Advanced license required
Features described on this page require the Xperience by Kentico Advanced license tier.
Promotions allow you to offer discounts and special offers to your customers. The system evaluates active promotions during checkout and automatically applies the best available discount.
To learn how to create and manage promotions in the administration, see Manage promotions.
Xperience by Kentico provides a promotion framework that allows developers to implement custom discount rules. The framework integrates with the price calculation API to automatically apply promotions during checkout.
The system supports three types of promotions based on when and how they're applied:
Promotion type | Description | Use cases |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog discounts | Discounts applied to individual products during price calculation. The system evaluates all applicable promotions and automatically selects the best discount for each product. Only one promotion can apply per product. |
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| Order discounts | Discounts applied to the entire order total. Order discounts are evaluated after catalog discounts and can be combined with product-level promotions. Only one order discount can apply per order. | Order total discounts based on shopping cart contents, total price, etc. |
| Free shipping | Removes the entire shipping cost of the order when the cart qualifies. Free shipping cannot be used to grant partial shipping discounts. It doesn't compete with other promotions – a qualifying customer keeps any applicable catalog and order discounts together with free shipping. |
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Discounts in Xperience can be combined and stacked in various ways. Promotions are evaluated during the price calculation pipeline:
The selected price calculation mode also determines what types of promotion are evaluated. For example, catalog price calculation applies catalog discounts only. Additionally, the entire calculation pipeline can be customized to your preference.
The order creation service persists promotion data with orders for reporting and order history. Viewing order details in the Orders application provides a breakdown of each applied discount and its impact on the overall unit and order prices. Moreover, clicking on a specific item on the Ordered items tab provides a list of promotions applied to the item, including free shipping when triggered by the item.
Promotions support two redemption methods that control how customers receive discounts:
Redemption method | Description |
|---|---|
Automatic | The default behavior. Promotions are automatically evaluated and applied during price calculation when customers meet the configured conditions. |
Multi-use discount code | Requires customers to enter a specific code (e.g., WINTER20) to receive the discount. The promotion is only applied if the customer provides the matching code. Codes are generic and can be used by any customer, any number of times during the promotion period. Single-use or customer-specific codes are not supported. |
Coupon codes can be configured for catalog discounts, order discounts, and free shipping. For implementation details, see Coupon codes.
Use coupon codes for targeted marketing campaigns, newsletter subscriber discounts, influencer partnerships, or limited-time promotional offers.
Promotions can be restricted to specific customer groups using the Target customers setting. This controls which customers are eligible for the promotion during price calculation.
The following table shows the default set of customer eligibility options. Developers can extend this default selection with custom options. See Customize customer eligibility.
Target customers | Description |
|---|---|
All visitors | The default setting. The promotion applies to all customers, including anonymous visitors. |
All registered members | The promotion only applies to authenticated members. Anonymous visitors are not eligible for the discount. |
Customer eligibility is evaluated automatically during price calculation alongside coupon code requirements. If a promotion is restricted to registered members, the system checks whether the buyer is a registered member based on the BuyerIdentifier provided in the price calculation request.
Marketers create and manage promotions in the administration interface. After you register a promotion rule in code, it becomes available for selection when creating new promotions.
Promotions support: