Offering a Discount over a Period of Time for a Subscription Product
You may wish to offer a discount that gives a user an amount off, or a percentage off, of their subscription price for a specific period of time, such as three or six subscription re-bill cycles. To accomplish this, you need to set up two discounts: one discount that has a Coupon Condition that will apply the coupon only to the first subscription period, and one discount that will have a Subscription Period Condition that will apply to the additional subscription periods that will get the discount.
Discount on First Subscription Period
During the process to set up your discount. you need to add restrictions based on a coupon code and subscription period by adding conditions. Conditions control when and where the discount is applicable or effective. If you are creating a new discount, go to Promotions and Appearance » Offers. Click Create Discount.
Enter in a name for your discount. This is not displayed for the customers, but is used to for managerial purposes. Optionally, enter in a message for the discount you would like displayed to your customers. Pick the type of discount you would like to offer and enter in the discount amount or percentage.
Under Conditions, select Add Coupon Condition. Under Coupon Type, choose Single Code or Random Multiple Codes. For more information on single coupon codes, see Creating a Discount with Conditions (Creating a Coupon). For more information on random multiple codes, see Creating a Discount with Conditions (Creating a Coupon with Multiple Codes).
For either Coupon Type, enter in the actual coupon code phrase you would like to use. Coupon codes are case insensitive - the customer may enter them in any combination of lower case and capital letters. Click Next. Under Restrict by Subscription Periods, click Enable and select First Period Only. Click Save.
Discount on Subsequent Subscription Periods
To create your discount on subsequent subscription periods, go to Promotions and Appearance » Offers. Click Create Discount. Enter in a name for this discount. Pick the same type of discount as you did with the previous offer and enter in the same discount amount or percentage. Under Conditions, click Add Subscription Period Condition. Select Starts at Second Period. Select the number of additional periods to offer the discount, and click Next. For example, selecting For 5 Periods will offer your discount for the initial period, which was previously set up, plus five additional periods, for a total of six subscription payment cycles with the discount.
Under Conditions, click Edit. Select Coupon Condition and click Next.
Under Option 1: Use Existing Coupon, select the coupon you created for the first discount, and click Create. Click Save. When a customer enters in the coupon code, it will trigger the discount on the first subscription period and the number of subsequent periods you selected above.
Coupon Use Options
In order for you customer to receive this discount, they must receive the coupon code There are two options to achieve this:
- Distribute the coupon code to the customer, and instruct them to enter the code during the order checkout process.
- Embed the coupon code in a URL that links to your order page. This is accomplished by adding the following to a URL:
- ?coupon=YourCouponCodeEntered
?coupon=10OFF
- If there is already a question mark (key/value pair) in the URL, then instead add: &coupon=YourCouponCode
&coupon=10OFF
Testing Your Discount with Coupon Restriction
If you go to store testing, your discount will not appear, just like it will not appear to your customers who do not have the coupon code. If you enter in the coupon code during the checkout process or you add coupon=YourCouponCode to the order URL, your discount will appear.
Your discounts are in test mode. You can see what your discounts will look like to your customer using store testing. Notice that the original price is struck through and that the discounted price appears. In our example, the period length on the subscription product is monthly. Additionally, notice that the regular price, as well as the discounted price for the first six months, are displayed. If the subscription period on this product were weekly, then this discount would apply to the first six weeks.
We're Here to Help
If you need assistance setting up a discount to work on a subscription for a period of time, please open a support ticket.