How to generate Promotion Code

If you want to start a promotion campaign, you can generate a promotion code with our system and test it in the powerful promotion sandbox. A promotion code usually consists of several numbers and letters. Your customers can enter it to gain a discount on their purchase. 

Before setting any promotion code, you need to define the promotion rule attached to it first. A promotion rule governs how a promotion campaign works, including but not limited to when it is applicable, and what effect it takes. To find more about promotion rules, you can refer to the 2 articles below,

• Promotion rules 
• Common promotion rules and how to generate them

If you have already generated your promotion rule, the next step is to attach it to a specific promotion code so that your customers can apply it easily. If you are not sure whether the promotion code works as you expect, you can always use the promotion sandbox to test it quickly. This article will introduce how to generate promotion code and how to use promotion sandbox for testing.

Generate a new Promotion Code

To generate a new promotion code, the first thing is to login on hq.bindo.com with your credentials, then at the sidebar, go to ‘Promotion Engine > Promotion Codes’, click the ‘New’ button in the bottom right corner.

Then, you just need to fill in the blanks step by step.

• Promotion Name: your e-commerce or mobile ordering app will display this name on the interface to indicate which promotion is applied to the given order
• Description: this is an optional field, to allow internal communication use.
• Promotion Code: this is a required field as you must enter it.What you fill in here will be what your customers need to enter to get their discount. So we suggest you to make it short and easy to remember. ‍
• Individual User Quota means how many times each single user can apply the promotion code. If you allow your customers to use it unlimitedly, you should leave this field empty.
• ‍Total Quota limits the total applicable times of the promotion code. For example, you want it only applicable for the first 50 orders, then you can set the Total Quota as 50. Similar to Individual User Quota, it means unlimited use when it’s left empty. ‍
• Discount: this is a required field as you will need to attach an existing promotion rule, to indicate the discount settings of the code. To learn how to set a promotion rule, please click here.
• ‍Expiration Date is quite straightforward, where you can set the date/time that the code will get expired. Please note that the expiration date here is only for the promotion code, but has nothing to do with the corresponding promotion rule. 

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After you fill in everything you need, click ‘Save’ and you will find the new promotion code in the list.

Use Promotion Sandbox to test promotion code

Promotion Sandbox is like a simulator, which can simulate almost all the scenarios you can imagine to test the promotion codes. You can go to use it by clicking on the ‘Promotion Sandbox’ framed in red as shown below.

Step 1: Set Scenario

You can set the Current Date and/or Current Time to test the promotion code. You can choose any date and any time regardless of what the actual date/time is now. For example, if your promotion code #XMAS is only valid on 25th Dec, but the actual date today is 1st Nov, just select 25th Dec from the calendar, and you will immediately be able to know what it will be like when people actually use this code on that date. 

Besides, you can be a specific Customer. Click ‘Add’ to choose a customer from your business’ customer list, and Promotion Sandbox can simulate this customer’s check-out situation, including their membership level. This function is especially helpful when you limit the promotion only applicable to customers attached with a certain membership level only. 

After setting all these up, type in the Promotion Code you want to test. If you see ‘Success - Valid promotion code’, that means the promotion code is valid on that date, time to that customer (if you set any of them). 

However, if you see ‘Error - Invalid promotion code’, it means either the code itself doesn’t exist, or it is not applicable on the date/time or to the customer you set. 

Step 2: Add Products into cart to test

If you see the success massage, you can continue your test by clicking on Add Product. You can add whatever products you like, try different item quantities and order amounts, and see if the result is correct as it is supposed to be. If promotion is not applied to the cart summary, it means that either your promotion rule is invalid or you have not added all the necessary items to fulfil the promotion rule conditions.

Congrats! Now you have learned how to generate promotion code and use promotion sandbox.