The Customer Discount parameter allows you to set up and maintain automatic discounts for selected customers. You can set up as many customer discount parameters as you need.
To access the Customer Discount parameter:
Select Tool-Administration-Parameters from the [i] Merchant Desktop. From the list of parameters, select AutoDiscountID. The Customer Discounts program will open.
Once in Customer Discounts, the first thing you will see is the code-description screen, where all customer discount codes and accompanying descriptions are listed. To access an existing code:
Highlight the row of the code you want to access. Once highlighted, click on the Properties button at the top of the screen, or simply press Enter. The Properties screen for the selected code appears.
To create a new code:
Select File-New-Parameter from the menu at the top of the screen. The Discount Code Properties screen will appear, with all the fields blank.
The Properties screen has four basic fields: Code, Description, % Amount, and Rule.
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Note: |
When setting up a code for the first time, only the Discount Code and Description fields initially appear. After filling those in, click on File at the top of the screen, then select Add Discount Rule. The % Amount and Rule fields will then display. If you want to add another Rule to an existing code, select Add Discount Rule from the File menu. A new line will appear under the last line under both the % Amount and Rule fields. |
The Discount Code is the code you designate for this particular discount. It can be alpha or numeric, or a combination. Just make sure that each discount has a unique code.
The Description is where you describe the discount. For example, if the discount is for schools, then the description might be, "school discount." Choose something that makes sense to you.
The % Amount and Rule fields work together. Though the % Amount field comes first on the screen, it makes sense to discuss the Rule field first.
Within the particular customer discount parameter, which items in your store do you want discounted? Take the discount for schools. If a customer is purchasing items for a school (i.e., a school customer), which store items do you want automatically discounted for them? Just textbooks? Textbooks and school supplies? Another combination? Or everything in your inventory, with no restrictions? That is where the Rule field comes into play.
If you want the selected customer to have an automatic discount on everything in the store:
From the File menu at the top of the screen, select Add Discount Rule. The % Amount field and Rule field will appear if you are setting up a new code. At this point, leave the Rule field set to "All Items." If you do this, there are no restrictions. The discount is good on everything in your store.
Then, in the %Amount field, key in the percent off you want the customer to have for all items in the store. If you want it at 10%, enter that, or whichever percentage you want.
Now, when a customer assigned with this discount code purchases anything in your store, he or she will get 10% (or whatever you set the percentage) off the regular price.
Note:
The cashier can override this automatic discount at the POS. If the cashier manually enters a percentage in the Discount % fields at the POS, that will override the automatic discount established here.
If you want to establish restrictions on what is discounted for a discount code (i.e., not everything in the store will be discounted), then you need to establish a Rule.
From the File menu at the top of the screen, select Add Discount Rule. When the Rule field initially appears, it will be set to "All Items."
Click on the word "All Items." You are taken to the Discount Find window. This is where you either select an existing rule or create a new one.
At the top of the Discount Find window, there are two options: Discount Query and Filter By. The second option--Filter By--allows you either to view rules only you created or rules everyone has created. A submenu will appear with the word "Me" on top and "All Users" underneath. Simply click on the one you want, and a black dot appears to the left of the selected choice. This is user-definable and up to you. Choose whichever makes the most sense. You can switch back and forth anytime you like, but the system will always default to the way you left it the last time you were in the Discount Find window.
The Discount Query option has three choices underneath: New, Delete, and Select.
Choose New to create a new rule. A message box appears where you need to key in the name of the new rule. Click on OK when you are finished keying in the name, then set up the parameters for the new rule. To understand how to do this, just keep reading. (More on Delete and Select in a bit.)
If you want to view a rule already on the system, click on the arrow at the right of the field in the top left corner of the Discount Find window. All of the existing rules (or all of the existing rules only you created if you set the Filter By field to "Me") appear in a dropdown list. Simply click on the one you want. Its parameters display in the Discount Find window.
If you want to delete the selected rule from the system:
With the rule selected, choose Delete from the Discount Query menu. The rule is deleted.
If you want to select the rule that is displayed in the Discount Find window:
Click on the Select button to the right of the field. Once you select a rule, you are returned to the Customer Discount screen, and the selected rule is listed under the Rule field.
Okay, how do you set up the parameters for a rule? If you want a rule to establish only mass market paperbacks be discounted, how do you establish that within a rule? It's easy.
