customer can only use the coupon once. If they had used the coupon code in an order and tries to use the same code in a second order, it will not work.
By default, the coupon expires in a year as noted in the End Date field. This date is based on your webhost's server clock.
5. When you have all your settings, click the preview button. And in the next page, Zen Cart had auto-generated our coupon code. Click Confirm in order to save and activate this coupon.
6. You now see an active coupon listed under "Gift Certificate/Coupons -> Coupon Admin" with the coupon code shown.
7. Now you can simply type up a regular email to anyone and tell them what the coupon code is. But in order to use the coupon, they would eventually have to register in your store as a customer. Or you can even give them the coupon code over the phone, or put the coupon code in advertisement posters or newsletters.
8. Alternatively, you can select the coupon in the coupon list and click the email button. This enables you to send this coupon to all Zen Cart customers, or to just customers who have never made a purchase, or even specific customers as you can see below...
For the purpose of this example, we'll select "all customers".
9. Next, type in the subject line of the email and the body of the message. Note that your admin email address has already been filled in and will be the "from address" of the email that is being sent out. You don't have to put the coupon code in the body of the message, because ZenCart will append that code in the email when it sends it out. Click the send mail button...
10. You get another page that previews your email.
Click the send mail button again to really send out the emails.
11. You will be taken back to the coupon list page with a confirmation that the mail have been sent successfully.
12. Below is what the email that Zen Cart sent out looks like ...
Now suppose I am the customer who is looking at this $13.95 tee-shirt ...
After logging in and proceeding through checkout, the customer will see the following discount coupon entry field in step 2 of the checkout process ...
And in the next step of the checkout process, you see that the discount coupon has been applied to the total...
Now as admin, you can see how many customers have redeemed their coupons by going back to "Gift Certificate/Coupons -> Coupon Admin", selecting the coupon, and clicking the Report" button...
And it will show which customers redeemed the coupon on which date...
Currently the types of discounts that Zen Cart allows you to offer is either ...
a) A fixed discounted dollar amount (for example discount of $5). This was the example that we used above.
b) A discount percentage such as 5 percent off. In this case type "5%" with the percent symbol ...
c) Or free shipping. In this case, checkmark the free shipping box and leave the coupon amount blank.
You can create a coupon for either (a), (b), or (c). You can not have a combination such as $5 off and free shipping. If free-shipping is checkmarked, you can not have a discount amount.
Furthermore, you can restrict the coupon to be applicable to only certain products or categories. Just click the restrictions buttons in "Gift Certificates/Coupons -> Coupon Admin" ...
For example ...
The rules can get complex, so make sure you test it out before sending out the codes.
