[ic] Gift Certificates and Coupons

interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Mon Dec 3 16:40:01 2001



On Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 02:00:53PM -0600, Michelle Wilant wrote:
> On this general topic... we are looking into developing a "Filene's 
> Bargain Basement" -- a clearance site for our stuff.  The marketing 
> department wants to be able to "willy-nilly" add various discounts to 
> items and of course for it to just all work magicly. :)  We've been 
> researching the capabilities of IC and have seen some simple stuff -- 
> the promotions or the affiliate options, but these aren't as customized 
> as what we need.
> 
> So on the -- not reinventing the wheel note -- has anyone developed a 
> way of placing multiple discounts on an item --- and or some sort of 
> interface that can add or delete discounts from an item?
> 
> Currently, my thoughts are to use the feature column in the marketing 
> table and populating it with not just one but a comma delimited list of 
> discounts for a particular product.  Then pulling out a particular group 
> of products -- say 50% percent off products with a query like 
> statement.  Another thought would be to add columns to the marketing 
> table -- or even the products table -- one for each discount -- just 
> marking Y for those who have the discount
> 
> Any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated.  Thanks

Yes.
1) make sure they are not putting the cart before the horse
and that they can sell enough stuff to make it worthwhile.
2) You will be spending time training.  Make that part of the proposal.
3) You are not going to be able to do it all with web interface.  You
need some sort of tie in to their ERP (if any) or even a spreadsheet 
if need be (or multiple spread sheets).
4) Promotions alone will not sell their product.
5) Some of the things ic can do out of the box will amaze them, if
they can understand what you are talking about.  A little CommonAdjust
and product groupings and you can do just about anything.  Discounts
are easy, right down to the product code even without that; check docs.
6) Coupons are hard, mostly because people are very unclear about
what they mean by "coupon".  Pin them down and gets **much** easier.

Most of the difficulty is not ic, but clarifying expectations and
specifying what they need.  What's new?  :-)


> On Monday, November 12, 2001, at 08:38 PM, Ron Phipps wrote:
> 
> >Hello all,
> >
> >A client of ours is asking that we setup a system for handling gift
> >certificates and coupons.  Before I go through the steps to do this I
> >would like to hear if there are plans in the near future to implement
> >these functions so I do not reinvent the wheel?  I see there is a
> >gift_certs table which has certainly given me ideas on how to handle
> >these functions, but it appears that if you purchase a gift certificate
> >there is no way to redeem it.  Can it be verified whether this will
> >appear in the next release or not?
> >
> >Thank you,
> >-Ron
> >
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