To define the selection criteria for the new rule:
Choose the category you want to define in the Select Field field by clicking on the down arrow at the right of the field. A pulldown list of categories appears. Click on the one you want. Once selected, it displays in the Select Field field. For an example, let us say you selected Bindings.
In the Select Operation field, choose Like, equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or between.
In the Choose Value field, choose the value or values that define the selection criteria. With the Bindings example, say you chose "equal to" in the Select Operation field. If you then select MM (Mass Market) in the Choose Value field, the rule will apply to all inventory in your store with a binding code of MM.
For applicable categories (such as Bindings), there will be a binoculars icon at the right of the Choose Value field. If you need to view information on how to select a parameter in a code-driven field, please click here.
If you selected "between" in the Select Operation field, two fields will display under Choose Value. In the top field, choose the start value. In the bottom field, select the ending value. For example, if you selected Store Number in the Select Field field and you want the rule to apply to merchandise only between store numbers 1 and 5, you would select "between" in the Select Operation field, key in a 1 in the top Choose Value field, and key in a 5 in the bottom Choose Value field.
If you choose Publication Date (or any other date category) in the Select Operation field, a calendar will display if you click on the down arrow at the right of the Choose Value field. This is a convenient way for you to select a particular date.
Note:
If you choose Publication Date (or another date category) in the Select Operation field, the Choose Value field will automatically default to the current day's date. If you need to change that, instead of accessing the calendar and choosing a new date that way, you can simply highlight the default date and rekey the desired date.
Once you have set the fields the way you want, click on the Add button at the right of the Discount Find window. The criteria you just set will display in the Selected Ranges box. For example, if you selected a binding code of MM, "Bindings = MM [Mass Market]" will display in the Selected Ranges box.
Note:
If you want to blank out the search fields and begin again (prior to clicking on Add), click on the Cancel button. The search fields are blanked out.
Repeat the above process as many times as you want to define the criteria for the rule. Each time you establish a new set of criteria and click on the Add button, the new criteria will display in the Selected Ranges box. The more sets of criteria you select, the more specific the parameters of the rule will be. So, for example, you may set criteria for multiple categories in order to establish a well-defined, highly specific rule. Perhaps you want to establish the rule with the following specifications: Store Number 1, Bindings = MM, Publication Date >1/01/04. Simply define these criteria, one after the other, until all are set. When the rule is established, the discount will only apply to items that fall under all of these specifications. For example, if an item had been purchased from Store 1 (within the range you set), had a binding code of MM (also within the range you set), but was published prior to 1/01/04 (as you defined), then the item would not fall under the discount as established by this rule. To establish a less-defined rule, simply remove some of the criteria. There is no limit to the criteria. If you want to define 100 sets of criteria, you can.
To remove a set of criteria:
In the Selected Ranges box, highlight the criteria you want removed and click on the Remove button. The selected criteria is removed from the template.
When you are through creating the rule, select it for the discount code by clicking on the Select button at the top of the Discount Find window. (If you do not want to select the rule, then simply click on the "x" at the top of the Discount Find window.) Either way, the rule is saved automatically in your system.
Back at the Customer Discount screen, the rule you selected (if you selected one) in the Find Discount window now appears under the Rule field. If you click on the rule, you are taken back to the Find Discount window.
To the left of the rule, if you haven't already, establish the discount percentage under the %Amount field.
You can create as many rules as you want. Every time you create a new rule (by selecting File-Add Discount Rule from the menu at the top of the Customer Discount screen), a separate line is listed under the %Amount and Rule fields. So, in essence, you can set up one rule for a discount code or one hundred.
Within a discount code, the rules are tiered. If you set up two rules, the system will check an item against the parameters established in the first rule, then it will check against the parameters established in the second rule, and so on, if there are more than two rules. If the item a customer is buying does not match the parameters in rule 1 but does match the parameters in rule 2, the discount applies, and vice versa. But if, after checking the parameters in each rule, the system discovers that the purchased item does not match any of the rules, then it will not be discounted.
Also, the percentage off may vary among rules within a discount code. Items that fall within rule 1 may be discounted 20% (established in the % Amount field), but items that fall within rule 2 may be discounted only 15%.
Once you have filled in the four fields on the Customer Discount screen, click on the Close button. The system will prompt you to save your changes if you haven't. Once you return to the general Customer Discounts screen, where all discount codes are listed, the newly created code will now be there. You can establish as many customer discount codes as you want.
For information on how to delete codes from your system, click here.